From NPR’s great show, Only A Game. I don’t even care for sports, but enjoy this perceptive and witty show.
I wondered how long it would take us to talk about the SuperBowl. My brother, the priest stationed very near Pittsburgh, forwarded to me a mass e mail that he had received from a local print sports reporter. He was seeking ministers who planned on preaching about the SuperBowl, the context of their sermon, and if their parish planned a “black & gold event”. Although big professional sports bore me, my brother is absolutely annoyed by the importance that sports plays in society. I am sure that he did not even respond but I can imagine that my brother could plan some big scheme, he’s very creative, invite the reporter for a personal interview and then just slap him silly while he explained that sports and belief in God were not the same thing, no matter how much people were confused and would like church to be a sporting event. Oh, he would go off. He has a degree in journalism. He would write that man’s column in his blood.
(Our Dad was a track star in his youth and a great athlete even into his senior years. He only umpires now. As children, he told us, “Do not watch sports on TV. Play sports.”)
Sports and Sundays have a long tradition. Get a group of folks together at the Coliseum and a few kitty cats and it’s a party. Go Packers!