Football - American-Style

It's been a hectic and exciting couple of weeks with all the college football bowl games and NFL playoff games playing on TV.  The college BCS Championship was decided Monday night in what's been called a "game for the ages" and the hype is now building towards Super Bowl XLVIII - the first outdoor, cold weather Super Bowl ever.  I like most sports but football is my favorite. The sheer number of possible offensive plays, defensive alignments, and outcomes appeal to the tactician in me; the game plans, to the strategist.  The athleticism, speed and strength of the players result in incredible and sometimes acrobatic plays.  It's truly a game of inches and seconds where execution is paramount and many games are decided in the closing ticks of the clock.  The relatively low number of  games played in a football season (12 in college; 16 in the pro's) assures that just about every game is meaningful in the quest for a championship.

What can you say about the NFL's "wild card weekend"?  Two of the four games were decided on the last play with no time remaining.  Saturday night the New Orleans Saints won at Philadelphia on a field goal, 26-24.  In one of the Sunday games, played with the thermometer hovering just above 0 degrees F. and with a wind chill diving towards -20, San Francisco defeated Green Bay 23-20 on a 33-yard field goal that cleared the uprights with zero time on the clock.  It's a game of inches...a Green Bay defender nearly blocked the kick, the ball barely making it through his outstretched arms. (Link to a video of the near-block)  A third NFL playoff game saw an amazing comeback by the Indianapolis Colts who rallied from 28 points down to defeat the Kansas City Chiefs by 1 point.

Future college national championships will be decided by a four-team playoff.   So, the national championship game Monday night brought the much-debated BCS era to an end.  And what an end it was!  The ACC's Florida State, dominant and undefeated in 13 games,  were double-digit favorites against the SEC's Auburn.  Auburn had made it to the championship game on the strength of a 106 yard return of a missed field goal by Alabama as time expired and a loss by the until-then undefeated Ohio State team.  The SEC had won nine BCS national championships, including the last seven, and most of "Football Nation" was rooting for Florida State.  (In the interest of full disclosure...I am a big SEC fan.) 

Auburn almost did it.  At one point in the first half they were up by 18 points.  But Florida State changed the momentum of the game late in the first half when they converted a fake punt and went on to score a touchdown.  Then there was the wild conclusion.  In less than 5 minutes at the end of the game, we saw three touchdowns and three lead changes.  Florida State, with a 100 yard kickoff return for touchdown and led by their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback, Jameis Winston, came away with the victory.  The Auburn Tigers had run out of miracles.

Sports are the one place that our ancient tribal tendencies are, most times at least, relatively harmless.  Fans of rival clubs can be notably antagonistic towards one another -  the shorter the distance between the club's home fields, the greater the antagonism.  So tribalism is a good analogy.  But in spite of this tribalism and fierce competitiveness, sports consistently delivers moments of grace, fairness and respect... moments where it is clear that the joy of playing the game and respect for the opponent are the driving force of the players' action.  It even has a name - "good sportsmanship"Who can ever forget the farewell tribute to Mariano Rivera in last year's baseball All-Star Game?

Sports also give us a chance to be passionate about something that, in the grand scheme of things, does not matter that much.  It gives a chance to escape, for a few hours at least, from our everyday concerns and responsibilities.  It provides us with the "circus" of the usually derogatory "bread and circuses".

There is no bigger circus in American sports than professional football's Super Bowl.  Complete with a blockbuster half-time show and specially created commercials, it draws a television audience of over 100 million people and creates a party atmosphere across the entire nation.  Never mind that often times the Super Bowl is a disappointing affair with a lop-sided score.  People are enjoying themselves.  And the game can have some amazing moments - here's a link to one website's collection of the ten greatest Super Bowl plays of all time.



Finally, international competitions, such as the Olympics and the World Cup, give us a chance to exhibit our nationalistic pride where it can do little damage. More on this in the next post.