This week’s big sports news involved my favorite athlete to hate, Brett Favre.
I mentioned Favre a while back in a post about immaturity and athletes. Back then, I was contrasting the complimentary way in which Favre is recognized for his youthful exuberance and the way athletes who act immaturely and hold out for money or take PEDs are lambasted. (Read all about it here.)
I dislike Favre, but it is not really his fault. ESPN makes me hate Favre with over-reporting and unprofessional, blatant favoritism and flattery of Favre. It is just impossible to like a guy who is in the news that much.
For others, the hatred toward Favre is due to his “treachery”. To illustrate I have some photos for you.
You see, to most people the “real” Brett Favre is the one on left. He is wearing a Green Bay Packers jersey. Favre became a superstar in Green Bay and carried the franchise for a decade and half. Then he retired.
Retirement did not suit Favre well and he came out of retirement and was traded to the New York Jets, that is the middle picture. The Jets had to guarantee they would not parlay Favre to the hated Minnesota Vikings, lest they suffer a tremendous penalty. The season started well for Favre and his Jets, but the season was derailed and injury forced Favre into retirement, again.
In February 2009, Favre unequivocally stated that he will stay retired this time.
In June 2009, Favre expressed interest in returning to the NFL once again, this time as a Minnesota Viking. After flirting with the idea, Favre clearly expressed that he was not returning to the NFL and he was staying retired.
Yesterday, Favre signed a 2 year deal with the Vikings. That is the picture on the right.
To Packers fans this was treason. Like a Hatfield becoming a McCoy, a Montague becoming a Capulet or a Jet becoming a Shark, this was perfidy.
Packers fans are burning Favre jerseys in effigy for his mutiny.
Is it reasonable for an athlete or even a fan to think that treachery is possible in sports? How is this normal? Are sports so powerful that it becomes like a religion, a marriage or nationalism that is so important that if one changes teams it is treason?
Seriously. People take sports way too seriously. I enjoy sports, I follow sports and I watch a lot of sports. Don’t think for one second that I treat it like a religion. In fact I can prove it. I am a sports polygamist (see here for definition and the opposing point of view). I like a few teams in every sport. People look at me in horror when I explain to them that I like 2 NFL teams equally. Or that I follow 7 or 8 baseball teams. They don’t “accept me” as a real fan. “You can only root for one team” they say. Says who? Is it like religion where you need to choose? Is it like marriage, one wife or husband per person?
Favre sees through those “sports as religion” fanatics. Favre sees it as a game, as a business and as entertainment, and that is exactly what it is. He wants to play, he is going to play and he doesn’t care for whom.
There can only be treason when something is so important and vital that reneging on that thing is harmful. Sports are not in that category.
Another example of placing too much meaning in sports comes up in the Performance Enhancing Drugs in basbeall argumnent. You will hear critics say that the PEDs besmirch the sanctity of the game. Is there anything more self contradictory than “sanctity of a game”?!?! The whole is that is it is a game! An escape from sanctity! Sanctity is part of religion, not baseball. Sports are a game, entertainment. There is no sanctity and there is no treason.
But there are things that have sanctity and there is treason. As a Rabbi, I think it is supremely important for everyone to develop a theology that they believe in strongly. That belief should be strongly enough that reneging on that belief would be treacherous. We should constantly reevaluate our position,and perhaps treason is the right decision at some point, ala Raoul Wallenberg. The point is that we should find things in our life that we believe with conviction. We need an understanding of what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false.
As I heard many times from Rabbi Motti Berger, “Truth is something worth dying for and in some cases, worth killing for”. What is that truth?
Tonight is the first day of Elul. the last month of the Jewish calendar. That means judgment day is just a month away. It is high time to kick into gear and work out our true beliefs. Only when we know what we are willing to die for can we begin to live for something.
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