Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Don't Let "Deflategate" Let the Air Out of Our Super Bowl FUN!!


“If it isn’t any fun, why bother?”        --Ben Howell Davis

I don't know about you but when it comes to the Super Bowl, I just want to have fun.  That's it. Nothing more. Nothing less.

When Super Bowl XLIX kicks off this Sunday night at 6:30 pm and the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks, I'm only hoping to experience one vital and grace-filled and oh so necessary human emotion: happiness. Along with that, laughter and smiles and excitement and joy and community. 

It all comes down to the fun.

To gather together with family and friends on a cold and dark winter evening. To sit by a fire and get caught up in the excitement of the game, a game.  A play filled competition which really, finally, has absolutely nothing at stake. Nothing important or profound or earth shaking or life changing will occur because of who wins and who loses come February 1st.  The Super Bowl is kind of "super", but not so super that the outcome will shift the course of history or cure a deadly disease or mend a broken heart or help the powerless or increase the faith of millions.  No.

Instead, in preparation for Sunday, this is what I'm doing. I'm stripping away all the hype associated with the Super Bowl, "Deflategate" especially. ENOUGH ALREADY! Dismissing as so much hot air all the drama, the media noise, the excess, the money, and the chatter. Then I'll remember that the best of professional sports always comes down to just one goal for me, as a lifelong sports fan.

To have fun. FUN!

Enjoy the entertainment of watching human beings push their physical skills to the limit, doing stuff with their bodies you and I can only watch in awe. Find a bit of escape and for one evening put aside work worries and life worries and world worries and then lose myself in an all American extravaganza, so over the top and so completely excessive that it is fun and funny at the same time. Indulge in eating way too much bad food.  Return to the reason I first enjoyed watching pro sports. Remember why I first fell in love with being a fan. 

It was and is about fun!  

So this coming Sunday I am totally psyched to watch the game and as I take in that three hours of competition, I'll recall sweet memories of the times when sports have lifted my heart a bit and just made me happy.  Given me fun. The afternoon I spent with my little sister Claire in the right field grandstand of Fenway Park, on a hot August Saturday, for a doubleheader. Who won? Who knows? But there was cold beer and lots of laughs and fun. Or the summer night in 1971 when Dad surprised me and my big brother Ed with a once in a lifetime trip to Schaefer Stadium, to watch the very first Boston Patriots game ever played in Foxboro. I will never forget that magical evening. It was beyond fun! Listening to games on the radio as I take a road trip. Turning to the newspaper sports section to check the scores. Jumping up off the couch and high fiving my Godson when there's a "SCORE!" and then watching as he learns how fun it is to be a fan.

Fun.

Funny. The difference between "fan" and "fun" is just one letter.  Not a very far distance to cover.  "Deflategate"? Not interested. I’m done with that.  I'll let other fans, other pundits, other folks worry about that stuff.

I'm just in it for the fun. GO PATS!


      

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