the bus stops here

yesterday, tough yardage running back extraordinaire jerome bettis, one of the games greatest and most respected, fulfilled every kid's dream who ever played a sport: to win your sports world championship in your hometown in your final game ever. wow. i was a baseball player when i was growing up, and at one time in my life i tricked myself ino thinking i might be able to take it somewhere (kids....), and believe me, that was my dream. so i can only imagine how that man must be feeling. on top of the frickin' world!

congrats to the bus and his pittsburgh steelers!

scottie threw the superbowl party so we watched the biggest sporting extravaganza* in north america over at his place (*i'll come back to this). 2 screens, i brought my projector and we had that on one wall, and then the tv in the living room as well... and the little guy in the kitchen so you wouldnt miss anything when you went to get a beer. played some tiger, played some madden, watched the game, ate and drank a shitload, and had a great time! woke up this morning and paid for it dearly. crazy heartburn to wake me up, and my morning shit was marred by all the cheese bunging me up long enough for the chili to sear my colon. jesus hubert christ. the chicken wing dip won the prize for sure. however, there were no chicken wings involved.

so im gonna go back to the "biggest sporting extravaganza", and i wanna type about something i was thinking about yesterday when al michaels went on about the sheer size of the thing and basically what it is to america - it is quite a celebration. the biggest. and really, of all the major's (nfl, nhl, nba, mlb), the superbowl is the newest of all the major titles. so i made some comparisons and drew up some parallels that kinda got my noodle goin'. i thought if this game is america's new past time, let's look at it against america's old past time, baseball. football vs. baseball, nfl vs. mlb, world series vs. super bowl, whatever. and let's look at western culture and social values, or rather, how the culture might be perceived, then and now.

im a baseball man. i love the game, i played it growing up, i wish i still could, and in fact i just might again. as a kid i was always fascinated with the lore.. the history of the game is incredible. i loved reading books about old-time baseball, or reading my total baseball encyclopedia pushing stats through my head for fucking fun. watching ball talk videos, you name it. baseball held a certain respect that got my attention at a young age. baseball had a feeling. and it was looked upon as a gentlemans game, tough and competitive, but with a certain civility. and that aspect, i think, was part of the celebration of that game at that time - it was a certain pride, a standard the game was to be upheld to. it was the game - respect it. now, the baseball timeline im using for this analogy is old time baseball, say, loosely, up to the halfway point of the 20th century. (in real baseball historical timelines i'd say that extends a couple era's beyond old time baseball, but thats not really the point here...)

all that said, i love me a good football game as well. i also played organized football as a kid, and grew up with a certain fascination for that game. my dad was a green bay packers fan. i can tell you that, but i couldnt tell you what his favourite baseball team was. vince lombardi was his man. so naturally, my fascination had more to do with the history of the super bowl than the game itself. but, really, the super bowl is the game. the super bowl has become the most celebrated sporting event on this continent. america goes apeshit for it. hell, so does canada! moreso than our own grey cup event! 4 hour pre-game shows, star studded events, the half-time show, all of it - the whole deal is incredible - and we all eat it up. but its really the sport that is being celebrated... and the sport itself is mean as hell. in the last 40 years the sport has risen to unprecedented heights. it's tough, it's rough, and its our favourite. the trash talking, the cockiness, the badass gangster attitude of the sport is where the love now lies. the special segment from last nights superbowl was about the a guy who was arguably the meanest, hardest hitter the game has ever known. and as this sports popularity has increased and become dominant, baseball has gone the other route.

it's quite a contrast.

then i started thinking about our culture, my own perceptions, history classes, history books (though, who's to say what our future history books will look like - depends on who's in charge, i suppose), various topical studies, culture studies, social/political, etc etc. and when i go back in time, to my old time baseball era, i see a culture that had heroes. real heroes. people to be proud of. class. some of them were in uniform, many of them were overseas, some of them even wore suits. i see a culture that, in some ways, could have been seen as a hero itself. i feel like the people held themselves to a higher standard, a better respect. there's something about that time in our history that lines up very nicely with baseball at that time.
i thought of us now and football now, and the progression through time, the evolution of a species socially, (un)ethically, and the changes that have occurred, the people in charge, and the eras that have come in between to get us from there to here. and here feels kinda filthy. it doesnt smell so good. there is nothing sacred. and man, there is a ton of smut. corruption, greed, and people with little respect for anything runnin’ the show. then we look back at the nfl - the players that get the most airtime, the ones setting the example, are the ones who are the most disrespectful, the greediest, the most arrogant. you have the minnesota vikings throwing sex parties on boats, and panthers cheerleaders gettin' it on in bar washrooms, and hey, fine and dandy, that's cool and all, you do what you like, but man, there is a ton of smut! who's thinking of the children? you've got hold out players, juice monkey's, showboats, etc etc... there's an attitude that surrounds the game and it’s not so different than the attitude today's western culture is perceived to have, the world over. and the future doesnt look too bright.

so with all this on my mind, i watched the bus pull into detroit, put it in park, and turn off the lights. and with that, the game lost one of its greatest role models. and it couldnt have come at a worse time.

the kids need heroes.