The Super Bowl is being played today. Apart from the fact that football causes serious and permanent brain and other injuries to players, the comic strip Pearls Before Swine provides another reason to not be a fan.
The Super Bowl is being played today. Apart from the fact that football causes serious and permanent brain and other injuries to players, the comic strip Pearls Before Swine provides another reason to not be a fan.
JPS says
Re: the linked comic….
A while back the nearby big city got an NBA franchise. The first thing they did was to come up with a name and a logo and produce licensed merchandise, t-shirts and the like.
Even with no player or coaches to root for, the fans went wild for the merchandise.
Cheering on the rich owners, indeed!
Rob Grigjanis says
This applies to any professional sport. Of course it’s silly, but I’ll continue to cheer for Leeds United, the England men’s soccer team, and the Canadian women’s soccer team. Because!
doublereed says
I don’t know. I think you should be emotionally invested in anything you watch, or else you’re just vegetating. Competitions craft their own stories that we watch for and often that means picking an arbitrary side. It engages you.
Though I didn’t watch the superbowl. The smash tournament Apex was going on!
doublereed says
All the brain injury involved in that game involves cartoon characters.
machintelligence says
We love to belong to tribes. We invent them for jollies (and profit.)
John Morales says
What bugs me most about American Football is the discrepancy between the duration of a match and the duration of time actually spent in play during that match.
(On TV, the advertisements and rah-rahing and the pontificating prolong the suffering even more)
Renolds says
Reminds me of this Mitchell and Webb sketch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN1WN0YMWZU
Mano Singham says
John,
You might be interested in this earlier post where I discussed a study that showed that football has only about 11 minutes of actual playing time, less than 5% of the total time.
Trebuchet says
Here’s a link to the comic in question, since Mano’s links to the current strip:
http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2015/02/01
Mano Singham says
Trebuchet,
Thanks for pointing that out. I have updated the link.
SC (Salty Current) says
I’ve always remembered Chomsky and Herman calling it “training in irrational jingoism” in Manufacturing Consent:
Steve Almond’s recent Against Football discusses the links between professional football and the military, and their shared propaganda.
David W. says
At least the team I root for, the Green Bay Packers, are publicly owned. But the injuries the players endure have dampened my former enthusiasm for the game.
Tabby Lavalamp says
John Morales, and yet there are still Americans who insist that soccer with all that constant running and playing is the “boring” sport.
And then there is baseball, the only event I’ve ever attended that I walked out on before it was over because holy crap the drudgery…
sbobet says
American football is a game that I want to see it. Because it is a fun game. The team from the United States is the team that I like best.