The above tweet (Do they still call them that even though it is no longer Twitter? We need a new word. “Xeet”? “Exit”?) is being circulated on social media followed by declarations that the only ethical course is to root for the Seattle Seahawks in this weekend’s Superbowl broadcast. My Facebook friend, an esteemed professor whom I have known in an arts context since 1969, making him also one of my oldest friends, posted it with commentary stating that the contents made it clear that every decent, thinking person should be rooting for Seattle.
My friend calls football “concussion-ball”) and reviles the sport for the same reason I do, though I have extra ethical ammunition against the National Football League, easily the most unethical among the spectacularly unethical professional sports organizations. If I were inclined to watch the Superbowl, the fact that the NFL was so irresponsible as to pick a cross-dressing, open-borders Trump-Deranged performer who will mostly perform in Spanish to lead its half-time show in what was once a non-partisan, All-American event that everyone could watch without feeling political anxiety would end that inclination instantly.
Who decides what sports teams to root for according to whom their owners are friends with, or where their political contributions go? My answer: crazy people. These factors have absolutely nothing to do with the sports, the teams, the players, or the entertainment value of the team’s games.
If one is looking for a professional sports team to favor and one is a wokeness-obsessed loony, it is probably impossible to cheer on any of them. They are all owned by billionaires or consortia including big, bad corporations. They are all privileged tycoon who reliable act as if they can make their own rules, because much of the time, they can. Jody Allen, for example, was sued along with her brother and Vulcan, the holding company she served as CEO in 2013 by five of her former security guards who alleged sexual harassment by Jodie, illegal activity, cover-ups and more, including bribing customs officials to smuggle animal bones out of Africa and Antarctica. The lawsuit was settled out of court, probably because that’s what rich people and corrupt corporations do when they are scared to death of what discovery will uncover. Not that any of that should matter to a Seattle Seahawks fan.
Ethics Alarms 
I remember hearing a speech by an actor whose work I enjoy claiming he got depressed when he passed a Chick-fil-A because it “was rumored” to be Trump’s favorite restaurant.
When did people lose the ability to compartmentalize their lives? When did politics come to obliterate all compartments? When were fast food and presidential politics conjoined? Someone must be pushing this. When did directives enter every aspect of people’s lives? Why do people want to be led in every aspect of their lives? This isn’t going to end well.
I can’t root for the Seahawks because the offensive line trainer doesn’t cut his lawn and when he does, it is not a uniform 4 inch accross the entire landscape. He routinely leaves uncut patches and crooked mow lines. Jerk.
jvb
It’s worse than you think…he owns ZERO Rush CDs…
PWS
My God! He is a heretic. A blasphemer! A pox on him and his house to the seventh generation.
jvb
They had to think of some excuse…couldn’t possibly bring themselves to root for PATRIOTS!
I am pro Sea Hawks as I used to live in Seattle, and I am anti New England Patriots no matter against whom they are playing especially after Bill Belichick’s underhanded tactics (deflated balls, spotters). I had hoped that the Buffalo Bills were in the Superbowl.
What makes you root for a particular team? For me that has almost everything to do with ties to a community and almost nothing with politics. It is natural to hope that sports teams in communities you have ties with do win, as you want your community to do well and have something to celebrate. Sports bonds a community, and allows us to express and experience a healthy form of “Us” versus “Them”; sports triggers the oxytocin.
The owners of New England Patriots may all support my favorite politicians, in my view they will always rank with Darth Vader and the Evil Empire.
I will root for the team with the most illegal immig… I mean undocumented wo… I mean people living here illegally but on stolen land so they’re legal.
Damn it, now I have to be contrary. Again.
Who cares who performs at the Super Bowl half-time? Not me. But, the NFL in its wisdom has chosen someone they believe will put on the greatest ever show. As I have learned from this site, putting on the best performance is what matters, not dress, not political or social views, just performance. Did they choose wrongly based on artistic ability? Well, tastes vary. Did they choose wrongly because of political beliefs? Dunno. Can’t get into their minds.
We’ll know in a few days if they made a choice pleasing to their audience, and, isn’t that what performance is all about?
As usual, I won’t be watching that show. But, if Bunny shows up in a skimpy bikini with a cottontail, I might just sneak a peak.
As near as I can tell, Bad Bunny’s music is essentially Afro-Cuban stuff, much like, say, Havana Social Club, which is pretty darned niche stuff, but done a little over the top. It’s kind of like having Xavier Cugat or Desi Arnaz playing the show. I’m just not sure why Bad Bunny is hailed as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Probably because he’s evidently gender fluid and over the top in some respects. Will be interesting.
Strike that. I only saw one of his videos. I guess the bulk of his stuff is some sort of smooth Spanish/Latin rap.
Again, straining to be contrary without paying attention.
Who cares who performs at the Super Bowl half-time?
I don’t, and I’ve said I don’t, but I do care about the dwindling unifying national cultural events, of which, for some reason, the Super Bowl is one, and the Half-Time show has traditionally been for family, non-partisan, general entertainment, broad spectrum performances.
“But, the NFL in its wisdom has chosen someone they believe will put on the greatest ever show.”
No, obviously it doesn’t. 1) The guy only sings in Spanish, and the majority of the audience doesn’t. The NFL might as well have the half-time show devoted to Italian opera. 2) He will perform in a dress. The NFL is therefore pandering to the trans community, and deliberately poking a thumb in the eye of all those who are offended by drag queens. 3) He is openly opposed to the President of the United States, making his a partisan selection. The NFL is taking sides. 4) He supports open borders and the elimination of ICE, and will therefore exacerbate national tensions over that issue as well.
AND if he reverses course and delivers non-political pablum after stoking fears of the above, then he’s a liar and a hypocrite.
Hmmm. “dwindling unifying national cultural events” I’m only an octogenarian, so I did not experience the last unifying national cultural event, you know, the one before the dwindling got going. My knowledge of history is a bit lacking as well. I do recall some events that were briefly unifying, but, cultural? I need some help with this one.
The Ed Sullivan Show? The Wonderful World of Disney? The World Series? The space program? Hollywood movies such as “Ben Hur” or “My Fair Lady” or “Moby Dick?”
The Super Bowl, the World Series, the Fourth of July celebrations, the Academy Awards, Memorial Day, Lincoln’s birthday, the Bicentennial, Presidential inaugurations until the Democrats decided to be assholes about them, moon landings. Is it the term cultural that is confusing you? A culture is how any country, city, group, club, state, organization, sports team or tree house decides what its values are and what it honors as well as what it reviles. The narrow meaning of culture to cover the arts is another definition, as in “pop culture.”
The Super Bowl, the World Series, the Fourth of July celebrations, the Academy Awards, Memorial Day, Lincoln’s birthday, the Bicentennial, Presidential inaugurations until the Democrats decided to be assholes about them, moon landings. Is it the term cultural that is confusing you? A culture is how any country, city, group, club, state, organization, sports team or tree house decides what its values are and what it honors as well as what it reviles. The narrow meaning of culture to cover the arts is another definition, as in “pop culture.”
As a point of interest, the NFL evidently delegated choosing half time entertainers to Beyonce’s husband, Jay Zee’s production company pursuant to some sort of agreement. It seems Jay Zee’s people were given total discretion and authority to hire the acts.
No one is ever going to be better than Left Shark. They should have brought him back for a tenth anniversary performance. (Not Perry, just the shark.)
Re 3 — I think he is opposed to the one who repeatedly says elections are crooked and fixed yet claims to have been elected in a landslide. If so, he may have a point.
Since I’m not a football fan at all and won’t be watching the game nor the halftime show, this seems like an apt place to introduce a concept in decision-making that, as far as I know, is original to me.
“When faced with a decision and you don’t have any good reason to make one choice over the other, a bad reason will do just fine.”
This is pretty much how I view most sports, but it comes up in life in other ways more often than you’d expect. Another, more abstract statement of the principle is: An arbitrary choice is no worse than a random choice.
So if politics is super-important to you but sports is not, I think this line of thinking is at least defensible, because what difference does it make on the results which team you root for?
–Dwayne