Super Bowl Civility

I enjoyed the Super Bowl last night, though I went in assuming it was going to be awful. I assumed that Pittsburgh would dominate and that the game would not be close. And, much of the game played out in this way. Fortunately, the fourth quarter more than made up for the rest of lopsided game and it ended up being quite an exciting conclusion.

However, I watched the game with a bunch of high schoolers and middle schoolers, if you can call it watching. They have the attention span of flies, and so they were constantly running off to play basketball, dodge ball, Rock Band, or whatever else. Also they all were rooting for the Cardinals (while I was rooting for Pittsburgh). So, they paid little attention to the game until the fourth quarter when Arizona actually showed up.

It was at this point the inexplicable happened. When Arizona took the lead, two middle schoolers got in my face and were taunting me. I am not a violent man, but I was ready to twist the heads off of their puny bodies. I mean, really? You haven’t rooted for this team ever before, and now you find it necessary to verbally abuse me because they are winning? It is insane! It is a silly game that you and I have no vested interest in. Maybe - maybe - if it is your favorite team you could root like a fanatic. But even then, you aren’t on the team. You don’t own the team. It doesn’t really matter if they win or lose other than your pride bring bolstered or hurt. SO GET OFF ME!!

I know, they are immature 6th graders. But even still, get a clue. This is no way to act. When I hear of LSU fans showing up at Alabama fans house and shooting them. When I hear about Soccer fans rioting and killing one another. When I see the sort of conduct that would be completely unacceptable under any other circumstances, it makes me want to distance myself from the human race as much as possible.

We need to get a clue about what is important. We can root for our teams, or their teams, or any teams. But for God’s sake, we don’t need to dispense with civility in order to do it. Perhaps instead of $3 million commercials about Clydesdales we need sensitivity training commercials. Or maybe, just maybe, we could treat each other with some respect understanding that life is bigger than a silly game filled with testosterone overloaded men trying to maim each other.

Sorry for the Super Bowl downer, but that’s just how I feel. I’ll leave breaking down the commercials to someone else.