Super Bowl 42 is now history, and history keeps repeating itself.
In this much lauded pantheon of pigskin portentions, a single victor emerges, and a single, vanquished team leaves the field of play defeated and dejected. Amid all the chaff and celebration, a single player and solitary coach are lifted to the podium set in the middle of the field, as announcers grope for the proper words to celebrate these proxies representing the entire organization that now basks in the glow of fading glory.
Does anyone see beyond the lights? Does anyone reason further than the statistics? Does anyone question the real significance of it all?
The NY Giants truly played a giant of a game, defeating the seemingly undefeatable New England Patriots in the super-fest we call the Super Bowl. Further analogizing the Giant theme, shades of David and Goliath could be seen in the pre-game musings over who would surely be the victor, and who would be defeated. And who could argue with the recent historical evidence? The Patriots were having a cinderella season, with 16 victories, and no defeats in their season. They had proven to be a formidable force in the NFL, showing almost effortless ability to win against any foe, using their seemingly endless roster of talent at will. Much like the Mike Tyson of old, they walked into the ring of competition with visible confidence and unrestrained ability. As the season unfolded, opposing teams quit asking if they could win, and began asking themselves how to lessen the impact of their given loss to the 'Pats. They were truly the golden child of the '07 season.
The Giants, by comparison, struggled early with two consecutive losses and trouble brewing in the upper ranks of management. As sports writers are known to do, there were early rumblings of a troubled and loss-ridden season for the Giants. However, true to their blue-collar metaphor, they dug in, began to play as a team, and eeked out victory after victory. As post season approached, they were not the favored team to win their conference, but even then, they rose to the occassion and found themselves looking like the spoilers who stole a heady invitation to the game's biggest party. We'll call them the Rocky Balboa's of '07: quaint, raw, awkward, but determined.
The details of the game will be forgotten by both time and this author, but the analogies that present themselves in relation to life in general must be explored, for they are too profound to ignore.
Modern American sports exist to laud and exalt victory. In more recent decades, the American and world public find themselves in a constant search for a hero to exalt above all else, for it is not enough to praise a winning team, but we must also (at least here in the western part of the world) find that one individual on a team to praise above all else. It would seem that those who "bring us the news" cannot focus upon a team, so they search for someone, a lone person, to pin all their ink upon for the consuming public. We should be insulted at such poor logic, but instead, the public follows along like a donkey chasing the proverbial carrot. Is it not enough that only the ultimate victor gets all the attention, but we also have to pull from a talented team the supposed pinnacle of their talent, in the form of one person?
It says something very disturbing about American culture, this endless search for "the top" athlete and team. It begs more questions than the unthinking masses want answered.
Tom Brady, quarterback of the Patriots, was spoken of more often than anyone else in the organization, from the coach, to the owner, to all the other players. When all the comments and comparisions and air time his face received are added up, one would assume that he was the team, and all the other uniformed men were there just to make him look good. But he's not the first to receive these accolades, and he will certainly not be the last. But to spend too much time on this particular subject is not the focus of this article.
All of the victories of this past season prepared the Patriots for only one thing: further victories. They forgot how to lose. Matter of fact, given that the sentiment described above is accepted by most in the NFL, few teams or individuals are prepared to lose. Wise 'ol Andy Griffith once said to Opey, "Winnin's easy....it's losing that builds character." Andy was right, but no one in American sports is listening to him, and even fewer of the millions of sports fans are either.
In our "Winning is Everthing" society, we are losing more than just a few lessons. We are losing our ability to accept life as it is, with victories and defeats boardering the road of life. We are foregoing valuable lessons that help to mold us into better people, and a better culture. We are exalting one another, rather than the one God and Lord who only deserves such a place in our lives.
Tom Brady may be a fine man, but he looked utterly confused and average, if you will, when faced with an on-slaught of fierce defensive linemen who were determined to give him a helmet headache. Eli Manning, who must tire of the monkey on his back, looked like what he really is in football, and that is -- an average athlete who continues to try while becoming incrementially better at his position. He was unprepared to be the victor, and Brady unprepared to be the loser. But both men deserve appropriate accolades for playing well within their respective teams, and for making it as far as the super bowl. And so the question: Why do we not view these games in this way, rather than "victor takes all?"
It all goes back to being exalted. We, as humans, were not designed and created to EVER be exalted. In fact, you might say that being exalted is the antithesis of our very nature. We were created to exalt the one true God, and to be instruments of praise and adoration towards our creator and Savior. In reality, we were designed to be devoid of any praise or adoration ourselves, and so when we seek to exalt one another, or even ourselves, we are committing a heinous sin against God, mainly in the form of idolatry. This goes for even something like exalting a president, a quarterback, or an entertainer. Look at the lives of certain young, female singers to witness the ill effects of exaltation upon them and their health. In short, exaltation for humans is caustic at best, idolatry at worst. We are to project the praise (towards God) and never to receive it. Not even from each other.
Lessons learned from the recent super bowl?
2. No one, anywhere, wins all the time. To be unprepared to lose is to live outside of reality.
3. There really is no "I" in TEAM. Here in America, we would do well to celebrate the collective effort than to exalt the select individual.
4. No human is ever to be exalted. We were not designed to receive praise, and if we attempt to do so, we void our warranty, as it were.
5. Ultimate victory (as we try to define it) is a fairy tale soon forgotten, devoid of meaning or substance. What lasts is the character that is built as we each strive towards achieving the goals (hopefully) God has set before us. It's all those bumps and bruises that refine us, and not the victories. In reality, a supposed victory is in the travel, not the destination.
6. When, will we as a society, begin to see striving and work ethic as and end unto itself? Will we lose anything if we forego the notion that all things must end in a final showdown?
7. Another year, and another super bowl. May it be a year when fewer exalt one, and more exalt the only One worthy of our praise.
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