Far too increasingly, football is portrayed as a head-bashing, fight-to-the-death, pointless sport, and its biggest game, the Super Bowl, uncalled for. Articles over football’s concussions, CTE brain damage and shattered knees argue for the game’s dismissal and spring up seemingly more often than the sport is played. Yet, these articles always miss something more fundamental about the sport, something that only football fans can understand. I’m not saying football doesn’t need to take a long, hard look at its prolific and life-threatening injuries; it most certainly does. Arguments that cite only these negative aspects of football miss what makes football precious to so many of us: Football brings people together and gives us a much-needed break.
Last weekend’s Super Bowl was watched by 111.9 million viewers. In a time when depressing talk of the Islamic State, a stagnated economy and mass shootings have become our country’s common background noise, the 50th Super Bowl provided millions of American’s a reprieve from the dark news we receive all too often. For four hours, people across the United States and around the world were able to escape their problems into a world filled with spectacular plays, fantastic musical performances and, perhaps best of all, a stampede of ear-flopping, hotdog-wearing wiener dogs in a Heinz Ketchup commercial.
That, in and of itself, is an amazing thing. As a society, we go to movies, attend plays and read books to escape into another world and leave our problems far behind. The Super Bowl does that better than anything else. Surrounded by food, friends and family, the Super Bowl is a staple of American culture because it gives us a much needed escape.
But, even more important than this escape, football and the Super Bowl connects people. As I walked around campus last Sunday, clad in my hometown team’s orange and blue, I fist-bumped another student wearing a Broncos cap, exchanged jabs with Panther-clad Case Dining Hall employees and reconnected with Broncos fans back home.
Beginning with the first kick, I was again reminded of football’s connecting power as my phone buzzed:
“Let’s go!” texted my grandpa in Arizona.
“Putting up points,” my brother responded in New York.
“YESSSS,” agreed my dad abroad in Cuba.
“Love it,” I chimed in from North Carolina.
As touchdowns and field goals were exchanged, the Super Bowl brought my family together across state and even country lines as it undoubtedly did for so many other families across the country. It’s this power that makes the Super Bowl so special.
While others may sight reckless hits and disgusting plays as reasons to abandon the Super Bowl for good, I am again and again reminded of the great human element this sporting event can bring about.
Four days after the big game, I still find myself calling and texting my grandpa about what we saw last Sunday night. I know that my time with him is limited, so if football gives me another reason to talk to him, then perhaps the Super Bowl shouldn’t be subject to continuous trash talk but instead be cherished by people for generations to come.
