Super Bowl Is About Everything But Football
The NFL recently named its first chief kindness officer, someone named Dhar Mann. Apparently, Mann is a big deal on YouTube, a popular creator and influencer.
Had the league named “Manfred Mann” to this new position, lyrics from Do Wah Diddy Diddy would have popped into my head. I’d remember the girl I “liked” in grade school, “holdin’ my hand just as natural as can be,” and it would all make sense.
But most of my life took place at a time when people were influenced by friends, neighbors, teachers and real-life experiences. They shared ideas and physically interacted with other people. You know - human beings. They were influenced by a creator, to be sure, but it wasn’t a YouTube channel.
Now, people spend quality time interacting with a screen. Of course, that sentiment immediately throws up dismissal flags from the younger audience. They believe values and principles come with born-on dates.
That said, give Mann credit for zeroing in on the reason the Super Bowl has become so insufferable. In introducing Chief Kindness, the NFL characterizes Mann’s job as an effort “to spread sportsmanship and positivity, both on and off the field, through storytelling.”
For instance, there is the inspiring tale of Rae Carruth, the former Carolina wide receiver who did some 20 years in prison for conspiring to murder his pregnant girlfriend. And there was the positivity of former linebacker Lawrence Taylor, who faced numerous arrests for drugs and sexual misconduct with a minor.
After all, as Mann proclaimed, “the Super Bowl has always been about more than football.”
He’s absolutely right. The Super Bowl is about more than football, which is why it’s so offensive to those who would prefer sports just stay in their own lane. But the Super Bowl isn’t nearly about sports as it is programming, ratings, virtue signaling and revenues.
The NFL championship game used to be about football. Many people consider the 1958 championship to be the “Greatest Game Ever Played.” The halftime entertainment for that classic was the Baltimore Colts Marching Band, featuring majorettes in red leotards and reindeer antlers.
You can’t teach that.
Even some of the early Super Bowls were significant games, such as Joe Namath’s called shot in 1969, i.e. the New York Jets 16-7 upset of the Colts. The halftime gig for that went to the Florida A&M University marching band - you know, the kind of show that is part and parcel with a FOOTBALL GAME!
Times are different. The halftime show for this Super Bowl is headlined by “Bad Bunny.” That’s a music act, not a movie starring Billy Bob Thornton as a drunk bunny hiding Easter eggs.
The adverse hare is tight with the LBGTQ+ community and often performs in gender nonconforming fashion. Does that say “football” or what? You probably recall Todd O'Connor, Pat Arnold, Carl Wollarski and Bob Swerski listening to Bad Bunny as they ate bratwurst, drank beer and discussed “Da Bears.”
Bunny excluded the U.S. from his recent world tour out of fear Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would raid his shows. NFL officials have confirmed no ICE operations are planned for the Super Bowl. But it would not be surprising if Mr. McGregor shows up with a rake.
Bottom line, you won’t hear Eye Of The Tiger or Seven Nation Army during halftime on Sunday. But you might hear Dakiti, so feel free to sing along. After all, to be fair to Gen Z and young millennial types, the Puerto Rican born Bunny just became the first Latin artist to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language album at the Grammys. So it’s not like Bunny has no credibility.
Perhaps the NFL should consider hiring a Chief of Language Officer, who might introduce more fans to the genre. Maybe “Choose Spanglish” should be an end zone message, sponsored by Rosetta Stone.
In recent years, the end zone message has been “End Racism,” but not this year. Apparently, it worked, racism has ended. That, or it has become acceptable once more to begin racism. Regardless, the messaging has changed, this year’s end zone will say “It Takes All Of Us” and “Choose Love.”
Players have had “Choose Love” printed on the back of their helmets throughout the season, so that’s nothing new. Presumably, the league wants to hammer the message home, in case there are still hateful people out there who have yet to make the choice. They might come to Jesus during the Super Bowl.
They will choose love, realize “it takes all of us,” and pass the pretzel bites.
It’s a shame the department of kindness didn’t exist when Dick Butkus, Conrad Dobler or Jim Brown were playing. They would kind of rip your head off, kind of break your ankle, kind of run right over you. They were the epitome of kind.
As part of the kind incentive, Mann and the NFL has launched a “Be Kind To Your Rival” campaign, encouraging fans to post nice things about the opposing teams on social media, to “show respect and acknowledge their efforts.” You know, like all the players do.
I mean, c’mon. The entire thing sounds like it was concocted in the conference room at Dundee Mifflin, the brain child of Michael Scott. Yes, in the end, obviously, this is all about making money. But that doesn’t make it any more palatable.
We swallow this stuff all day, every day - preaching, postering, protest, politics. Our culture is saturated with it.
Historically, sports was the great escape, the safe haven, the one aspect of our lives where people could come together, play on the same team, root for the same team, and respect those who played and rooted for another.
Inside clubhouses, inside stadiums, in front of screaming fanatics, all the noise stopped.
Not anymore. Now sports feels it has to embrace the noise, hit fans over the head with it, leave a “message.”
For those of us who just want to enjoy the sports, it’s not kind.