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7.29.2005
Monday Night Football - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia People who know me well will think it odd that I've become a NFL football watcher. This is because of my quite vocal opposition to football of any kind that resulted from having it rammed down my throat all through my high school years. This is common in Oklahoma where I have to be careful to avoid the traffic jam in the middle of nowhere as people stream into the Broken Arrow football games on Friday nights. But, I do have fond memories of watching football, especially Monday Night Football. It seemed like a welcome departure to other prime time television programming which always seems to consist of drivel, either of the sitcom or crime show varieties. Lately as I was reading up on the upcoming season I learned, belatedly, that MNF will be leaving free TV and heading over to the dark side of pay TV, ESPN, to be precise. I did not know that. I'm disappointed because I can't see myself paying for TV any time in the near future. My parents do, and I might be tempted to head over there some time to watch a game or two. But MNF was great because it offered a good alternative to bad network programming. Now, its just another offering in the wide world of cable. Personally, I marvel at the semingly limitless abilities of cable to provide such bad, bland, uninteresting programming when given so much time and space to do so. MTV has managed to take a winning concept, playing music videos, and has turned it into a weird brand of pop cultural programming that delights in promoting the utter meaninglessness of american youth culture. Cable news shows have become conduits for political marketing firms to push their latest memes and smears. When real news happens they act like its a vegas show, with theme songs and swooshing graphics. Somewhere in the mix of programming you might be privy to some actual information squished between bloviating talking heads. I think what I like about football (and sports in general) is that there is so little room for commercialization. I'm not talking about the surrounding hype of the show, which is just another vehicle to promote products and image, but the game itself. I'm not sure about the rest of you, but what I find most tiring about the modern "American Way of Life" is the way in which we are constantly bombarded with messages about who we should be. Everyone in the marketing profession wants to shape the way we think about ourselves. I feel like I'm always being recruited to join some sort of lifestyle cult. My initial gut reaction to anything that feels forced upon me, is rejection, then skepticism. Eventually I'll start to wonder if there is anything good about this thing that seems so "necessary" for me to participate in. Ocassionally, I'll find something worthwhile that I can pick out from amongst the hype and enjoy. Such that I can find ways to enjoy football, or Nascar, without buying into the lifestyle mentality that is supposed to accompany such activities. I can watch Nascar without feeling like I have to accept the pro-militarism prevalent in the broadcasts. I can enjoy football without feeling the need to grill meat and swill bad beer. Good beer yes, bad beer... well, maybe if its free. |
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