A Strange Super Bowl

I know it will surprise (and maybe disappoint) my former Sarah Lawrence College classmates that I actually enjoy football.  This past year I have watched way less, because I am quite concerned about the traumatic brain injuries suffered by the players.  In yesterday’s super bowl, a player could not return to the game, which was barely discussed by the announcers: he couldn’t return because he had suffered a ‘minor’ concussion.  Minor?  And what will they discover about his brain once he has died and the medical personnel examine that brain if he indicates he wants them to do so.  A former player who died recently did make that request, and his brain was a mess.  Do I stop watching football altogether?  Will it make a difference if I do?  Will the NFL do anything to protect the players?  Rule changes about hits, and real, serious consequences to players who attack helmet to helmet?  I do wonder what’s wrong with me that I enjoy a game that is so inherently violent, me, the little pacifist.  I have always loved athleticism, and those big guys are often so damned graceful it is a joy to see.  I would have liked to see Cam Newton celebrate in the end zone, but that was not to be.  And why was Peyton Manning honoring Budweiser after the game?  Then there’s this year’s halftime.  I may be slow, though I don’t think so, but I didn’t equate the costumes of the dancers with the Black Panthers, although it was both Super Bowl 50 and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland.  I was delighted to learn that Beyonce’s choices were deliberate, and that backstage the dancers posed with a sign asking for an investigation into another shooting by police of yet another black male.  That certainly isn’t an action you expect at a Super Bowl. I didn’t get it; I just enjoyed the number, her energy and the video she had released the day before about Katrina, black lives in America, her black life,  and black neglect in this country.  To have a US artist be that brave about a human and political situation at a major American sporting event, perhaps ‘the’ major American sporting event, made me quite happy that I had tuned in to watch.  You can bet your booty the NFL won’t ask Beyonce to return anytime soon.  I, for one, am grateful they asked her this year, and raise a fist on her behalf.