"It's Like Mardi Gras, but Without the Fun"
56 or 59 weeks after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans Saints played at the Louisianna Superdome for the first time. ESPN carried the game on Monday Night Football, they beat the Falcons, and everybody was happy--Michael Vick and Reggie Bush on the primetime game. And in typical fashion, media coverage blew this game way out of proportion and made it out to be more important than it really was. ESPN, as much as I love that company for all the time I've wasted in my life watching their programming, is strictly to blame here.
Football, no matter how much you love the game, is not important. It's a game. Last night featured two 2-0 divisional rivals, with marquee names on both sides. It was a game that featured plenty of fantasy football implications. But that's it. It was not a statement to the rebirth of New Orleans, or the fighting spirit of its people. It was not a benchmark of reconstruction progress for the city and its surrounding areas. It was a football game.
Ever since the falling of the World Trade Center towers 5 years ago, sports has taken itself too seriously. With the Mets and the Yankees taking the field wearing NYPD and FDNY hats as part of their uniforms, Rudy Guliani throwing out first pitch after first pitch, and George Bush himself attending damn near every game like a native New Yorker, Sports began to tell people that they were part of the healing process, an outlet for people to celebrate and forget--if only momentarily--the horrors of the things that happened. Well, Sports was wrong--they're just games. Nothing more, nothing less. The Yankees and Mets did not get anybody into new homes, recover lost relatives, or reconstruct lives. They played baseball games, and people watched.
Now the Superdome has been reopened. Media types got so lost in the hype lastnight that they were referring to the dome as "beautiful". Most people in this area will tell you that no amount of money will make any dome "beautiful". It's an indoor stadium in a nice-weather area with Field Turf--the very same surface that carpets our Metrodome. Find anyone to tell you that that looks beautiful.
The State of Louisiana and Tom Barton, owner of the Saints, used approximately $185 million to refurbish and reopen the Superdome. One resident (unnamed, of course, because nobody really said this but ESPN needed something to run with) stated "now that we've rebuilt our Big House, it's time to rebuild the rest of the houses." Well, with $185 million getting distributed to housing developments and such to reconstruct neighborhoods, people now without houses could've watched the Saints play at LSU from their living rooms on TV. $185 million builds a lot of houses.
I understand how sports can be a momentary distraction--I watch more than the average person not getting paid to do so. But to give a game in Week 3 the importance of a playoff game or the importance of getting one's life back together is absolutely horrible. I should've seen this coming while watching the Vikings and the Redskins on MNF during Week 1. ESPN spent a lot of money into aquiring MNF, and are working as hard as they can to make sure everyone knows about it. Highlight packages from an otherwise uneventful game (if you're not a fan of either team) were replayed over and over and over all throughout the week. Granted, it was Week 1 and ESPN's first MNF game, but still, it was definately overkill. Looking down the road, I should have been prepared for this one.
I'm glad the Saints won, because I like their team (well, Reggie Bush and Drew Brees). I watched the game because I had Warrick Dunn for one of my fantasy teams and was going against him in another. Do I feel like my conscience is clean and I can put all the horrible details of Hurricane Katrina behind me, now that the Loisiana Superdome has reopened and the Saints are no longer vagabonds? No, but ESPN tells me its a huge step.
Football, no matter how much you love the game, is not important. It's a game. Last night featured two 2-0 divisional rivals, with marquee names on both sides. It was a game that featured plenty of fantasy football implications. But that's it. It was not a statement to the rebirth of New Orleans, or the fighting spirit of its people. It was not a benchmark of reconstruction progress for the city and its surrounding areas. It was a football game.
Ever since the falling of the World Trade Center towers 5 years ago, sports has taken itself too seriously. With the Mets and the Yankees taking the field wearing NYPD and FDNY hats as part of their uniforms, Rudy Guliani throwing out first pitch after first pitch, and George Bush himself attending damn near every game like a native New Yorker, Sports began to tell people that they were part of the healing process, an outlet for people to celebrate and forget--if only momentarily--the horrors of the things that happened. Well, Sports was wrong--they're just games. Nothing more, nothing less. The Yankees and Mets did not get anybody into new homes, recover lost relatives, or reconstruct lives. They played baseball games, and people watched.
Now the Superdome has been reopened. Media types got so lost in the hype lastnight that they were referring to the dome as "beautiful". Most people in this area will tell you that no amount of money will make any dome "beautiful". It's an indoor stadium in a nice-weather area with Field Turf--the very same surface that carpets our Metrodome. Find anyone to tell you that that looks beautiful.
The State of Louisiana and Tom Barton, owner of the Saints, used approximately $185 million to refurbish and reopen the Superdome. One resident (unnamed, of course, because nobody really said this but ESPN needed something to run with) stated "now that we've rebuilt our Big House, it's time to rebuild the rest of the houses." Well, with $185 million getting distributed to housing developments and such to reconstruct neighborhoods, people now without houses could've watched the Saints play at LSU from their living rooms on TV. $185 million builds a lot of houses.
I understand how sports can be a momentary distraction--I watch more than the average person not getting paid to do so. But to give a game in Week 3 the importance of a playoff game or the importance of getting one's life back together is absolutely horrible. I should've seen this coming while watching the Vikings and the Redskins on MNF during Week 1. ESPN spent a lot of money into aquiring MNF, and are working as hard as they can to make sure everyone knows about it. Highlight packages from an otherwise uneventful game (if you're not a fan of either team) were replayed over and over and over all throughout the week. Granted, it was Week 1 and ESPN's first MNF game, but still, it was definately overkill. Looking down the road, I should have been prepared for this one.
I'm glad the Saints won, because I like their team (well, Reggie Bush and Drew Brees). I watched the game because I had Warrick Dunn for one of my fantasy teams and was going against him in another. Do I feel like my conscience is clean and I can put all the horrible details of Hurricane Katrina behind me, now that the Loisiana Superdome has reopened and the Saints are no longer vagabonds? No, but ESPN tells me its a huge step.
posted by Zach Brown at 1:02 PM
2 Comments:
Nice post.
As much as we all love ESPN, they certainly have all of the typical characteristics of big media. They do all the marketing and self promotion crap thats really easy to pick out if you look for it.
We deal with the crap though because they have really good content (for the most part). I do miss the NHL on ESPN though.
Me too--I miss Gary Thorne getting way too excited over a goal. OLN just doesn't cut it.
Thanks for the comment. There was supposed to be a very long Twins post, too, but Blogger didn't publish it, so I'll have to redo it.
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