Beauty and the Beast

I don't care who won, okay?

Yeah, I was marginally more behind New England than New York, but that was mostly because I wanted to see a team -- any team -- have a complete season without a loss. But the fact that the Patriots and their prettyboy quarterback lost to New York matters as little to me as struggles of the working poor matter to the President.

I'm told that the mouth-breather Eli Manning pulled off some amazing plays, especially in the final quarter, but aside for some respect for his ability to play a difficult game under tremendous pressure, I just don't care.

I say I was "told" about it because I didn't watch the whole game. I watched the first half, and that was enough to remind me why I don't really like American football. Namely, because it so often becomes a monstrous demonstration of just how inhuman some humans can be. I'm all in favour of hard-fought competitions, but it's very easy to cross the line between competitive sportsmanship and something cruel and sadistic. Tom Armstrong, the All-American Boy, has been replaced by Grendl.

During a play, to knock a guy from the other team down to keep him from scoring is part of the game. After the play, to continue trying to crush the guy into the ground or to push him down again when he starts to get up just seems to be beyond the line.

To me, the best sports are those where the players are disciplined enough to work like Hell to win but never lose control of themselves during or after the game. Where they hate to lose but still have enough class to congratulate the winner on having played well.