This wasn't a very good Super Bowl. Especially since it may be my last. I don't know if it will be my last; I'm not sure. It was

satisfying in some ways, notably because it ended in a win for Peyton Manning who had a lot of people pulling for him in anticipation of his retirement. But, the game wasn't terribly exciting from my perspective. The Panther's early incomplete pass which held up after review will likely generate discussion for years to come. Who knows what the momentum may have done for Carolina if they had been able to overturn the ruling on the field? But, compared to many other Super Bowl contests, this one was relatively tame.

Even the commercials were a let down. More and more companies have taken to sharing their commercials ahead of time, no longer reserving them for first airing during the Super Bowl. Some people watch the Super Bowl exclusively for the commercials, and much of what I've heard has been disappointment. And although I enjoyed the halftime show, I seem to have been in the minority. I'm a Coldplay fan, and as rock bands go, they aren't flashy. And a message that ended with "Believe in love," is preferable to so many other messages that can be sent with less than poetic lyrics, flashes of skin, and group gyrations. (Wow, I sound like an old man!) If nothing else, though, the buffalo chicken dip I made for the game was certainly memorable.

So why might this be my last Super Bowl? I am among those who is torn between an exciting spectacle we call Football, and the violence and destruction that goes along with it. More research and more shared stories bear out the lasting effects that football can have on its athletes. Repetitive brain injuries alone are disheartening, let alone the injuries to joints other body parts. The number of suicides that affects former football players is heartbreaking too. As more and more football superstars speak publicly about their experience and their reluctance to allow their own sons to take up the sport, it has certainly gotten my attention.

Granted, we live in a free country where we can do things we know are bad for us. Smoking is still legal, and we have made sure everyone knows the ramifications of their choice to smoke. We limit the availability of cigarettes (to a degree) for those who are under an age where they cannot make a wise decision about smoking. And the same can be said of food. We are free to eat whatever we want in whatever amounts we want, free to ignore the advice of the medical profession and the science that says our obesity or our clogged arteries could be a problem down the road. I, for one, will not give up cheeseburgers or bacon. At least I won't until my doctor or my wife tells me I must. And even then, I'll be the guy going through the drive-thru and sneaking my Baconator now and then anyway.

I have no desire to watch someone smoke to death, nor eat themselves into an early grave. Fortunately such things aren't very entertaining, so there aren’t reality TV shows about it. Not yet anyway. But football is like watching modern day gladiators. They punish each other brutally, which is, admittedly what many people watch for. Most aren’t watching the sport hoping to see an injury, per se, yet injuries are the result of a sport that trains for size and strength and stopping power, or its opposite, the brute force that pushes through a wall of defenders. But we are watching. It is entertainment. These men take these hits for us, and the money that comes with our desire to watch. Players continually get bigger, faster, and stronger, and it seems as though technology can do little to help. Perhaps the best suggestion to date has been to eliminate helmets altogether, requiring softer hits and less head-first contact. I won’t hold my breath for that one any time soon.

The issue is still being studied. The NFL has only just recently stopped denying a connection between football and brain injuries. The NFL, colleges and high schools have all been advised to limit full contact practices to help the issue, although policy and enforcement is not universal outside the NFL. But if “football” with it’s many billions of dollars in revenue does not want to make research and safety a priority, I may get to a point where I don’t want to watch anymore. When our livelihood requires putting people at risk, history tells us we are more likely to drag our feet and deny a problem. The market indeed can often drive change. If football’s audience started to shrink, that would likely cause a change to take place.

For me, it’s not about injuries generically, but it’s the head injuries that are unique in football in terms of their frequency. Plenty of other sports come with frequent injuries; wrestling, soccer, and gymnastics to name a few. I have friends and family who have had multiple surgeries at young ages – before leaving high school in several cases – from sports injuries and even dance-related injuries. But limping through life with a join that hurts when a storm is brewing is different than experiencing Alzheimer’s-like symptoms before the age of 40. Sports in general bring risk to life and limb, yet football remains somewhat of an outlier in terms of risk to life, and only a select few make it as far as the NFL. It’s the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.

Let’s stick with professional football for now though. All of this brings up a series of moral questions that are not new, many of which center on our place in the world and how our choices and our appetites affect the lives of others. We ask similar questions about whether we should buy products when we learn about the treatment of or the risk taken by laborers to produce or harvest the things we buy. We may not be directly responsible for another’s lot in life, and yet we are a part of the system when we are not thoughtful consumers. Well, when it comes to football I’m thinking about it now, if not thoughtful. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I’m pondering it.

There were dozens of men on the field for Super Bowl 50, and for all that it wasn’t the best game I’ve watched, I was entertained, nonetheless. I pray that none of those men or their families ever has to deal with the life-threatening effects of their play. But I know that won’t be the case.

Tom+

O God, in the course of this busy life, give us times of refreshment and peace; and grant that we may so use our leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our spirits may be opened to the goodness of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Collect for the good use of leisure, BCP p. 825.