WARGAMES
It’s Sunday and I’m feeling lazy. Come to think of it, that makes Sundays not much different from any other day of the week. That said, I really do enjoy Sundays. Coffee tastes better: As do bagels and cream cheese. The cigarette is more satisfying. The dawn has a special feeling; almost like experiencing sunrise for the first time again.
And of course, there’s football.
Now I realize that many of you humans of the female persuasion out there actually like football. Significant Otherhawk is a football fan of sorts…except she hates the college game and, adding insult to injury, roots for the PATRIOTS! (except when they play my beloved Bears…she knows too well my wrath would be unleashed at ANYONE rooting for ANYBODY but my beloveds in my presence).
But football, more than any other game, has been influenced by and is a living metaphor for war.
Think about it. What you see on the field when 22 men line up opposite one another is a miniature battlefield, a window into what Gettysburg, Waterloo, or Stalingrad must have been like. There is attack and defense. The attackers launch mini-offensives on every play, seeking to outnumber defenders on the line of scrimmage (also called the point of attack) where the offensive is aimed. There can be deception, making the defenders believe the attack is actually going to be launched somewhere else. There can be something like an airborne assault as passes are thrown over the initial line of defense and dropped into the waiting arms of a receiver. There can be mis-communication-just like on the battlefield-that results in a disaster.
For defenders, they have a first line of defense (the front 3 or 4 lineman) a second line of defense (linebackers) and a mobile reserve (safeties and cornerbacks). The job of the defenders is to counter or outguess the offense.
More than any other team sport, the coach (General) has a profound affect on the outcome. Quarterbacks used to be called “Field Generals.” This is something of a misnomer as quarterbacks today function much more like Captains or Lieutenants on the battlefield. They execute direct orders from the General and lead the men into battle. Like any good military officer, their ability to improvise either to avoid disaster or take advantage of an opportunity is of great value and often spells the difference between victory and defeat.
This idea of football being a metaphor for war in American society is not new. The left in this country has been denigrating football for nearly 40 years. I remember back in the 1980’s one particular moonbat who blamed football for what he called “the warlike nature of American foreign policy” and how peace loving the Soviets were because they played a much less brutal game; soccer.
I pointed out in an op-ed published in the Washington Post that anyone who believed soccer wasn’t a brutal game had never seen Manchester United play Liverpool or Brazil play Argentina. Those games are extraordinarily warlike, played with a viciousness rarely seen in any sport. I also wrote (none too gently as I recall) that the two most popular sports in Russia were hockey and boxing. Carrying the moonbats theory on sports reflecting the aggressive nature of the society that plays them to its extreme, that would put the Soviets somewhere between Ghengis (that’s jengis for all you Kerry lovers out there) Khan and Attila the Hun.
I don’t believe that we Americans watch football because we’re warlike. I believe we watch football because it’s fun…and it can be profitable. It’s estimated that something like $3 billion will change hands between now and the end of the Super Bowl. And starting this weekend through Super Sunday most Americans will be watching, united in a spirit of community, rooting for their favorites, and celebrating the spectacle.
HERE’S TO FOOTBALL!