As I sat watching the Super Bowl on Sunday I couldn’t help but think of the millions of viewers across America glued to their screens watching ‘the big game’. In a statement released by Fox TV on Monday, this past Sunday’s Super Bowl drew an American TV audience of 111 million viewers (over 1/3 of their population!). This number of people watching a single televised event is recorded as being the highest in the past twenty years. This causes me to think, what does football mean to Americans? As discussed a while ago in class, Lynch mentions that sport is comparable to traditional forms of religion specifically in mentioning the essence of community it derives. Using the Super Bowl viewer numbers as an example, one can determine that the American religion is football.
Joseph L. Price, an associate professor of religion at Whittier College in California also viewed the Super Bowl having a religious function in his article The Super Bowl as Religious Festival (1984). Price identifies American mythology surrounding the Super Bowl – the founding of a nation and providing hope for a nation. As seen in last Sunday’s pre-game presentation of The Journey with voice over by Michael Douglas, images and videos of American history blaze across the screen. He speaks of the American dream and that ‘through it all, generation after generation we never give up. How could we?’ He also questions ‘what life would be like if they (American soldiers in battle during WWII) did not show the world on our darkest day that our flag was still there’. Douglas mentions briefly the history of the two teams, one founded by the Indian packing company and the other ‘named after proud steel mills that forged this great nation’. However his overall message relies on the belief that the Super Bowl is one night ‘to dream, to believe, to remain united and celebrate their journey, and our journey’. I think that it is here in this video and voice over that the religiosity of football in America is encapsulated. Douglas is the voice for the nation, creating pride and providing hope for all and uses this event as a pinnacle of both pride and hope.
I also wanted to touch upon one of my favourite shows Friday Night Lights that revolves around the drama surrounding a high school football team in the fictional Dillon, Texas. Briefly in last weeks episode one of the main characters, Vince, admits that football saved him from the streets, going to jail and possibly ending up dead. The passion and commitment that the boys have towards the game and the sense that if it weren’t for football, they wouldn’t have any chance at not just college, but a successful life, astonishes me. I think that overall we cannot just find American football religiosity in Michael Douglas’ words to inspire a nation, but more importantly, we find this deep belief in the power of the game in small towns throughout the United States and in the hearts of millions.
'The Journey' Super Bowl 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdDNkh98XZE
Great post, Kathleen.
ReplyDeleteIt is not just Americans who are caught up in football fever. I too spend every Sunday after Labour Day to the first Sunday in February watching the National Football League. It is a ritual for my father, brother and I to don our “Sunday best” – my Dad in his customary Peyton Manning, #18 Indianapolis Colts jersey; my brother in one of his many jerseys, usually his #82 Jacksonville Jaguars Jimmy Smith jersey; me in my Detroit Lions Calvin Johnson #81 jersey – and watch football all Sunday. Funny thing is, my Dad is a Bills fan and I have cheered for the 49ers for over 20 years, yet neither of us wear a jersey of a player from our favourite team. What fantasy football can do to a person. But I digress
Without a doubt football on Sunday has become somewhat of a religious endevour for me and my family. We even have cousins and aunts and uncles come over to enjoy the festivities with us from week to week. We are all doing our best to indoctrinate the newest member of our family – my five-month-old nephew – into the cult of the NFL. In short, we all do worship at the Temple of the NFL. It is customary for us to shun all other responsibilities from 11:00AM Sunday morning to almost midnight. Perhaps calling it our family's religion would not be that far off. None of us identify with any other religion, but we all identify ourselves as football fans.
Having said that, and knowing that the NFL is the most profitable professional sports league in the world, I do not know if using the Super Bowl-viewing numbers is an accurate way to gage whether football is the American religion. Notice in my previous paragraphs how I did not mention my mother. That is because she hates football. Yet, without fail, there she is on Super Sunday watching the Packers take on the Steelers. The spectacle of the Super Bowl brings out a lot of viewers that do not normally follow or care about the NFL. That is not to say that the NFL does not have a devout following. They very much do. Perhaps, however, it would be more accurate to look at the weekly television numbers from the regular season to see how large this American religion is.
In any event, fantastic post, and it was nice to see someone other than me talk about sports for once.