Pigskin Nation

Tim Cavanaugh | February 2, 2004

New at Reason: Jeff Taylor salutes the Super Bowl's evolution from secular holiday to pagan ritual.

Comments

|2.2.04 @ 4:30AM|#

As of today, we all have perfect records ...

StMack|2.2.04 @ 4:41AM|#

Who won?

|2.2.04 @ 4:51AM|#

Watching sporting events in the U.S., one wonders if the sole reason for God in America is to praise him/her for giving a team, person, etc. victory. *panting* "First of all, I would like to thank gawd...."*panting*

|2.2.04 @ 4:56AM|#

And golly, Taylor's piece was sooooo deep, so profound...

And here I thought it was just a football game.

|2.2.04 @ 5:02AM|#

Jean Bart - I think the zealousness that Americans show for American football, while perhaps excessive, is nonetheless on a par with the way Europeans treat their version of football...

|2.2.04 @ 5:14AM|#

JB
My favorite silly moment in American sports is the "point to heaven" gesture wherein the athlete gives thanks to god almighty for his success. I have not yet, however, seen one point to hell for his failures.

|2.2.04 @ 5:27AM|#

Brad S.,

Definately; but the thanking "gawd" part is not part of the general post-match interview with a victorious team. When France won the World Cup in 1998 (after many years of frustration), well, France was in ecstasy. I was at the match and at the post-match "street party" outside the stadium afterwards; it was a great deal of fun.

|2.2.04 @ 5:28AM|#

nobody,

Well, claiming divine intervention to win a sporting event simply seems silly to me.

|2.2.04 @ 5:31AM|#

"one wonders if the sole reason for God in America is to praise him/her for giving a team, person, etc. victory."

Isn't the sole reason for God in America specifically, pro-football? I thought that's why church is on Sundays.

|2.2.04 @ 6:38AM|#

"Well, claiming divine intervention to win a sporting event simply seems silly to me"

Need this be said? Why must we be constantly reminded by arrogant pricks that religion is laughable? Everyone who needs or is even capable of knowing this already knows; everyone else either doesn't care or is suffering from amentia (football players usually fall into both categories).

fyodor|2.2.04 @ 6:40AM|#

Sports are like AA in that both utilize faith as a tool for extra motivation, finding that inner strength and all that. There's also so much luck always involved. That's why I expect that athletes are both more superstitious and religious (yes, to some of us those two are essentially the same thing, but at the same time they're different words with different meanings) than the average member of society. Perhaps, Jean Bart, that's true of European athletes too, but perhaps it's not as socially accepted to talk about religion in Europen and thus your athletes keep it to themselves.

Ruben Bolling once did an amusing parody of the phenomenon in which the superhero diety God-man sets out to help a worshipping high school football player only to run into competing powers by some Hindu diety being called upon by a player on the opposite team. I forget who wins.....

|2.2.04 @ 6:53AM|#

When you get right down to it, sport is, in and of itself, a sort of superstition. The whole notion that I am somehow superior to you because I am able to cross a chalked line on a field while possessing an oblong shaped ball seems completely and utterly ridiculous. But that's what American football boils down to. Then again, maybe the whole notion of American football and, indeed, the whole notion of sports is also completely and utterly ridiculous.

Stepping back from the theoretical realm for a second, the true value of sports in the material world is recreation. In a society devoid of simple competition, hand-to-hand combat, and other battles of valor, sports conveniently step in to fill that void. That's why sports have a special place in our heart. Sporting events, organized and otherwise, are, at their very core, a celebration of the human spirit and the human condition, much like religion is (in its best form).

So, it should come as no surprise, really, that sports and religion seem to coexist as they do in contemporary America.

|2.2.04 @ 7:40AM|#

Invoking God at sporting events is hardly an American innovation. Why do you think the Hellenes called them the Olympics?

|2.2.04 @ 8:43AM|#

there are some smart football players out there. don't hate on the jocks, brad.

it was a lot more fun to play football than to watch it, though. there's a lot of silliness there, but there's something comfortingly civil about the entire affair. a relatively safe form of tribalism? just more widespread than the usual microgenres and private affairs.

|2.2.04 @ 8:46AM|#

Hey, it's just a game - and just a tit, too.
After the lousy halftime show, they owed us more than a tit.

|2.2.04 @ 10:38AM|#

What cracks me up is the people that profess to not believe in God constantly talk about him...

Football is tactile capitalism.

Lakeside104

|2.2.04 @ 10:53AM|#

Many soccer (football for Jean Bart) players invoke God as they take to the pitch. You will see them cross themselves as they enter the field of play. Some, if you pay attention will even touch the grass before crossing themselves. I guess they do that to make it clearer to God what it is their after. Athletes are definitely VERY superstitious. Probably moreso than any other segment of society.

|2.2.04 @ 10:58AM|#

"What cracks me up is the people that profess to not believe in God constantly talk about him..."

I don't believe in God and I don't talk about him. Your cliche is debunked. Next?

|2.2.04 @ 11:16AM|#

You just did.

Lakeside104

|2.2.04 @ 11:42AM|#

10 of the 16 posts above talk about God.
The article didn't mention God at all,
but did mention pagan festivals once.

Is this a religious list or something?
The SBowl was tits, streaking, rap and final score.

|2.3.04 @ 3:51AM|#

John, you killed this thread.
Have I answered your question?

|2.3.04 @ 8:38AM|#

Still waiting...
Where is Jesus hiding?

Highway|2.3.04 @ 9:50AM|#

I don't think that guy should get credit for 'streaking'. Maybe for 'thonging', but he didn't have the guts to go all the way. Although there is a point where wearing a thong is almost as bad as streaking (and that guy showed he was past that point).

|2.3.04 @ 11:21AM|#

Do Hindu cricket players credit a deity after they hit a Century or bowl out the opposition's leading batsman?

If so, which deity?

They have so many.

Will someone start a Zen Buddhist football team? Hit the end zone by not aiming at it.

If a wide receiver slips & falls on a route and no defensive back is around to hear him, does he make a sound?