Outside
Oberlin
Super
Bowl XXXVI Greatest This Writer Has Seen
by Colin Smith
Warning:
the column you are about to read is biased.
There.
Glad I got that out of the way.
Hi,
Im your new sports editor, and as you may hear me mention
a few times (just a few) over the next couple months, Im from
New England.
So
was that just the greatest Super Bowl ever, or what? (Correct answer:
yes.)
Okay,
maybe not ever. I have to admit, I havent seen all 36 of them.
But definitely the best one in my lifetime. (I turned 20 this week,
by the way. Happy birthday to me). Hands down. No questions asked.
You can make your arguments for Super Bowl XXV with the Giants and
Bills, or Super Bowl XXXIV with the Rams and Titans, both of which
went right down to the wire. But for last minute finishes you cant
beat what you just saw on Sunday:
Rams
score a touchdown to tie the game at 17 at 13:30 in the fourth quarter.
After a short kick return, the Patriots start their drive at their
own 17, with 1:21 to play and no time outs. No time outs! The two
minute warning has come and gone; the only way to stop the clock
is to spike the ball and lose a down. We see Tom Brady, a 24-year-old
quarterback who had never started an NFL game before this season,
lead his team 53 yards in 74 seconds to set up a 48-yards field
goal attempt for Adam Vinatieri. And he drilled it to keep this
from being the first Super Bowl to go to overtime. Instead, it became
the first Super Bowl ever to end with a winning field goal as time
expired.
If
that drive isnt enough to seal it, here are some other reasons
why this Super Bowl was the best in at least 20 years:
Big
Plays:
Okay,
theres the 48-yarder to win it (not exactly a chip shot).
Then how about that huge 23-yard pass to Troy Mr. Open
Brown? Did you see the coverage? Nothing but Rams around him and
he manages to find the foot of open space and Brady gets it right
to him.
If
the excitement of that drive wasnt too much for you, you probably
remember that Kurt Warner pass to Ricky Proehl that tied the game.
Proehl turned a 15-yard gain into a 26-yard touchdown reception
with some great moves eluding tackles.
The
sweet catch by David Patten on a pass from Tom Brady at the end
of the first half. The hit that Antwan Harris put on Proehl to cause
a fumble and set up that pass.
And of course, theres the play that got the ball rolling for
New England. Mike Vrabel went right through the Rams offensive line
to hit Warner and set up his touchdown pass into the hands of Pats
cornerback Ty Law.
As
an added bonus, we got a big play that wasnt. Early in the
fourth quarter, fourth and goal from the three for the Rams, Kurt
Warner starts to scramble. BANG! Roman Phifer nails him, fumble,
and Tebucky Jones runs it back 97 yards for a touchdown. Too bad
about that holding penalty, but its really something to think
that the Pats were one penalty away from a blowout, huh?
Score
Changes:
The
Rams had a 3-0 lead, the Pats werent looking so hot, then
an interception-touchdown later the Pats were ahead 7-3. It looks
like its still going to be close at half-time but another
Rams turnover and Patriots touchdown later its 14-3 at the
half. It was looking good for the Pats, but when have the Rams ever
been out of it? So of course they were going to come back with two
unanswered touchdowns to tie it after being down 17-3. And then
Vinatieris field goal... oh yeah, youve heard about
that already.
Shock
Value:
A.k.a.
UPSET. Fourteen points? Okay, the point-spread was ridiculous, but
this was still the greatest upset I can ever recall. Any sport.
Other sportswriters have proclaimed it the second biggest Super
Bowl upset in history, second only to the Jets over the Colts in
Super Bowl III. Ill buy that.
Some
people, including one of the Rams, have said that the better team
didnt win this game. But theyre missing the point. The
better team did win. The Patriots played as a team in every aspect
of the game. They passed up on individual introductions all season
long to come out onto the field as a team. They all acted with one
goal, under one game plan. They didnt have the big stars or
the big hype can anybody outside of New England name more
than five Pats? but every player knew his role and played
it for the team.
Ahhh.
Greatest Super Bowl in 20 years.
Did
I mention that Im from New England?
My
team just won the Super Bowl! My team is the world champion!
Youll
forgive me for gushing. This has never happened to me before. We
New Englanders are long-suffering fans, so we might be acting a
little crazy for awhile. The sports portions of our brains are filled
with words like curse, Bambino, and Buckner.
The Patriots were the oldest professional sports team to never win
a championship. Forty-two years after their inception theyve
won the first New England championship in my memory. Damn, its
a good time to be a sports fan.
Greatest
Super Bowl of my life.
Sports:
They Are Not Just Fun & Games Anymore
by Channing Joseph
Lately,
Ive been considering whether I am psychologically prepared
for a world where sporting events have been transmuted into political
statements. If I had my druthers, I would be comfortable with seeing
them as a source of fun and friendly competition. Yet, sadly, this
no longer seems to be the case.
As I think about it, the nation we live in, for reasons most of
us are tired pondering, seems to have been changed in some fundamental
and all-encompassing way. Therefore, there is really no good reason
anyone should expect the sports realm to be the only thing untouched.
In spite of this, I was recently a bit shocked while reading somewhere
that the sold-out Super Bowl crowd was being unbelievably patient
with the long lines and Orwellian level of security at the New Orleans
Superdome. When asked why, they replied that they were determined
to go on living courageously in the face of the terrorist threat,
that regardless of the team they were rooting for, they all felt
like real patriots.
Now granted, this is quite an inspirational stance to take, and
I think few people would deny feeling a small swell of patriotism
in their hearts at such a resolute cry of American determination.
Unfortunately, this is exactly my problem with it, because I dont
want to feel patriotic right now. I dont want to automatically
feel like solidarity with my team means that I am somehow making
a statement about my resoluteness with my country. Because honestly
I am feeling quite disgusted with my country, more specifically
my government. I dont want to think that rooting for my favorite
player suddenly means that I am proud to be an American.
Now, its granted that sports have always been associated with
patriotism. That overwhelming feeling of collective agitation or
excitement that one might feel during a large, crowded game is virtually
equivalent to the emotion of national pride. This, Im sure,
has more than a little to do with the ritual of singing the Star-Spangled
Banner at games.
I learned a bit more about this relationship between sport and nation
when I attended a soccer game in Costa Rica a few years ago. It
was the official Costa Rican mens team against the United
States mens team, and I was actually relieved that the Costa
Rican competitors were victorious. On walking out of the stadium
after the game, from the snickers and insults the Costa Rican attendees
threw at our rather large group of Americans, I felt that things
may actually have gotten violent with us had our country taken home
the win.
This strong sense of patriotism is also an undeniable element of
the Olympic games. The teams and players represent their individual
countries of allegiance, though the ultimate idealistic intention
of the whole
event is to foster cross-cultural understanding and respect.
Unfortunately, its also granted that, despite this ideal,
sporting events have for some time had a mild association with so-called
terrorism. From the 1972 attack by Black September members on the
Munich Olympic games, to the explosion at the 1996 Atlanta games,
to the plot to blow up an antiquated nuclear reactor in Sydney,
Australia in 2002, violence during sporting events has been a concern
for some time.
Yet despite the fact that these connections between sport, patriotism,
and violent attacks have existed for quite some time, they have
now reached a point at which they are inextricably tied. Consequently,
I think we live in a world now where the on-going Salt Lake City
Olympics has the potential to reach a level of national significance
for Americans unlike much of anything that has preceded. If the
games go by uneventfully, it may be taken as a redemptive statement
about United States national security, unable to foresee even such
large-scale and fastidiously-planned events as those of Sept. 11.
If all does not go well, this may serve to aggravate Americas
already inflamed xenophobia, making its citizens even more overwhelmingly
suspicious of anyone perceived to be an outsider or foreigner, a
terrible side-effect for immigrants as well as for those people
who just look different.
My opinion is simply that this sense of newly-enlarged national
pride that Americans are feeling as a natural reaction to a recent
national tragedy is understandable and human. Yet, my ultimate concern
is that this pride potentially blocks many of the citizens of this
country from being able to step outside of their imaginary bubble
of dogmatic belief in the American governments infallibility.
Americans are already known around the world as arrogant fools.
Last semester, while traveling through Southern Africa, I was quite
heart-warmed at the support and sympathy most people showed for
my being an American during a time of nationwide mourning. I was
also surprised and shocked by the few people who expressed a sentiment
that we had had it coming to us. I felt lucky to have been away
from the country at the time because I was able to hear opinions
that were not being presented on the cable news stations. In the
end, I my belief is that this international notion of Americans
as arrogant fools may have been a significant factor in the making
of the events of recent months.
It is terribly regrettable that these events have merely served
to make Americans a bit more arrogant and intolerant than they already
were before.
And thats the story of why I long for the days when the Super
Bowl was just an entertainment event, and not a political statement
of international implications.
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