Post Superbowl Post

Today, the local news interviewed a Nurse Practitioner about what to do if you were so depressed about the Superbowl outcome that you  could not function normally. Really.

For the fans here, it is sad the Pats lost. It's always a morale boost when a team here wins. Especially during the long winter.

2004 President Congratulates 2004 Super Bowl Champs New England Patriots, Whitehouse photo Public Domain. Image via Wikipedia

But, it is not "our" loss.  I don't get people SO identifying with a team they do neither own nor play on, and which is comprised of team members who, in all likelihood are not even from the region.  It's not as if we can say,  those guys are ours, our family, our village.  They are hired guns.  They will say, our fans are great.  And if they were traded, switched teams or whatever would say the same things in that new city.

Sometimes, it is postulated that sports is a substitute for war. I don't think I believe that. But if it were then the Patriots are not our hired guns; they are Bob Kraft's hired guns.

I like the teams for sports I enjoy from the area where I live, but I don't identify with them. When the Red Sox won the World Series I was happy but I did not think we won the World Series. When I lived in NY I liked the Mets and I may have even rooted for the Yankees once or twice (I was young and the Yankees are an exception but as an anti-identifier). But I have no idea who I liked in football back then.

Professional sports are games. GAMES

They are games that make owners, players, and managers rich (I guess the Green Bay Packers are mutually owned by citizens). They don't play for fans, they play for money. They obviously grove on adulation but, whether its Bostonian adulation or Chicagoan probably doesn't matter.

Also, let's look at the idea of competition. I see these big contests and think it's just one day, one game, one race, one routine. Whole lifetimes rise and fall on one screw up in the a playoff series, the Superbowl, the Olympics, etc.  One bad day, one guy pulling on your previously damaged shoulder, whacking your leg the wrong way and you're finished with the game, in the sport or with life.

The Giants had apparently barely made the playoffs.  The Patriots were right at the top all season.  ONE GAME and they're losers? NO.

I did think the strategy applied at the end of the game was really interesting and I can't imagine trying to figure out all the rules. Apparently they change depending on how long is left in the game and whether it is a playoff.

I don't get it.  I am sure some psychologist or anthropologist somewhere does. Or maybe you do?