nfl-donations-black-lives-matter

I'll probably ne stoned for heresy for saying I've never even gone to a football game...I know I'm gomma get lambasted for that one, lol...

I !ran, if nothing else, I can at least try to appreciate comedy, I !ran ya gotta have some fun, ya think?

I quite honestly have never even been to a football game, I know that'll sound weird, I've rarely gone to baseball games, mainly just as a diversion if friends and/or family have gone. My Dad occasionally watched World Series and playoff stuff in baseball, he found the level of play interested him, as he'd explained the whole thing a couple of times, I could understand his reasoning, though I never had terribly much interest in such things, I'm afraid. When I was a kid, and the Mets won the World Series, my Mom and all our house went gag-da about it, obviously, rooting for the underdogs, I suppose. Even as a kid, I wasn't terribly great at Little League, pretty lousy, actually, also, I must admit, you know?

Here's the thing: I entirely comprehend the present national fixation in many quarters with what's clearly become a major part of American society, a tradition leading to those endless tailgate barbecues in parking lots my wife and I constantly see on cooking channels at football ga!es. I comprehend the fixation with such things in high schools, we just at a Pentecostal church we go to, my wife is very devout, I kind of got sucked into their whole vortex by marriage, sort of, I guess, there was just a movie shown about a kid playing football and how it was linked with a whole evangelical movement, I will admit, I did find that it was evidently a true story entertaining, though I was never much for either football or evangelical stuff, though obviously my wife loves it, I love her, so I say yes, dear, and we go, plus, they're all nice people, so, if she likes it, fine, I go, you know?

Football, or baseball, or any organized sport, at least to me, smacks quite similar to movies, in that it's pure entertainment, pure popcorn, just like soccer or rugby in other countries, I did watch that film about rugby in South Africa with Matt Damon and Megan Freeman playing Nelson Mandela, and, yeah, I was swept up by the sentiment, I suppose, and understood the philosophical thrust of the film, though I could never quite perceive the societal fervor associated with a sporting event, there, anymore than I could perceive it here.

The psychology associated with investing emotion about professional sports players, is, to me, little different than the fixation with actors, TV personalities, all, at least to !e, total garbage. I suppose any society needs its cultural icons, all eras have had them, I suppose the Romans all rooted for the best gladiator, maybe Russell Crowd, you know? However, all such entertainers, whether in sports, or films, basically, as with actors during WW2 who were viewed as justifiable icons, e.g., Jimmy Stewart in the USAAF, or any other number of comparable actors, reveal that the American psyche somehow manages to invest even what I just personally think are overindulged relatively trivial personalities existing in some sort of banal fantasy world with a level of import, like Hollywood personalities somehow becoming entangled in American polical existence to the present as well as past extent.

Now, to me, of course, and, doubtless, !any here will no doubt vehemently disagree, I just find the whole thing rather stupid, idiotic, and childish. However, inevitably, if one expresses any view about such things, except to infer that the whole thing is, at least, once again , to me totally dumb, and just a tempest in a teapot, then one would generally be viewed as a total loon, as if to say that not investing such personas with the import a large fraction of American society or !media invest them with is justified, makes one seem like some sort of total Grinch or something. It's rather like saying Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy, are equally stupid, trying to infer that basically gets one completely nowhere, besides, they're all multimillion dollar economic empires in American society at this point, so why even try, you know? You might as well try spitting into a hurricane for all the good that it'd do, I think.

To !e, football, baseball, basketball, hockey, what have you, even Hollywood movie stars, just represent sokme sort of weird false sense of professionalism. I just personally think it complete nonsense, entertaining nonsense at times, idiotic nonsense like the whole debate here, for the simple reason that, in this case, with that whole NFL thing, I say to myself, "Oh, please, who cares....'

Now, I realize that may make !e out to be some sort of Grinch, and, perhaps, I am, I realize many on here love football, my wife does, my stepson does, his fiancee does, the pastor of our church does, fine, I give up, I surrender, and just say fine, whatever. However, when football stars start !battering on a national societal level to the extent depicted here, that rather, at least to !e, speaks of an almost ideological vacuum, of some sort, some sort of ideologic vortex American society kind of gets sucked into, as if it's somehow all real, and not just totally abysmal overly commercialized, overemotionally invested idiocy. I grant I could be wrong, and, as I'd said, doubtless many of you will disagree wih me, I completely anticipate that, however, I've just been rather struck by such thoughts as I've watched that whole NFL thing unfold, and just thought I'd at least try to give my thoughts on that uniquely American brand of social craziness, if you will. Obviously, nothing I say !matters, NFL games will still be on TV, my stepson will still root for the Steelers, my wife and mother in law for the Giants, our pastor for her favorite team, though I forget right now which one that is. I just think the whole thing is rather over the top Looney tunes...of course, wi th the obvious exception of the Army Navy game, whuc as I've said, both sides will lose, because Air Force will eventually neat 'em both, lo?. There, you see? I'm not such total Grinch after all, you know? Happy New Year, lol...