Football Returns to New Orleans
You can't not love this story -- football is finally back in New Orleans for the first time since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city. A cynic would say that this is just a game, that there is no real significance to the return of a sport to a city still in need. Well, fortunately, sports fans are not cynics -- they're idealists.
Why is this Monday Night Football more captivating than others? It's because of the very same reason we love sports. Sports allow people of all ages to feel youthful and alive. People can set aside their differences to focus on something powerful, beautiful, majestic. Sports can relieve the pains of life, even if it offers only a brief respite. You can crash on the couch for a football game, toss a baseball with your old man, or let the echo of a bouncing basketball on hardwood flood your thoughts and drown your worries. Sports provides a safe haven, something the people of New Orleans would gladly embrace.
Watching or participating in a sport can fill each individual with empowering feelings of victory, joy, nostalgia and achievement...life at its finest, essentially. This is what makes the perversion of sports such a shame. Gambling, violent fanaticism and unsportsmanlike conduct all tarnish what should otherwise be a pure endeavor.
So let's allow the game tonight to relieve our stress, our cares and our pains in honor of New Orleans, escaping reality for a time, be it for a 15-minute quarter, 7-minute drive, or split-second play. That's the beauty of the game.
posted by Jay @ 1:01 PM
4 Comments
4 Comments:
i think you're going a LITTLE too overboard with the nostalgia here...but yes, sports deserve a place in our lives. and it is definitely a shame when something like steroids or katrina ruins the game.
Really a beutiful thing...if you can afford the $50 admission to the superdome. True, I am a cynic, but I'm also an idealist. I believe in the power of the American way, not the National Football League. Take a look at the current state of the lower ninth ward, and tell me that this 2 hour distraction matters when you still dont have a home or prospect of getting one. Does sport heal a city? It can, but its hard when it's as commercialized as the NFL is. In this case, the wild commercial sucess of the NFL detracts from its unifying/uplifting ability. What are the chances that the NFL gives out tickets to the people who were trapped in the Superdome for a week or more. That would be something...
SAF-
Sure, it would be unreal if the NFL gave tix to the Katrina victims. But you're missing 2 points here- First, the NFL is a business and cant do that, but its STILL broadcasting its game to millions. Even if they cant be there, they can take pride in their team. Think of it as a nostalgia about good times past and hope for better things in the future. Second, the NFL is THE cleanest league (image-wise), THE most popular (their fan base is the most diverse and most loyal) and THE most idealized league in pro sports (all the lure of sundays and mondays, all those game videos on ESPN with the dramatic announcer). So yea, the NFL is a commercial giant which won't give out free tix...but the GAME itself is pure.
You forgot to mention that the ticket sales etc, etc, all pump money into the New Orleans economy (or what's left of it). My point is not to give out free tickets, its that sport can only do so much. Plus, it only gives hope to sports fans, which not all NO residents are. And no pro sport is "pure" (need I bring up the wizzinator?). Bottom line: football in New Orleans is nice, but lets keep this in perspective.
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