Super? Well, yes and no!

Game’s done! Season is over (finally!)America’s annual orgy of football closes with another exciting Super Bowl. It’s Monday morning again and I’m wondering if I can somehow wrestle an article out of this subject. It’s not as if the game itself will go unreported – the national media will see to that. Nor is it to be suspected that I will have anything “new” or “fresh” to add to the usual dialogue that follows this annual spectacular event. But then I DO love football and I’m hardly ever to be found without an “opinion or comment”. Put those facts together and there is a chance that I can wring 700 words from them.

I really should volunteer once again what a sports ‘nut’ I am. Name the season and I can tell you which sport I am following. In high school I played football (too small), basketball (too short), and ran track (too slow). In the summers I played American Legion baseball (pretty good here; probably my best sport as far as my abilities went). I dabbled in tennis (never very good) and later in life took up golf (it’s best I not comment on my game else I bring myself to tears and cause my readers spasms of laughter!) In college I had to content myself with intramural play since my weekends were taken with church work. After seminary my only active sports outlet was church-league softball which I played into my 40’s and quit only because injuries became more frequent and took longer to overcome. Golf remained for many years an endeavor in futility every couple of weeks until I moved to Maryland and gave it up because my job would allow me to play only on Saturday and I said “no way”! But through it all and over the years, football always remained my favorite sport.

Doing graduate work in the University of Alabama in the 50’s introduced me to the excitement and grandeur of college football and I was “hooked” for life. Returning to Tuscaloosa after seminary days where I would pastor a church for several years, I was privileged to be a witness to, and participant in, some of the “glory days” of the Crimson Tide under Coach Bear Bryant in the 1960’s. In later personal moves from Alabama to Tennessee to Louisiana to Maryland I have never abandoned my love for, and loyalty to, the various sports programs of the University of Alabama. And it should be noted that as a personal preference, I will take college sports over professional ones anytime!!

But I digress since yesterday’s Super Bowl was to be the basis for today’s article. Perhaps it would be kosher if I admitted that our family ‘lost out’ – but not by much – in the chase for pro football’s championship this past season. Second son Jeff’s team, the New Orleans Saints, lost early in the playoffs. My team, the Baltimore Ravens, lost in their conference championship game, and first son David’s team, the New England Patriots, made it to yesterday’s game but could not pull out a last minute victory. All of our teams began the season with high hopes and good possibilities for a league championship but in professional sports, coming ‘close’ never satisfies.

I knew the game itself would be close and I felt that the Giants would win – not because they were the better team but because they were undoubtedly the “hottest” team in the playoffs. The game for me lived up to its hype: close, hard-fought, and decided in the closing minutes – glory forNew Yorkand sadness for New England (and my son).

I didn’t think too much of this year’s ‘commercials’. This part of the event has become a major part of the entire occasion. I did really enjoy, however, the one where Grandma used what amounted to a horizontal bungee rope to have an infant in her arms pluck a bag of Doritos away from a bragging older child. And don’t get me started on the halftime show with Madonna. She may be a star in the eyes of a secular nation, even if somewhat ‘over-the-hill’ at age 53, but to me she remains an epitome of what’s wrong with much in this land of ours, especially in entertainment – too ‘cheeky’ (to use a British term), too suggestive, and unnecessarily loud, glitzy, and extremely costly! (If you happen to be a fan of hers, don’t write me – better that you would pray that I see the errors of my way!)

Next year’s Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans. Because I’ve watched many games in the Super Dome there and know well the area and the people there, I may just plan to attend. Southwest Airlines will get me there without costing me an arm and a leg. There are friends I could stay with overnight and after living there 15 years I know where I can get GOOD food for a decent price. Now if I can only come up with the PRICE OF A TICKET without pawning one of my grandchildren, next year’s GEM at this time may be quite different from today’s. 

                                              Jimmy Jackson, February 6, 2012