M<\/span>odern sports are\u00a0not simple competition between the two teams. If they were only about physical competition, games would be shorter, less glitzy, less energetic.<\/p>\nSports are ritualized events, liturgies. The crowd\u2019s behavior is deliberately intensified with ritual elements \u2013 with mascots who emblem the team, with fight songs that energize and bind the fans into a single singing unit, with the moments of drama like the team\u2019s bursting through the paper barrier as they come onto the field from the locker room for the first time, halftime entertainments.<\/p>\n
At higher levels, the ritual gets more complex. The Super Bowl is the great annual rite of America\u2019s athletic-military-entertainment complex. The game is integrated into the American dream not only by the singing of the national anthem, but by the F16 flyover. Halftime is extended to make room for popular celebrity singers to perform to raucous crowds. You don\u2019t have to be at the game to participate: You can have your Super Bowl party and enjoy what the live spectators cannot, the Super Bowl commercials.<\/p>\n
The Super Bowl liturgy expresses what we love: Football, competition literally on a level playing field, celebrity, the ability of a skilled individual to impact the outcome. It shapes us in our loves: We come away loving a country where this kind of competition can happen, a country wealthy enough to expend billions for grown men to play with leather balls, a country with enough military might to protect the way of life that is exemplified by football. It unites us to others who share our loves.<\/p>\n
And one has to wonder: Do we (men especially) throw ourselves into the divine liturgy with as much enthusiasm as we do into the liturgy of Monday Night Football? And: What loves are being shaped by our devotion to the rites of football?<\/p>\n
(This is taken from a lecture delivered at the Covenant School, Dallas, Texas, November 16, 2015.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Modern sports are\u00a0not simple competition between the two teams. If they were only about physical competition, games would be shorter, less glitzy, less energetic. Sports are ritualized events, liturgies. The crowd\u2019s behavior is deliberately intensified with ritual elements \u2013 with mascots who emblem the team, with fight songs that energize and bind the fans into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3021,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liturgy","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n
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