Still Life with Robin: Pick a Side

Photo by Seney Natural History Assoc.
vis Wikimedia Creative Commons

by Peggy Robin

I’ve never been much of a football fan – OK, I’ve always been something of an ANTI-fan; I have to own up to past columns like this one http://alllifeislocal.blogspot.com/search?q=football, arguing against watching the Big Game altogether. But curiously, this year, I find myself actually excited over it -- because, for the first time ever, I like one team quite a bit more than another. Today I'm wearing green. Chalk it up to having family in Philadelphia now, who have exerted their pressure on me. Also, I have never much cared for Tom Brady, Trump’s golfing pal, or the Patriot’s coach, Bill Belichick, another big Trump booster (see: http://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/49ers/bill-belichick-did-indeed-write-letter-donald-trump). Conversely, I do like that young, scrappy Nick Foles, and even more, his teammate Malcolm Jenkins, who seems to be unusually thoughtful about the impact of social protest by players (see: https://usat.ly/2nBbmgH).

I realize that most of my reasons for liking the Eagles or dissing the Patriots are unrelated to the way they play the game. But I am still going to sit down and watch the three-plus hours extravaganza – and not just for the creative commercials or the pull-out-all-stops halftime show. As Bruce Weber put it brilliantly in the New York Times, the Super Bowl is “not so much a ballgame as a happening, like the Oscars but with concussions.” [https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/01/nyregion/sports-fan-misery-super-bowl.html]. Weber’s main point, however, is that he thinks the game has become too dangerous and feels uncomfortable about enjoying it at all anymore, as he used to do.  

Last night, Saturday Night Live hilariously captured the dilemma of those who can’t root for either team in this skit:  
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/philly-tina-fey-trash-talks-rachel-dratch-patriots-snl-article-1.3797806

Earlier this week in The Nation magazine, writers outlined the case for those who are left-of-center politically (like 70-90 percent of DC voters, depending on which polls you use) to root for one team over the other.

Here's the case for the Patriots:
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-progressive-case-for-the-new-england-patriots-seriously/

And the case for the Eagles:
https://www.thenation.com/article/the-progressive-case-for-the-philadelphia-eagles-seriously/

There, I think I have done my duty to present both sides, and no side – at least a bit. And now, my conclusion:

Fly, Eagles, Fly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HorkiklZ4I   

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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local usually on Saturdays but sometimes (like today) on Sundays.