My Response to "I believe in God, America and the Packers"

If you have yet to read Katleen's post about football being the American religion, I suggest you do.

Great post, Kathleen.

It is not just Americans who are caught up in football fever. I too spend every Sunday after Labour Day to the first Sunday in February watching the National Football League. It is a ritual for my father, brother and I to don our “Sunday best” – my Dad in his customary Peyton Manning, #18 Indianapolis Colts jersey; my brother in one of his many jerseys, usually his #82 Jacksonville Jaguars Jimmy Smith jersey; me in my Detroit Lions Calvin Johnson #81 jersey – and watch football all Sunday. Funny thing is, my Dad is a Bills fan and I have cheered for the 49ers for over 20 years, yet neither of us wear a jersey of a player from our favourite team. What fantasy football can do to a person. But I digress

Without a doubt football on Sunday has become somewhat of a religious endevour for me and my family. We even have cousins and aunts and uncles come over to enjoy the festivities with us from week to week. We are all doing our best to indoctrinate the newest member of our family – my five-month-old nephew – into the cult of the NFL. In short, we all do worship at the Temple of the NFL. It is customary for us to shun all other responsibilities from 11:00AM Sunday morning to almost midnight. Perhaps calling it our family's religion would not be that far off. None of us identify with any other religion, but we all identify ourselves as football fans.

Having said that, and knowing that the NFL is the most profitable professional sports league in the world, I do not know if using the Super Bowl-viewing numbers is an accurate way to gage whether football is the American religion. Notice in my previous paragraphs how I did not mention my mother. That is because she hates football. Yet, without fail, there she is on Super Sunday watching the Packers take on the Steelers. The spectacle of the Super Bowl brings out a lot of viewers that do not normally follow or care about the NFL. That is not to say that the NFL does not have a devout following. They very much do. Perhaps, however, it would be more accurate to look at the weekly television numbers from the regular season to see how large this American religion is.

In any event, fantastic post, and it was nice to see someone other than me talk about sports for once.