Not Just a Game

In the Jan. 14 edition of the New Yorker, Hendrik Hertzberg praised The New York Times for its admirable coverage of the events during and following Sept. 11. Not only did Hertzberg recognize the paper for its excellent reporting, but he also noted that the newspaper's decision to include an extra section, "A Nation Challenged," was a brilliant one.

Of course, such additions come at a price, and adding another section to the newspaper forced the Times to reorganize. For three months after the events of Sept. 11, the newspaper's sports section, usually Section D, appeared on the reverse side of the Metro Section (Section B). To read the sports, one had to flip the paper upside-down and, for many (this columnist included), even finding the section required some resourcefulness.

Perhaps most striking about The New York Times' coverage of the terrorist attacks was the paper's willingness to change its format, a format that has remained constant for decades. "Unintentionally or not," Hertzberg wrote of the change, "it was also an astute commentary on a long-standing journalistic problem, which is that news about sports is not really news at all--not, at any rate, in the sense that news about politics, economic and social developments, and international affairs is news."

Maybe. But since Sept. 11, two major sports events have occurred--the World Series and the Super Bowl--and a third, the Olympics, will commence next week. And beyond the more frivolous aspects of following sports, beyond the inflated salaries and the spoiled-brat sports stars, lies a certain sense of community that cannot be replaced by any other aspect of American culture. To follow athletics is American, and to celebrate Americanness in 2002 is necessary.

I spent this year's Super Bowl in Massachusetts, where I also spent most of my formative years, and where I learned to cultivate a passion for sports. New Englanders take sports seriously and this year's Super Bowl was no joking matter. In 1997, which was the last time the New England Patriots made it to the Super Bowl (and lost in an extremely depressing game against the Green Bay Packers), store owners had a field day selling Patriots paraphernalia and bumper stickers that read, "Go Pats, Jumbalaya."

Well, this year was different. Forget about bumper stickers and sweatshirts with the red, white, and blue insignia on it. In a year when strength was paramount, the Patriots' incredible season--their rise from the rubble after their quarterback coach died at the start of the season, their lackluster starting record of 0-2, and the mid-season injury of quarterback Drew Bledsoe--meant something. My own mother, who is fanatically disinterested in anything football, sported a red, white, and blue sweater in support of the game. "I hate football," she told me on Sunday, "but this year, even I think it's important to support the team."

It isn't really a matter of supporting the team, though. It's more a matter of supporting a tradition. Because watching a bunch of padded men clamber around on astroturf with a strange looking ball used to be entertaining. This year, watching such fun and folly is emblematic of who we are, of what distinguishes us as a national community. And because this year, as we look for security in a world that no longer feels safe or reliable, as we look for something to bring us back to good old American culture, the Super Bowl--indeed, sports in general--reminds us of what it was like before.

Hertzberg was right to praise the Times for its journalistic integrity. He was right to commend the exemplary reporting the paper churned out during a time of crisis. It may sound trite and worthy of little more than a passing nod of agreement, but the Fox Network sportscasters were also right, when, during the Super Bowl pre-game show, they said, "Today we celebrate how special this country, this sport, and indeed this game really are. Nowhere in the world is there a sporting event that brings the world closer together than the Super Bowl."

During the Bowl itself, Fox proudly aired clips of American troops watching football from their stations in Afghanistan. There was something vaguely poetic about the collision of those two worlds, of news and sports haphazardly grouped together on one television program about current events. The images of those young men and women in army fatigues watching football halfway across the globe were one more reminder of how this year is different. So maybe it wasn't Hendrik Hertzberg, but Caryn James who got it right, when she wrote in the Feb. 4 edition of the Times, "Loyalty to sports teams is a close cousin to patriotism." For if ever sports deserved a section of their own, it's right now. And there may have been no better year for the New England Patriots, a team as established and American as football itself, to have won their first Super Bowl title.
Hannah Selinger is a Columbia College senior majoring in English and comparative literature.