Super Bowl

I have long been a sarcastic commentator about the Super Bowl. My assessment has been that the game is intended, primarily, for the unwashed masses...the less intelligent among us, the morons who somehow equate their own abilities with football players who are both dim-witted and hyper-muscular.

Maybe I've been right.

But tonight I watched most, though not all, of the Super Bowl. And I found myself mezmerized by the event. I certainly do not equate my bulbous and weak body with the bodies of the athletes, but I connected with them, or someone, somehow. I didn't really care about the players,nor their coaches, nor most of their fans...but I cared that the New Orleans Saints might give the citizens of that city a boost if they won. But it grew beyond that as I watched the game. I actually enjoyed it. And that was despite the fact that I didn't want to. I wanted to watch it as a show of solidarity with the people of New Orleans, but I ended up watching it because it was exciting. And the game kept me on edge right until the end. I didn't sit glued to the TV, but I watched most of the game. And I liked it.

So maybe I've been wrong. Maybe my haughtier than thou attitude has been elitism of an ugly sort. I've not converted to a football fanatic, but I have changed my attitude about one game, and I've changed my attitude completely. I've allowed myself to consider myself "better" than the riff-raff who watch football. And now I'm among the riff-raff. And that's OK. It's better than OK. Maybe I'm getting over my self-induced snobbery.

But, no, I won't go to the next high-school football game with you. Rabid Republicans go there. I would just get into a fistfight.