Super Bowl 43: The Politics of Rooting

Edge of Sports

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Super Bowl 43: The Politics of Rooting

 

By Dave Zirin

 

Are you ready for the Hard Times Super Bowl? This year in Tampa, the economic meltdown in banking, auto, and real estate has trickled down (or trickled up?) to that Mardi Gras for millionaires. OUT are private jets fighting for space at the local hangar. IN are empty hotel suites and a party scene with less life than Al Davis. The local chamber of commerce has announced that Tampa is taking in 20% less than projected. That's30 million dollars off the books. It's all too fitting that the half time show performer will be our very own troubadour of hard times, Bruce Springsteen.(It's also all too enraging that the halftime show will be once again sponsored by Bridgestone/Firestone, a company with a labor policy that would shame an Egyptian Pharaoh. See http://www.stopfirestone.org for more information about the International Labor Rights Forum's campaign).

 

Yes, it's the Hard Times Super Bowl, coming your way at the dawn of the Obama era, a time when people seem more political, more desperate and paradoxically more hopeful, than any time in memory. Maybe that's why the question I keep getting emailed, is not who I think is going to win the big game, but which team Progressives/Radical minded people should support. In other words, if you could care less whether the Pittsburgh Steelers or Arizona Cardinals hoist the Lombardi trophy, is there a "left" team and a "right" team? Is there a team whose victory would put a little wind in progressive sails?

 

Let me be clear: this question is, to put it politely, somewhat daft. With the exception of very rare occurrences, when athletes through their deeds take on a political significance, like Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali, or Billie Jean King, your rooting interest doesn't really  matter a hair on Dick Cheney's head. But just for fun, let's do a progressive tale of the tape.

 

There is no question that there are more left-liberal leanings on the side of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Team owner Dan Rooney has championed the hiring of minority coaches. He was also one of the very few sports owners to support Obama's presidential campaign. (Ownership gave to McCain by a 6-1 margin).

 

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is also an open Obama supporter saying, "He's selling hope and I'm buying."

Tomlin is also one of the few African American head coaches, and there are those who believe that a Tomlin win would mean more opportunities for black head coaches.

 

But it's worth mentioning that supporting Barack Obama is hardly going out on any kind of radical limb, particularly when the alternative is that desiccated corpse of an institution otherwise known as the Republican Party. (If the Republican Party were food, it would be ground beef spiced with e-coli.) Therefore post election we need to move beyond seeing athletic support for Obama as being some sort of transgressive act. It may have been daring at one point, particularly in the buttoned down world of pro sports. Now it's not.  It's just smart politics.

 

The Cardinals on the other hand are led by Kurt Warner who is slightly more Christian than Christ. He makes Jerry Falwell look like Howard Stern. And there is no truth to the rumor that star receiver Larry Fitzgerald has changed his name to Larack Hussein Obama. In addition, the Cardinals ownership, the Bidwells, have a terrible reputation among players.  They also glory in the image of the late Cardinal turned army ranger Pat Tillman, but haven't lifted a finger to help the Tillman family find out the truth surrounding their son's death in Afghanistan.

 

So the Cardinals lack any kind of political pedigree.  But when it comes to the politics of sports, the symbolic can often overwhelm the actual. The Arizona Cardinals are historically football's most fetid franchise. Before this year, they had won only one playoff game since the Truman administration.  On Sunday, they play perhaps the most successful franchise in the history of pro football. The Steelers are perhaps the most popular team in the country. That's what happens when your city hemorrhages almost 50% of its population in a generation. It becomes like a Johnny Appleseed of fans, sprinkling people across the land with Pittsburgh black and gold coursing through their ventricles. Goliath has nothing on the mestastasizing mass that is Steeler Nation.

 

This Sunday we will see an underdog story to put the Karate Kid to shame. When an underdog wins, it has the capacity to inspire.  That's why I think that if you have a progressive bone in your body, and you believe that such things have political repercussions, please root for the most flea-bitten of underdogs, the Red Cardinals of Arizona.

 

And it's not wishful thinking to see that they have a puncher's chance against Pittsburgh's bone crushing defense.. With their high-flying deep throwing style, and Kurt Warner's quick release, the Cardinals have all the ingredients to part the Steel Curtain. I like Arizona on Sunday, 27-14. My MVP, the best receiver in the sport: Larry "Larack" Fitzgerald.

 

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

 

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs