College Football Is Just Like Politics

I am finding myself increasingly drawn to the world of politics.  I am passionate about seeing the right thing done in society, and I am fascinated by the vast array of opinions and strategies for getting that right thing done.  I love to learn, to contend for justice, and to discuss with people who disagree with me, letting their opinions sharpen my own understanding.  I am also a passionate fan of college football, and it occurs to me that these apparently disparate human pursuits have a lot in common.  I think politics and football are similar because they both tap into deep resevoirs of emotion, and because of that they bring to the surface some of the worst and silliest examples of human competitiveness and selfishness.  In the case of football, there is rarely any real harm done (unless you are a tree on Toomer’s Corner).  In the case of politics, important conversations get hijacked by stuff that is no more useful than the slogans at a pep rally.  In an attempt to call for sanity in public debate, I present the top five reasons that college football is just like politics.

#1 Loyalty Is King  To illustrate this point, let me tell an anecdote about a conversation with an Aggie.  Discussing the potential success or failure of her team’s move to the SEC, an Aggie fan recently said to me, “You know, I don’t even care if we lose games for the next 10 years.  I just love my Aggies and I love to me in College Station.”  Now that, my friends, is the right attitude!  Hey, I bleed burnt orange, so I have no reason to like the Ags, but that doesn’t mean I can’t applaud true fanhood when I run across it.  Real fans root for their team no matter what.  People who root for whoever is good at the moment are not real fans.  People who wait for their team to be good before caring are not real fans.  The truly faithful stick it out through the hard times.  This is the attitude I myself have sought to embody as my Longhorns have stunk it up for two straight years.  The same loyalty – even from a rival – is commendable.

At least, if we are talking about football, it is commendable.  But in politics, it is destructive, and unfortunately Democrats and Republicans both act a lot like football fans, clinging stubbornly to their brand whether it is any good or not.  The more we care about politics, the easier it becomes to support someone not because they actually have good ideas, but because they are a part of Our Team, which we have supported for the last several elections – just as we root for players not because they are good or bad, but because of the jersey they wear.  Folks, we have got to wake up and realize that politics is not a game – it is a serious business that affects the lives of real people.  Competitiveness is best left at the door. I am not saying not to argue passionately about an issue.  Caring citizens should be passionate about important issues – but make sure what you’re passionate about is really the issue and not your desire to defeat another person.  Also, be sure that before disagreeing you have taken the time to truly understand the other person’s position (and a charicature of their position does NOT count).  If you are a Democrat, walk a mile in the shoes of a Republican.  If you are a Republican, walk a mile in the shoes of a Democrat.  If you want to make fun of somebody, save it for game day.

Figure 1: The 2010 Longhorns stank, but I loved them because they were my team.

#2 Fans Are The Most Illogical People On The Planet  Football fans have a terrible habit of contorting logic into the shape of a pretzel if it will make their team or conference look good.  There are many examples of this, but I will explain the point using something I will call the Conferene Comparison Conundrum.  This is when the same occurence in two different conferences is presented as evidence of precisely the opposite conclusion.  So that I will not have actual football fans giving me nasty comments, I will illustrate using two hypothetical conferences called the We-12 and the Big Them.  Let’s say the We-12 contains national-title-contending Major Univerity, who is upset by Doormat College.  For supporters of the We-12, it will be an article of faith that this proves the strength and depth of their conference.  Every week in the We-12, they will say, you have to bring your A game, because in the We-12 even Doormat College is good.  Clearly the We-12 plays the best defense in the universe, because there is no other reason Major University’s quarterback could have thrown two boneheaded pick sixes.  Meanwhile in the Big Them, the exact same thing happens, as Powerhouse U suffers a humiliating defeat at the hands of No One In Particular State.  We-12 fans will absolutely take this upset as proof that Powerhouse U sucks and has always sucked and the rest of their conference sucks and they should never have been highly ranked to begin with.  Furthermore, it is all part of a vast conspiracy, because teams from the Big Them are always overrated, and why does ESPN hate the We-12 so much?  This is the sort of ridiculous logic you will hear every Saturday in the fall, and fans of every team and conference are guilty of it.

Fans of politics are guilty of it, too.  We constantly play the game of treating our guy by one set of standards are the other side’s guy by a completely different set of standards.  The other party’s candidate’s gaffe clearly proves that he is an idiot or a racist or a communist or totally out of touch with the average American, whereas our candidate’s equally embarassing gaffe is obviously an honest mistake that is being blown out of proportion by the other side.  The fact-checking organization I like is a fearless defender of democracy, but the fact-checking organization who debunked by favorite idea is obviously biased and stupid.  We’ve got to stop acting this way.  When we refuse to admit our guy really did put his foot in this mouth, or refuse to see the value of a good idea because the other side suggested it, or claim a media bias because our party’s platform is being cross-examined by a free press, we are acting as the political equivalent of fans who boo the refs when their guy gets flagged for sitting on a receiver with the ball in the air.  It all goes back to losing our competitiveness, realizing that the most important thing is not whether Team Us gets the win, but whether the right thing ultimately gets done.

#3 A Chimpanzee Could Have Designed A Better System For Picking A National Champion  Of course, you can’t talk about the worst aspects of college football without talking about the BCS.  For anyone who does not know, this is a somewhat loony system under which two teams – and only two teams – are allowed to play for the national title.  Needless to say, it is not fun to be the #3 team in the country, who can be denied the chance to win it all despite being an awesome football team.  But even for fans who do not root for #3, the two-teams-only system is a bummer, because it denies us tht match-ups we really want to see.  What if I want to see how that quirky, gimmicky spread offense would do against a really great defense?  What if I want to see the Cinderella story from a minor conference go toe-to-toe with the big boys, even if just for grins?  What if I think that team who lost on the road by a mere field goal really might be the best team in the land?  In all of these cases, the answer the system provides is, “Sorry buddy, we only have two slots available.”

Meanwhile in the political world, we have a National Championship every four years … the presidential election.  And as with the BCS, there can be only two.  Only two parties that matter, only two candidates who stand a chance, only two points of view to be discussed.  The problem is there are a lot more than two issues, and far more complex ways of thinking about many issues than a simple for or against.  That often means that unless you are a foaming-at-the-mouth conservative or a foaming-at-the-mouth liberal, there isn’t an option on the table that really represents you.  Moderates, or even people with a strong preference who like to actually nuance their opinions, are left without a place to stand.  I mean, suppose I were (this is all hypothetical by the way) a person who is with one side on clean energy and the other side on foreign policy?  Or on one side on an issue like abortion, but on a completely unrelated note with the other side as far as government size is concerned?  What if I like one party’s jobs plan and the other party’s philosophy of a social safety net?  Am with one side on taxes and the other side on health care?  If I am any of these things, the answer the system gives me is, “Sorry buddy, we only have two slots available.  Choose between these two prepackaged sets of ideas.”  Is is a good idea to have more than two choices?  Ask an Auburn fan.

#4 Everyone Thinks God Is On Their Side I have something to say to all the football players who kneel in the endzone when they score and “give the glory to God” when they win – stop doing it.  I get that you love both football and Jesus – so do I.  I think it is really, really cool that you want to show people how important God is to you and to bring him honor in a public space.  You have great intentions, but you have got to find a better way of going about it.  I like football, but I am convinced that God does not share my obsession.  God is not focused on helping someone win the Superbowl.  Philippians 4:13 is not the reason Tim Tebow scored a lot of touchdowns.  Though it might surprise some people to hear this, pointing at the sky after a touchdown is really not much of a witness.  Every non-Christian I have ever talked to about the subject is actually turned off to Christianity by this behavior.  Here’s the deal.  Right now in this world there are tons of people who are hungry, homeless, sick, enslaved, politically imprisoned, facing torture, victims of war, victims of discrimination, stuck in poverty, dealing with depression, dealing with abuse, and a whole lot of other awful things.  When we say God loves the world and then act like he doesn’t have anything better to do than help us win at a sport we cheapen our faith and make our Savior sound like a goof-off.  It is a  case of casting God in the image of our hobbies rather than getting our hearts in line with his kingdom priorities.  And there is another problem – the other team kneels in the endzone, too.  Why should we think God is listening to our prayers for victory and not theirs?

We have an equally bad habit of thinking God is on our side in politics.  I am not saying we should not connect out faith to the issues of the day.  We should, because a faith that has nothing to say about the world’s problems is escapist and irrelevant.  But I am saying we should do it with a sense of humility about how much we have it all figured out.  In politics as well, we turn people away from faith and cheapen God’s name when we use him as a trump card to win arguments.  It is very suspicious when the Almighty just so happens to agree with all of our prejudices and opinions.  Worst are those times when referring to God in rhetoric is as fake as a thug of an athlete who “glorifies God” to a sidelines reporter. It has become popular to count the number of times a candidate or party mentions God in speeches.  Look folks, even Adolf Hitler mentioned God all the time when he spoke.  Anyone at all can say the word “God.”  The question Christians should ask of  leaders is not whether they cover themselves with a veneer of religion, but whether their policies reflect God’s compassion for the weak, whether their rhetoric reflects his insistence on truth, whether their attitude is a Christlike attitude, especially in regards to their enemies.  And there are people like that … on both sides.  I know Republican Christians who can talk intelligently, articulately, and biblically about why their faith moves them to be Republican.  I know Democratic Christians who can talk intelligently, articulately, and biblically about why their faith moves them to be Democrats.  It is good to relate our faith to the real world.  It is not good to reduce God to the size of our ideology.

Figure 2: This goober is on the Wrong Team, but Jesus loves him anyway, and I am commanded to love him, too.

#5 Sometime It Really Is Just A Game  Every fall, I have to remind myself to keep things in perspective, because I really, really like football.  I really like it when Texas wins and I really like it when OU loses.  But ultimately, none of it matters that much, becuase football is just a game.  I mean, even if your team lives the dream and wins the National Championship itself, the only thing that is going to happen is that you will get a crystal doohickey to put in your fieldhouse.  That’s it.  You won’t cure cancer.  You won’t bring about world peace.

As for politics, well … politics does matter.  Whatever you do this November, please vote.  Even if you don’t have a particularly strong preference, even if you don’t live in a swing state or district, vote.  People have alternately fought, marched, protested, been jailed, been shot with fire hoses, and gone on hunger strikes so that everyone in America could have the right to choose their leaders.  Vote.  It matters.  That being said, there is an awful lot of hyperbole about the upcoming election.  With respect to people who care a lot about their country, this is not the most important juncture in American history.  In fact, I’m not even sure it’s in the top ten.  Since the foundation of our country, we have made it through two World Wars, a Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Great Depression.  We grew from 13 misfits into the dominant world superpower, annexed most of a continent, and put a man on the moon.  We woke up to the fact that if we meant anything we said about liberty and justice, it might be kind of a good idea to stop owning black people, and maybe also let them vote and go to college.  Oh yes, and to let women vote as well.  We endured the challenges of the Industrial Revolution, the foolishness of Prohibition, and the terror of the Cold War.  We outlawed child labor and struck down the Jim Crow laws.  There is nothing going on today that is going to break a people that can do all that.  So this November, vote – but keep things in perspective.  And while you’re at it, don’t forget to love your neighbor, do all the good you personally can, be generous to those in need and gentle to the broken, to stick up for the weak, and to handle yourself with class.  Because it’s just possible – hope I’m not going out on too much of a limb here – that if a whole lot of people stepped up and lived that kind of life, it would do more good for the world than who wins any election.