The chaos of football

We attempt to rationalize our chaotic life in many ways, through religion, government, show up at 7, go home at 4. Football has a particular chaos, unruly, high testosterone, willful men with unique talents trying to move an oddly shaped ball toward a goal through wind and weather with zebras trying to enforce arbitrary rules (when did face guarding become the go to pass defense though sometimes called interference when overdone—I think it was the Legion of Doom (if you interfere on every play they will get tired calling it))?

Trying to put a moral order on the chaos of football is a fool’s errand. So a convicted cheater, Sean Payton, gets to the nfc playoff game partially by a phantom interference call on Haden and is prevented from going to the super bowl by an egregious non-call. Just as in ordinary life where bad guys often finish first, and good guys end up on the trash heap (as in romance, where women love the bad boys as sex objects then count on the good boys to pick up the shards of family left from their choices) there is no justice in football games.

Think of a football game as a time delimited window on chaos where the team ahead when the fat lady sings wins, regardless of what is “right” “just” or “fair”.

 

"Waiter: I'll have what he's having!" I believe BeaverBoy you're having what we call in the corporate world, an "out of office experience". You're channeling a hybrid Howard Cosell and Dennis Miller stream of conscientiousness. Regardless, I followed every twist and turn of your soliloquy and cannot dispute the logic nor findings. Carry on Sir.

PS 1. I'm surmising you're from Beaver PA and not just expressing a fantasy with your screen name.

PS 2: Throwing in Beaver PA and Dennis Miller plus your Haden reference makes this Pennsylvania and, in turn, Steeler related.

 

Like Mojave, I get what you're saying and agree with your conclusion. As a further observation, I've always been fascinated with how the NFL is viewed. You take 2 reporters who watch the same game and at the end of that game, where a FG is going to be attempted with time running out, you take the reporeres and separate them. One is shown that the FG is made, the other see it missed. When you look at their reports about the game, you wonder if they were even at the same game. All that matters is the W, no if's and's or but's.