I haven’t watched the Super Bowl in more than a decade. I was never a football fan, but was invited to a party last night where the game was on. Watching it made me think about how it’s a huge bread-and-circuses act, and a reflection of everything that’s wrong with America.
Glorification of Militarism
At the beginning, there was a military band, a jet fighter fly-over, and other sappy “We Support the Troops” gimmicks. Why does a show featuring a bunch of dudes fighting over an oblong ball have to incorporate militarism and imperialism? Why is it so great that the jet flyover now Features Women™ as some great sign of social progress, instead of asking why we as a country are enamored with expensive things that kill people? And not a single question about how our out-of-control military-industrial complex has fucked over millions of people in Iraq and Afghanistan, caused our national debt to balloon, has done nothing for national security, and has resulted in tens of thousands of American soldiers getting PTSD/disabled/etc.?
Government Lies and Coverups
Speaking of Support the Troops, there was a segment featuring the Pat Tillman Foundation. Tillman was a professional football player who, in a fit of patriotism after 9/11, signed up to be a soldier. He was then killed by soldiers in his own unit. The government knew about this all along, covered it up, and pinned a medal to his corpse for dying while under “enemy fire”. The general who signed off on Tillman’s medal knew he was killed by friendly fire, got found out, “apologized” and then nothing happened. Tillman was too valuable as a recruitment and patriotic PR tool for the military. And guess what? Not a whisper about any of this during the feature. The whitewashing and cover-up, to this day, is fucking sick.
Lie of Superstardom
Most, if not nearly all of the football players are from working class families. Football (and other professional sports) sells them the lie that they have a chance of becoming “ballers”, when in fact they are getting brain and other injuries that hurt for life for a very, very slim chance of becoming a professional player. For the NFL, it’s about a 0.09% chance on average. Meaning about 1/10 of 1%. In other words, you’ll have to be better than roughly 1,000 other high school football players to even make it into the NFL. And even if you do make it into the major league (NFL), the median salary of an NFL player is actually $860k/yr., which is nice, but hardly the millions that get hyped up like Tom Brady’s wealth. This is also the median salary, meaning that 1/2 of all NFL players actually make less. And after you wreck your brain and body for a few years, you don’t have any other transferable skills. You’re a highly paid worker, a professional gladiator, with a very limited useful life. Worse yet, you likely have not had any financial education, so after you make it big, you’ll have a big target painted on your back like a lottery winner, and every mooch, third cousin twice removed, and scammer will look to pump your ego while trying to milk you out of your money.
Kids are the blood and guts that get fed into this meat grinder, risk uncompensated life-altering injuries in the process, for a shot at this dream. “Oh but sports build character” or “It keeps kids off the streets”, they say. So does learning a trade and working a job for good pay. So does learning to start your own business. So does volunteering to help the poor and the elderly. And you have a much lower chance of breaking your neck doing so. It’s exploitation through and through.
Rihanna’s Half Time Show
Have you noticed that none of her songs are about socioeconomic inequality, an unfair tax system, or celebrate hard work? Instead, they’re pretty much about clubbing, fucking, and similar “uncontroversial” subjects. Can’t get the masses riled up about wage theft and inflation now. No, we have to sell the dream that a girl from a working-class broken home can make it big into a multi-millionaire singing superstar by singing empty songs with snappy beats. How many girls think that they will get a record deal (and not get screwed over in the process or exploited after they become big like Britney Spears) vs. how many turn out to become like Rihanna? What “football” is to poor boys is what “singer” is to poor girls.
End Racism End Zone Message
“End racism” is an empty bullshit slogan, considering how it’s really exploitation at all levels that’s the problem. Promoting black and brown people to Starbucks management and teaching them to bust unions isn’t progress. It's a fucking sick cycle of exploitation.
Commercials
I guess a big draw of watching the Super Bowl is to see what the best a corporation can do for $7 million in 30 seconds. I guess it’s a fun exercise. But have you noticed that none of what they’re advertising (sports betting, new cars, yet another superhero movie, etc.) is essential to people’s daily lives? It’s a blatant consumerism and complete bullshit.
It Doesn’t Matter Who Wins
Have you ever considered that no matter which team wins, it doesn’t affect your life? In fact, your life is probably slightly worse. It’s politically popular (bread and circuses) but hardly contributes to a city’s economy. And then consider how many subsidies how many subsidies are involved in building a stadium, and keeping a professional sports team (an entertainment corporation) in a city. How much pollution and waste goes into a gigantic concrete structure, with a limited lifespan, that gets used only a few times, for a few hours each time, per year. And these sports teams (entertainment companies) can, and do, move when they get a better subsidy offer from another city – all at taxpayer expense. “It brings people together”, “it helps build community pride”, yeah, I guess selling people the dream that they are “winners” (even though they go back to work for the same shitty companies and bosses on Monday morning) when “their team” wins (mind you the players don't remember who you are except as someone who wants an autograph, and the owners see you as a market and not a person) is worth something – at least to the ownership class.
Many rust belt cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Cleveland are struggling, but somehow a flashy NFL team glitter glamor makes it all better? Bullshit. How about fixing our aging infrastructure? How about giving rail workers what they need so that we don’t end up with a chemical Chernobyl in Ohio? How about giving people real opportunities to develop themselves instead of more lottery sales and more taxes on alcohol and cigarettes which workers use to cope with their miserable lives? There are other, better ways to build community pride, like having people work less to survive, and creating programs that encourage community and civic participation.
Can’t have any of that though, it might actually make people’s lives better.