I looked through a chapter from Christopher Lasch’s The Culture of Narcissism about sports in order to follow up on Bill Maher’s criticism of America’s sports fans. One passage diverted me from that topic to the upcoming Super Bowl and its unnatural locale:
When the television networks discovered surfing, they insisted that events be held according to a prearranged schedule, without regard to weather conditions. One surfer complained, “Television is destroying our sport. The TV producers are turning a sport and an art form into a circus.” The same practices produce the same effects on other sports, forcing baseball players, for example, to play World Series games on freezing October evenings. The substitution of artificial surfaces for grass in tennis, which has slowed the pace of the game, placed a premium on reliability and patience, and reduced the element of tactical brilliance and overpowering speed, commends itself to television producers because it makes tennis an all-weather game and even permits it to be played indoors, in sanctuaries of sport like Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Television has rearranged the athletic calendar and thus deprived sports of their familiar connection with the seasons, diminishing their power of allusiveness and recall.
This brings to mind the NFL’s “50 Degree Rule” which is set to be broken next year when the game will take place in New York City – a one-time exception to take advantage of the uniqueness of the city that never sleeps:
The 50-degree rule was created for the comfort and convenience of fans and players. Anyone who has ever planned an outdoor event can appreciate how much of a relief it is to not worry about the weather. Neutral conditions, like those in a dome, also are supposed to help the caliber of play. It also makes it more comfy for all the practices, parties and other events during the week leading up to the game.
We spend the whole season getting acclimated to these cold weather competitions and we begin to feel that “this is real football”, and then all of a sudden we’re watching a game on turf in a dome or a place with a retractable roof. The Super Bowl is the New Year’s Eve of sporting events. Huge build up, an aura of phoniness culminating in a big let down that booze struggles to rescue from the pits of boredom. It’s great for the people who attend the central hub where the event actually takes place, but for people at their own home parties it is often (not always) a drag. Of course, this could also be because the game is held on a Sunday where the spectre of work the next day hangs over the festivities like a late bill.
It isn’t that the geography is the only thing diminishing the game, but it is the place-setting for the rest of the phoniness: the advertising, the hype, the halftime show. There’s something about a late season football game played in a near tropical clime that seems disjointed from the sport. I recall Super Bowl XXVII between the Dallas Cowboys and Buffalo Bills. The game was held in Pasadena and the Cowboys won 52-17. I loved the outcome because the Cowboys are my team, but looking back at the game and watching highlight reels and pre-game and post-game footage makes it seem only a stone’s throw from the Pro Bowl which is held each year in Hawaii.
But I’ll post more from Lasch on sports in America.
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I agree completely that the seasonal creep of sports is annoying. Baseball in late October, or even November, is absurd. They really should cut the season by several weeks — there are too many games as it is.
The time will come when a World Series is simply unplayable. Imagine if two Northeast teams — say the Phillies and the Yankees — were in the World Series, and you just happened to get a long stretch of bad weather. Say a week of constant rain. And then a deep cold snap. You could suddenly be in November without a game having been played. Then what? Like Hurricane Sandy, it’s just a matter of time until the elements line up in the right way.
I’m sick of sports anyway. Lately I’ve seen a few things speculating that the NFL could be driven out of business by lawsuits from players suffering life-long injuries. I doubt it, because the NFL is so powerful. But then, so were cigarette companies and they lost big time to the legal sharks. I would be very happy to see the NFL shut down.
Let’s not leave out the bye week for an extra week of Super Bowl marketing. This comes back to money. The tv networks can promote and capture more eyeballs with longer playoff seasons and bye weeks while the leagues collect more playoff money. The NBA’s first round has been prolonged to the poitn where teams have 3 days off between games regularly when, in the old days of just 10 years ago, it was no more than 2 days between games in any round. I’m just glad that baseball has learned a lesson and now starts the world series games a bit earlier so more kids can watch and east coast fans arent up until 1am.
peterike: “The time will come when a World Series is simply unplayable. Imagine if two Northeast teams — say the Phillies and the Yankees — were in the World Series, and you just happened to get a long stretch of bad weather. Say a week of constant rain”
That already has happened; and it was the Phillies: remember a couple of years back where they had to play that Game-7 over two days because of that wind-&-rain delay? Ridiculous.
But to your idea of reducing pro-sports schedules, eliminating some games? Forget, of course; you know the financial imperative of pro sports is never going to allow that to happen. Consider the current push in the NFL to expand the pre-season and the regular-season schedule, injury-depleted lineups in December be damned.
Dave Dameshek said on Adam Carolla’s podcast that he consider the conference championship weekend the last real weekend of football because the Super Bowl has a bunch of idiots who never watch football asking stupid questions at Super Bowl parties.
The criticism of the game itself is rooted from the blowouts from the late-80s/early 90s when the NFC would almost blow-out the AFC. But in recent years, the Super Bowl has been quite competitive and exciting
I feel the same about the conference championships. Again with the New Year’s Eve analogy – the Super Bowl is amateur night. It also easily has the most women watching of any game of the season.
Another thing that sucks about the Super Bowl is the crowd, which is made up largely of celebs and ultra-rich 1%ers who really don’t give a damn who wins or loses the game. Most of the real fans can’t afford tickets.
At least the crowds for the playoffs and conference championships have fans who care about the outcome.
I can’t wait to see what Kurt Warner’s wife is wearing.
I can’t wait to see what Kurt Warner’s wife is wearing.
Whatever God tells her to wear.
I’ve never followed sports, so it’s refreshing to see intelligent commentators who are also sports fans vocally and publicly realizing what a crock of shit pro sports are. Watching grossly overpaid adults chase a ball around is an immense distraction from the very real problems we face right now. Hell, it’s an immense CONTRIBUTOR to the very real problems we face right now.
No one should care about the outcome of these games because they’ve got absolutely nothing to do with you whatsoever.
Even I am a sports fan, I never watch the Super Bowl. The networks spend so much money to televise the game and have such a huge audience. Thus, the networks overhype the game to get casual and non-sports fans to watch the game. Thus, the focus of personalities instead actual sports strategy.
Super Bowl sunday is on the best days of the year to eat out (at a non-sports bar venue), visit a musem/gallery/historic site or go the theater. You can get a seat at the hard to get into restaurant if you go during the super bowl.