Lyric from: B****, Don't Kill My Vibe from the album Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
Written By: Kendrick Duckworth, Mark Spears, Robin Braun, Vindahl Friis, Lykke Schmidt
Performed By: Kendrick Lamar
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| Photo: Richard Sherman and Peyton Manning, courtesy of John Leyba/Getty Images |
It happens in two days and, I hope
I can enjoy it in peace.
And since the "it" I'm
referring to is the Super Bowl, "in peace" is defined here as a room
full of excited, loud and rowdy football fans arguing over the ref's last call,
who ate the last seasoned wing and who cut that last book.
Yes, that's how I take my Super
Bowl Sundays, thunderously done with a lot of friends, chicken and some rise
and fly Spades on the side.
On the heels of an American
tragedy, however, our take on sports is that they are our ever-dependable great
escape, the endearing pastimes that unify a nation and help us to forget our
troubles for a brief moment.
And I do mean a very brief moment.
The fact of the matter is that the
sports landscape has, over time, become a very fertile breeding ground for
examination of the most troubling ills of society and, very often, what we
learn about each other in the process doesn't feel very endearing at all.
It is too much to ask, though,
that I don't have to learn any of that stuff for Super Bowl XLVIII?
Listen, I know, I'm part of the
problem. I've used this sports blog to scrutinize human behaviors and
perspectives but, it only took 12 days (and counting) of non-stop discussion of Richard Sherman to help me understand that I need a break from all that.
I know that racism is still an
issue in this country so I didn't need the Sherman incident to let me know how
divided we're still falling.
Jesse Jackson once famously said
something to the effect of if you don't know you're black when you wake up in
the morning, you will most certainly know it by 5 p.m. This has
indeed been true in my life but, I hate when my love of sports exposes me to
the perpetrating proof point of the day.
Worse yet, our dissection of the
Sherman incident has forced me to consider all sorts of new and decidedly
un-fun stuff these past two weeks on the countdown to my favorite Sunday of the
year, the most comical of which has been whether being black makes me more
prone to obnoxious, boisterous and braggadocious celebrations.
It has been a contemplative few
years in sports as a whole. Murder suicide, bullying and homophobia paired with
the usual domestic violence, PED and drunk driving suspects have revealed
sports' true cultural relevance as one that, instead of an escape from, is
really a national platform for reality.
But a girl can dream right? And
right now I'm dreaming about hearing someone utter the age-old canned response
of "it's all about the game" and then having all of the sports fans
in the universe conspire to make that statement one of fact for Sunday's mega
event.
But just in case you need a little
guidance, here are two more things I will be very happy to not have to learn on
Sunday:
1) If Denver loses: Peyton Manning
has a psychological proclivity for losing big games.
(Maybe Seattle was just better
that day.)
2) If Seattle loses: The
"black quarterback" style of play can't win the big game. (Maybe
Denver just had a better game plan.)
In the end, I'm hoping we'll be
discussing Xs and Os.
I know, that is wishful thinking
but, sometimes dreams come true.
And for Sunday's victor, Super
Bowl XLVIII will be proof of that-- even if it comes with some tough lessons
learned along the way.
