Stupor Bowl Sunday

In the spirit of dissent, I thought I’d celebrate Super Bowl Sunday by offering some counterprogramming.

The Super Bowl is the hallowed American Sunday where even the most uninterested viewers find themselves compelled to play along, attending watch parties in overcrowded bars or stuffy family rooms, gawking at the modern-day gladiators, the high-dollar advertisements, the peacocking celebrities, the glitzy musical performances, all resulting in the undisputed paragon of American gaucherie, and all courtesy of one of the most powerful cultural institutions in the country (yes, we call this ‘culture’ [?!??!]), the profoundly exploitative organization known as the National Football League (NFL)—and, more to the point, courtesy of We the People, their loyal customers.

I grew up a huge fan of American football—shit, I was born in the SF Bay Area in the 1980s!—and I played and watched it regularly throughout my youth. It was a physical and often violent game from the jump, but I can honestly say that this held little appeal for me. Sure, it was a blast to organize a pickup game the day after a big rain, and to wrestle each other down into the mud. But for me it was the grace of a brilliantly-run route and the resulting reception by Jerry Rice, or the improvisation in a Steve Young scramble. The violence and hypermasculinity was merely a by-product— and for too long, I all-too-easily dismissed it and its frighteningly destructive consequences.

While the game of American football predates the league that’s popularized it, the NFL has diligently fashioned—minted—the game we know today. The NFL is a legalized cartel, a controlled and collusive marketplace which limits competition in order to drive up prices and increase revenue. In 2024, a jury in U.S. District Court found the organization guilty of violating antitrust laws and ordered them to pay a multibillion dollar settlement (this ruling was later overturned by a federal judge). For 73 years and until 2015 when public scrutiny forced their hand, the multibillion-dollar business was registered as a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization.

We’re sold the bill of goods that sports brings us together and unites communities—but any unity engendered is flimsy and frivolous, and there is overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Professional sports stadium deals disenfranchise communities when wealthy owners appropriate millions of dollars in public funds which might otherwise be used for the public good (e.g. healthcare, education, infrastructure etc) and instead use it to finance and maintain their private enterprise. Claims that these facilities spur economic growth and inject money back into the community to achieve net positive investment have been repeatedly and reliably disproven.

William C. Rhoden’s 40 Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete was an early awakening for me, illuminating the way in which modern sports leagues—and the NFL in particular as the planet’s largest and most profitable sports league—can be seen as extensions of the plantation, complete with Owners (as of today, there are ZERO black majority owners in the NFL) watching over their fields, peddling and trading in (mostly Black) bodies.

Then came the CTE revelations—despite the NFL’s dogged attempts to deny and downplay the issue. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy is a progressive disease linked to repeated head trauma. Over the years, we’ve seen numerous suicides by former players, some of whom—like Dave Duerson—recognized the import of his plight and shot himself in the chest after directing his family to donate his brain to science. Per an article by Andrew Lawrence in The Guardian: “Of the 376 former NFL player brains that the center has examined since 2008, it has found CTE in 345 cases. By contrast, BU researchers found only one instance of CTE in a 2018 survey of the general public, and even that sample came from a former college football player.” More than 4500 players have filed suit against the league for concealing dangers associated with the game; in 2013, the league agreed to a landmark $765m settlement with former players, one that stipulated no admission of liability and limited compensation for CTE claims.

Before I’d ever heard of CTE, I vividly remember watching the O.J. Simpson trial play out, and the talk of how all that violence on the field would naturally beget violence off of it. Domestic violence is rampant throughout the NFL; despite the league’s ostensible commitment to address it, it has allowed players arrested and charged with brutal assaults on women and children to continue playing the game. And studies suggest that NFL game days see a pronounced increase in domestic violence incidents, usually targeting women.

Furthermore, the NFL has come under repeated fire for its health insurance and disability benefits plans. The league grants health insurance for five years to former players whose tenure in the league was a minimum of three years (the average NFL career is 3.3 years). In 2023, a group of 12 former players sued the organization, alleging a pattern of denying disability benefits.

And then there’s the ‘paid patriotism’: a 2015 report from the Government Accountability Office (co-written by none other than John McCain) found that the Department of Defense paid the NFL at least $6 million for military displays and promotion disguised as patriotic tribute. So all that solemn flag-waving and military spectacle? The God Bless America and the flyover, pumping copious pollutants into the atmosphere? Just a good ol’ American taxpayer-funded transfer of wealth.

At this uniquely precarious moment in history, our government is enacting the previously-inconceivable nightmare of militarily-occupied American cities. And the Super Bowl is yet another excuse to deploy a literal army, making Santa Clara the most militarized city in the country at present.

An appreciable number of scholars and other experts now agree that the United States is backsliding into autocracy and potential dictatorship. The ability of our fellow citizens to organize and resist, in Minnesota and beyond, is encouraging—and it must continue. Per Scott Galloway and his Resist and Unsubscribe movement, the most effective way we can thwart this regime’s continued assault on our nation’s values is through the markets. And if there’s one day that typifies the luridness of late-stage Capitalism and epitomizes everything that’s destined to doom us, it’s Super Bowl Sunday. So if you’re reading this and care to capitalize upon your own power as an informed citizen, pocket a couple cold ones, grab a heaping plate of nachos, and peace the f*ck out.