American Idol -- Do you prefer your calf black or green?

Yes, it's Super Bowl Sunday here in America, the closest thing to a national religious holiday we have. (You might say, "Well what about Christmas, Leslie?", but as every American knows there's even a big linguistic fight over 'holiday trees' and such. So really, the only thing that unites us is football.)

Let me say at the outset that I'm not against football at all, and I don't think that everyone who watches football has some sort of religious worship of it. I just personally don't care. I've even tried to care -- really, I have. But from my own perhaps rare perspective of having little emotional attachment to the teams playing or the game itself, I must say that it's pretty funny to see the fervor and devotion expressed by people about football that, quite frankly, would be almost unheard of as expressions of religious devotion in American culture.

Seriously, when you are emotionally detached from it, statements like these after the game are weird:

"Oh, Steeler nation, what now?"
"Though it will be temporary, I'm feeling hopeless right now..."
"No more black and yellow. It's green and yellow now!"
"The Packer nation will rise up."
"In which color do you prefer your golden calf -- black or green?"

Alright, so I just made up that last one. And of course, I am exaggerating -- not everyone is that serious about football. But honestly, can you imagine the average American giving as much devotion to their faith as they do to their favorite football team? I think the USA would be a very different place.

Now I must admit, I was a little sorry when I heard that the Steelers lost. I was surprised that I cared at all, but after some years of living in Steubenville, Ohio (just 40 minutes from Pittsburgh), I think that some of the Steeler mania rubbed off on me. Really, if you live out there people don't accept the idea that you don't care about football -- they seem to take it as a personal affront, and so I think I became a bit of a Steelers fan for fear of being lynched.

Even high school football is crazy out there -- while Steubenville is a rather economically depressed area, you'd better believe that the Big Red football team of Steubenville High School has an amazing stadium featuring a fire-breathing horse. (I wish I was only kidding.) Check it out!  
http://www.rollredroll.com/football.htm

As I mentioned before, there was a point in my life where I really did try to care about and understand football. I majored in music education and performance for my undergraduate degree, and so there was a very real chance that I might end up leading a high school marching band. As I knew from 4 years of personal experience, that involved a lot of football games. And I realized that for as many games as I'd attended, I had no idea what was actually happening in the game. (I did a lot of socializing, though -- that aspect of football I enjoy!) I knew that if I was leading the band during the games, we would probably be playing our fight song when the other team made a touchdown and other inappropriate things -- but even though the band's songs would be inopportunely timed, you can be sure that they would be musically excellent! (Sadly, real football fans don't seem to care that much about musicality.)

In any case, I've given up dreams of a potentially lucrative career as a marching band instructor for poorly paid work for the Catholic Church and blogging for free, so you can all rest easy knowing that the pep bands will be playing the appropriate music at all of the local football games.

In closing, I'd like to tell the Packers congrats and the Steelers so sorry. And for America, I have an idea. How 'bout we try to rise up as one nation under God? It might produce better fruit than a Packer or Steeler nation. Just a thought. :)

Peace and all good,
Leslie