In a two-for-one first for the site I bring you not one, but TWO Sermons today. So either I’ve gotten a sturdier soapbox than the year I’ve been doing this site or there is a lot to talk about in the world of religion and race this week. Earlier today I recapped all of Mitt Romney’s shady finances and business dealings with the Mormon church and now I’d to talk about that other growing cult in America: football.
Most of the major news outlets broke the story this morning that arguably the most iconic coach in college football history (I’d go with Bear Bryant but Penn State fans sure love Grandpa Joe more than their actual grandfathers) and indisputably the one with the most wins, Joe Paterno, died sometime this weekend…I guess figuring that a life without being a football coach wasn’t much of a life after all.
Now of course there won’t be any conclusive evidence that being dragged out of the head coach position he definitely would have died in killed him, but no one would argue that it helped. After all, he was part of the Penn State football program for 62 years, 46 as head coach, and died just two months after getting the boot? Who can really say that’s entirely a coincidence? I am sure an enormous part of the man must have wished his death had come just a few months earlier, so his reputation would survive untarnished and avoid all this messy pedophilia business. I am even more sure his fans think the same.
And that’s because for the vehemently rapid fans at Penn State, Joe Paterno was THE Pope of college football, which for many in Pennsylvania comes second only to Catholicism and the actual Pope…for many others, it comes first. No matter that Jerry Sandusky is a monster who operated unimpeded for years, “Leave Penn State football alone!” No matter that Joe-Pa knew about Sandusky’s bad behavior and did not go to the police, “Leave him alone!!!” No matter that the first prosecutor looking into Sandusky came up missing under extremely mysterious circumstances and was probably murdered because he was looking into Sandusky (I’ve heard of this for investigations into Rupert Murdoch or Halliburton, but some piece of shit pedophile?), “Leave Penn State football alone!!!!!!!!!”
That’s because for many college football has become a religion, and apparently one that’s even worth killing for. Sure, we can sit back and tsk-tsk at Penn State—-in a way their own students or faculty are seemingly incapable of doing—-but if the same thing had happened on, say, the University of Alabama’s campus, would they really have been more quick to act or more quick to accept blame? Hell no.
In fact, it’s hard to think of any campus in the country that has appropriately manned-up when it comes to a major scandal…and it’s not because there haven’t been plenty to choose from. Of course, college football dirty dealings and cover-ups are certainly nothing new, but the frequency of them just might be.
Something fundamental has changed in the way people watch football games and react to them. It hasn’t just become America’s new pastime (long surpassing baseball…which may be more The Dominican Republic’s game than America’s), it’s become its fastest growing cult. It’s one more distraction to keep people from focusing on real world problems, and yet its treated as important enough to kill someone over. Something where the stakes don’t really affect their lives but the outcome becomes more important than anything that actually does. Under that description maybe cult is too strong a word for football…it could now easily be a religion.
So sad!