Actually, I was just thinking about the first Super Bowl today. It was played in Los Angeles, in good weather. Playing football outdoors in January is like skiing in July. Shouldn't happen. Unless you're in another hemisphere. But money dictates it happens. Ain't that America, where cash always triumphs.
Now I haven't watched a single minute of football this year. I'm over it. The injuries, the yahooism, the rah-rahism of the Boston fans... And I don't want to burn that much time. Isn't that the story of the twenty first century, how we have no time? So I'm gonna waste three and a half hours watching a football game, which probably won't even be good?
I didn't bother with the NFC championship. I know, I know, the LOS ANGELES Rams won. But if you think they've got a presence in Los Angeles, you've never heard of USC and UCLA. We didn't care that we didn't have a professional football team. The owners kept one from us. Oligarchs and their trophies are no longer appealing. Like that woman who excoriated Springsteen for frolicking on David Geffen's yacht. To be a man of the people, you must be able to say no. But it's nearly impossible, the cash is tantalizing.
But when I picked up my phone and saw the score was tied, I turned on the flat screen, to see the Rams win in overtime. Big deal.
But I did want to watch the AFC championship, to see Mahomes, who I've been reading about all year.
But after Brady scored right away and the Chiefs ran the ball I turned the game off. You see I'm deeply into this book "George Washington Black," the story of a former slave in Barbados. He is freed, but Kaepernick is not. As for the African-Americans playing the Super Bowl, the musical acts, they too cannot say no. Especially in a world where the press covers every move of SNL like it counts. Everybody's afraid of obscurity.
But I monitored the game on my phone, every chapter I checked. And when the Chiefs scored, and it got close, I turned on the set.
To watch a game decided by penalties.
This is why I hate the NFL. If you're aware of all the rules, you're probably a referee.
Now in the NBA, the sport of the youth, when they get to the playoffs, they let the athletes play, they allow penalties to go uncalled, because they don't want the games to be decided by such.
But in the NFL???
It looked like the Chiefs had won when it was discovered a player was offsides, on the line, barely.
But even worse is pass interference, one call can change the entire game. I mean if the defenseman punches you in the mouth, trips you, sure, call it. But when it's gray...in the playoffs?
And I'm not saying Brady and Belichik did not deserve to win.
I'm just saying it wasn't completely clean, because the rules got in the way.
As for the ridiculous overtime...
In the NBA there's a defined five minutes. But not in the NFL! To make the game more competitive, they changed the rule, they keep changing the rules. They made it so both teams got the ball, unless there was a touchdown. But the Chiefs' entire game is based on offense, and Mahomes never got to touch the ball in overtime!
Now I'm not saying the game should not have rules, but in the rest of society we keep denigrating them, eliminating them, we don't want to be caught by a technicality.
Actually, the entire NFL season was goosed by a rule change, effectively you cannot touch the quarterback, and if you do, another one of those dreaded penalties. Which resulted in more passing, i.e. more action, which made people tune in.
But Mahomes and the Chiefs never got any action, at least not in OT.
Meanwhile, B&B&B are gloating. That's right, Brady, Belichik and Boston. The same team that is always caught up in controversy, for breaking the rules.
But that's America baby, you do everything you can to win. Let's see if you get caught out.
Meanwhile, oldsters are paying fantasy football with a passion, while the kids play Fortnite. Why not? The millennials, and Gen-Z, for all the excoriation are into participating, they're not passive like their elders. Who wants to watch a sport with endless time outs and commercials with so little action?
Which is why they watch videogaming live and online.
But the oldsters pooh-pooh it.
But what I love about the NFL is the ignorance. The league believes it's inviolate, that it will live forever, when nothing does, not even rock and roll. They keep building stadiums and overpaying their doofus commissioner thinking no disruption will happen.
But it will, like with everything else.
You see a few cracks, and then the edifice folds overnight.
As for sportsmanlike conduct, the reason we insist our youngsters play sports, what kind of lesson are we learning watching B&B?
But one thing's for sure, today's games had tension. That's why we watch. To get that uptight feeling and not have it be us. We're overwhelmed, now we're placing the anxiety on others, who can come through in the clutch, unlike us. We're outsourcing our anxiety, and then we bitch when things don't go our way.
And honestly, I'd be singing a different tune if the Chiefs had won, even though I hate them. Because they would have stuck it to the man, they would have given us hope.
But no, the Patriots would not allow that.
I'm not saying we can't revere the work of those we hate, but without competitors, the Patriots are dead in the water, the entire NFL is dead in the water. This is not Van Morrison, doing it alone, it's a whole monolith built on bro culture, where the players are men but still act like they're in high school, and women are either arm candy or vessels.
Think about it.
As for those women who love the sport...
You probably voted for Trump.
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