Look out, hippies! Here comes the long bomb!
Yes, yesterday (plus forty years) the filthy, pervert hordes had their say, and not twenty-four hours later straight America fired a return salvo in the form of:
SUPER BOWL I!
Granted, it wasn’t called that at the time. It was only the AFL/NFL World Championship Game, yet another step in the ongoing merger of the two leagues (a process only slightly less complicated than the negotiations leading to the Peace of Westphalia). The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 36 to 10.
But despite the blatant contrast between the two events, they had something in common: they weren’t as big a deal at the time as what they eventually developed into. You may remember Grandpa Simpson watching SBIII and saying “If people don’t support this thing, it might not make it!” It certainly seemed iffy after the Packers romped through the AFL ‘competition’ for two years straight. The networks didn’t even bother to save tapes of the proceedings, something that must now cause League bureaucrats to grind their teeth at night. But from those humble beginning has grown one of America’s great festivals, self-justified, completely detached from any religious or political meaning.
What really strikes me about the juxtaposition of the two events is that the Be-In talked about bringing people together, and Super Bowls are the practical embodiment of that idea. Some old hippies might be furious at the suggestion that an ultracorporate, testosterone-soaked circus of violence is related in any way to the high ideals of the Be-In, but the fact is that people Gather for the game, they seek out family and friends, they communicate as best they can. Even people who don’t care anything about football (such as my wife) can find themselves caught up in it. This happens in part because there’s isn’t any larger meaning. Deep things of the soul-religious, politics, philosophy-are important enough to cause divisions. Sports is petty enough that it creates a neutral space where folks can meet1.
1: For a large majority of people. While there are some fans who would stop speaking to a family member because they were rooting for the wrong team, they are few.
SUPER BOWL I!
Granted, it wasn’t called that at the time. It was only the AFL/NFL World Championship Game, yet another step in the ongoing merger of the two leagues (a process only slightly less complicated than the negotiations leading to the Peace of Westphalia). The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 36 to 10.
But despite the blatant contrast between the two events, they had something in common: they weren’t as big a deal at the time as what they eventually developed into. You may remember Grandpa Simpson watching SBIII and saying “If people don’t support this thing, it might not make it!” It certainly seemed iffy after the Packers romped through the AFL ‘competition’ for two years straight. The networks didn’t even bother to save tapes of the proceedings, something that must now cause League bureaucrats to grind their teeth at night. But from those humble beginning has grown one of America’s great festivals, self-justified, completely detached from any religious or political meaning.
What really strikes me about the juxtaposition of the two events is that the Be-In talked about bringing people together, and Super Bowls are the practical embodiment of that idea. Some old hippies might be furious at the suggestion that an ultracorporate, testosterone-soaked circus of violence is related in any way to the high ideals of the Be-In, but the fact is that people Gather for the game, they seek out family and friends, they communicate as best they can. Even people who don’t care anything about football (such as my wife) can find themselves caught up in it. This happens in part because there’s isn’t any larger meaning. Deep things of the soul-religious, politics, philosophy-are important enough to cause divisions. Sports is petty enough that it creates a neutral space where folks can meet1.
1: For a large majority of people. While there are some fans who would stop speaking to a family member because they were rooting for the wrong team, they are few.