∑ilage

So after reading both earv and wekk's posts about football, it occurs to me that earv is right; football does suck. The play style is boring, refereeing and instant replay play too much of an important role, and there also seems to be a stupid "let's play armies" quality about the whole lining up and gaining territory element of the game.

At the same time, wekk is right; football is a lot of fun. Getting to be part of the crowd, getting pumped up in a festive environment, and watching a spectacle event in an arena is one of the most basic human pleasures.

But earv isn't talking about football. He's talking about Football, capital F, the institution of the game and all its media, hype, controversy, prima dona stars. Earv's not talking about how football sucks to watch in person or play (though he points out some formal absurdities of the sport), he's talking about how dip shitted the whole thing is as a televised event, complete with instant replays, endless breaks, stupid announcing, and camera work that makes the game seem more like a video game than a home game.

Instead of hanging out with friends, listening to the band, or standing for 15 minutes in a line to take a piss (all the pleasures of live sporting events), we get from Football a discouraging set of in-game analysis, obnoxious graphics, and commercials that reward us for watching the tv obediently by making us laugh before they bypass one part of our brain and go straight up the hershey highway of powerful suggestion by visual signal. What a fuckin' ripoff.

Tackling your friend is fun. Watching someone that's part of your school tackle someone else is fun. Watching a Tostito's commercial is not fucking fun.

Wekk describes football as if it's some kind of ritual. That's because it is. But just because the wekk had a grand ole time at the Gators game does not cancel out that watching Football is actually a different viewing practice, and therefore a different (spectator) sport altogether than your average day at the bleachers. Wekk, man up, admit that watching football on TV is a depressing, boring, and soul-draining experience. Earv, you too; live violence is thrilling, especially when set to live music. We can talk about the ethics of it up and down and all day, but nevertheless it is appealing.

Football capital F might even be its own kind of ritual of sorts or even set of rituals, but it's shot through with all kinds of other bullshit that make the game about stats, clock, victories, and sponsors instead of watching your warriors of choice paste the feces out of the enemy, or if your lucky, kick off a helmet or two and stomp some faces Tennessee Titans style.

I know lots of professional sports are similar, but it's the timeframe and pace of football that aggrevates some of these unfavorable qualities. It's almost as if the sport was made for commercial breaks and televising. With all the late game timeouts and referee crackdowns on unsightly arguing, i'm afraid the same thing is happening to the NBA if it's not there already.