“What the Super Bowl tells us about our culture,” The Colorado Springs Business Journal, January 31 – February 6, 2014, 19.

THE GOLDEN BOWL

When I ask what game is played by a bunch on millionaires on lush green grass, most people respond with “polo.” They forget that in fact there are twenty-two millionaires on the field at any given time during a professional football game—America’s most popular spectator sport.

The analogy to gladiators, which was common among sports sociologists in the 1970s, has been replaced more recently with the “Forty Million Dollar Slaves” as a narrative about the “The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete” (Rhoden 2007). Instead of Roman emperors orchestrating a diversion for starving masses, American billionaires are ensconced in guarded balconies as their players slug it out till concussions force them out of the arena.

No different from their predecessors, team owners buy and trade players as if slavery hasn’t been abolished yet; despite the appearance of a trade organization that is quasi non-profit, and despite a players union (currently negotiating a landmark settlement to compensate retired players for their debilitating injuries), the NFL has a salary cap (socialist marketplace?) where over-all team expenditure on those million-dollar slaves is set by the league (and enforced by a $30 million/year commissioner).

As we prepare to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday, and are entertained by million dollar (30-second) commercials (ensured to air no matter what pace the game should have), let’s check to see if billionaire owners are getting their money’s worth from their “millionaire slaves.”

Peyton Manning of the Broncos is the 4^th highest-paid quarterback who earns an average of $17.5 million/year (in a multi-year contract), while Russell Wilson of the Seahawks is earning a puny $1.2 million/year 9under his rookie contract). Can we therefore expect—to use marketplace value comparison—a seventeen to one ratio between their abilities or performances?

According to SportingNews.com, the Seahawk’s 2013-1014 payroll is the highest in the league with $124.9 million, while the Broncos’ is 5^th with a total of $119.2 million. Is it because Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft) is wealthier than Pat Bowlen (oil drilling wildcatter)? But what is an extra $5 million among billionaires?

The other two championship finalists were the 49ers (9^th in the league with $116.2 million) and the Patriots (19^th in the league with $106.3 million); were they a better bargain for their achievements as compared to the two finalists?

But perhaps we shouldn’t fixate on money and think more broadly about the cultural significance of football in America. Public Religion Research Institute CEO Robert Jones reports that 26 percent of those surveyed “pray for God to help their team,” while 25 percent “think their team has been cursed,” and 19 percent “believe God is involved in determining who wins on the court or in the field.” Overall, “half of Americans fall into one of these groups.”

“As Americans tune in to the Super Bowl this year, fully half of fans — as many as 70 million Americans — believe there may be a twelfth man on the field influencing the outcome,” Jones confirmed. What does this say about the intermingling of religion and sports? It’s not only that fans pray to God for intervention or players thank God when scoring (“Tebowing” has become a cultural signature behavior of players on the field), but the very terminology used in sports is reminiscent of that classically invoked in religious ceremonies and practices.

Whether the topic is belief, sacrifice, work, competition, relics, pilgrimages, or redemption, similar vocabularies are used with the assumption that one discourse is translatable to the other with the same psychological and social impact.

We “believe” in our team (Broncos) and our “hero” (Manning) using reverential words that we typically reserve for our faith in Jesus Christ as our savior. We pray for victory against the heathens of the northwest, and hope that the legalization of marijuana in both states (Colorado and Washington) will not raise the anger of God. Did smoking pot have something to do with our teams’ ability to chill and focus?

So, it’s not simply that billionaires provide expensive entertainment for the masses; they demand (with threats of moving their teams elsewhere) that the public pay for the arenas. The Roman emperors built arenas and supplied slaves (admittedly in a slave economy); our billionaires, working under capitalist pressures, ensure that fans (indirectly) pay for their own entertainment (taxes and product placements).

Since sports is considered by some to be our American religion, and since we pray for victories the way we pray for our souls, perhaps we should consider nationalizing football teams (Packers?) and turning them to religious institutions where all are welcome to seek communal comfort or salvation.

Raphael Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS. His latest co-authored book (with Jeff Scholes) is titled Religion and Sports in American Culture. He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com See previous articles at sassower.blogspot.com

 

“Consider Tebow, Newton and Christmas this season,” The Colorado Springs Business Journal, December 23 - 29, 2011, 21

LEAP OF FAITH

As Christmas arrives this year, believers and non-believers alike participate in an all-consuming spending orgy. Perhaps they believe that once a year their generosity and good-will goes beyond the personal and affects the national wheels of commerce: about 20% of annual spending occurs between Black Friday and Christmas.

Perhaps we are fed up with bad news and the lingering effects of the Great Recession or with depriving ourselves of our national past-time of shopping. Advertisers haven’t stopped bombarding us with catchy tunes and gorgeous models to buy gadgets we deserve. So, finally we succumb to their pleas, whip out a credit card, and feel good. It’s Christmas, after all.

For those who cannot afford a spending spree as an expression of belief in a better economic future, there are other forms of engagement that can express belief just as effectively. Some, less-worldly Christians refrain from conspicuous consumption and remind us that the celebration is not about Santa Claus. Between the two extremes of immersion in the world and retreat from it, we find an American public fascinated by Tim Tebow, the infamous quarterback of the Denver Broncos.

Tebow, the avowed Christian, has become a man for all seasons: he’s a spiritual leader without a congregation, an athlete who believes in miracles, a quarterback who infuses faith in his teammates, a Christian who wants to do right by his mother, an unabashed believer who openly puts his faith in divine intervention, and a humble servant of the Lord who happens to be an extremely competitive, and at times, competent athlete. You name it, and he’ll satisfy your spiritual need. He’s bankable, too!

What makes Tebow and his signature move, “Tebowing”—now an officially accepted linguistic term which designates praying on one knee, fist on the chin—interesting is the fact that he is talked about more than anything else in sports, which in turns means more than anything else in American culture. For once, it’s not some scandal with dog fighting, gambling, rape, or murder. It’s clean and uplifting entertainment provided by a guy who seems above reproach. You needn’t watch a football game on Sunday to know that on Monday Tebow’s performance--his divine mission undertaken for the love of sports and God (maybe not in this order)—will be discussed.

In a post-secular age, an age that accepts religious belief alongside atheism, one need not choose between being religious or secular, but instead can be openly religious without thereby giving up one’s rational faculties. It’s not insane to believe in miracles, as the Broncos prove week after week of preposterous last-minute victories. And Tebow’s comebacks can lodge themselves comfortably in the rational mind, too—his late-game heroics can be explained by mistakes made by the other team and a great Broncos defense.  The “Tebow phenomenon” has a wide-ranging appeal.

So, can you believe in God and be rational? Does it make sense to believe in miracles? Isaac Newton, the seventeenth century mathematician and natural philosopher (as physicists were called then) believed in God and in miracles. He even wrote long tracts on miracles, to the embarrassment of some scientists and historians of science who’d like a clear distinction between science and religion. So, is Tim Tebow like Newton? Not in his ability to develop the calculus, for example, or formulate the fundamental laws of gravity and the color spectrum.

But perhaps what distinguishes Tebow is the ease with which he displays shuttling between the world of celebrities and the world of people of faith. It’s not that God guides his wins; it’s not that his faith moves the ball in the right direction or allows him to outrun his opponents. Tebow has admitted as much. Rather, it’s that he has faith in himself and his natural abilities, in his team and coaches, in the idea that hard work and concentration will yield results beyond scientific calculations of velocity and gravity, force and trajectories.

No, Tim Tebow is neither Newton nor a saintly reincarnation of some ancient Greek athlete or warrior. Instead, he is an all-American well-paid football player who has become an inspiration to a country bereft by an economic downturn, foreclosures, and persistent unemployment. It’s difficult to be inspired by the OWLS (Occupy Wall Street) just as it’s difficult to be inspired by the Arab Spring: in both cases we have to interpret data or think through socio-economic stratification embedded in a traditional political-legal framework (intellectual heavy-lifting).

But just look at Tebow when he “Tebows” after a touchdown: what’s complicated about this image? How can this image not be immediately compelling? Besides, it’s much closer to Auguste Rodin’s sculpture of the Thinker than an actual prayer pose. Is “Tebowing” a symbol of praying or thinking? Maybe Newton’s ghost does hover over Tebow; maybe he’s blessed across the scientific-religious divide.

When you go to Christmas mass or shop or reflect on the meaning of the holiday, just think how American this holiday has become and how religious American sports have always been. Tim Tebow will make it easy for you.

Raphael Sassower is professor of philosophy at UCCS who was born in the Holy Land.  He can be reached at rsassower@gmail.com Previous articles can be found at sassower.blogspot.com