Patriot Games & The Detroit Lions
The sports fanaticism and know-nothing bro class that have risen to power in the wake of Donald J. Trump.
The Detroit Lions won their division, the NFC North, for the first time in 30 years this season. It marked a true high point in a remarkable run of poor form, for a team that is a noted laughing stock of the National Football League. When the Lions last won a division title, I was a young man of just twenty one years, and followed every snap with anxious enthusiasm.
My knowledge of the team, the division, and the league as a whole was encyclopedic. I read the newspaper every morning and listened to sports talk each afternoon. Routinely, I would call into some of my favorite shows to share my opinions or concerns on the Lions’ hopes for a deep playoff run. Even the guys on talk radio had to acknowledge that I knew my shit. I watched, studied, and listened intently. I was an enormous fan and a student of the game itself.
In that 1993 season, the Lions failed to win even a single playoff game and have spent the last three decades in the veritable football wilderness. Now, they are back atop their division and considered one of the favorites to make a run deep into the NFC playoffs. Some pundits even have them as a pick to win the Super Bowl.
It’s worth nothing here that the Lions have never won a Super Bowl. They have never even appeared in a Super Bowl. The last time the Lions won an NFL Championship was in 1957. It would be another ten years after that before the first Super Bowl was even played. The Lions winning a Super Bowl is the low-rent NFL equivalent to The Cubs winning the World Series in 2016.
Thirty years on from that ‘93 season, I have grown away from the game of American football. My ingestion of sports as a whole is down to a mere fraction of what it used to be, and resides almost exclusively now within the confines of actual football (soccer) and the Detroit Tigers. If I thought very hard about it, I might be able to name the head coach of the Lions and perhaps as many as three players on the roster, at best. In short, I know nothing about the team I once loved, or the game that I knew so well.
I honed most of my basic argumentative skills as a young man debating the ins and outs of football and baseball at our extended family gatherings. As I got older and learned more, I became confident enough to share my own opinions while the adults talked. At first, I was largely parroting what I had heard others say, but I began to watch and listen enough that I could formulate my own ideas from time to time.
While my family were encouraging and supportive, they were not prone to giving me free passes. If I had forgotten about someone in the bullpen in my approach to a late season run, I would hear about it. It would be delivered in a jokingly affectionate way, but it was still a smackdown of sorts. If I wanted to hang, I would have to know my shit.
So, I learned my shit. As I listened to games, I studied batting averages from the newspaper and looked at last week’s lineup cards to chart changes. I could name every switch hitter in the American League by heart, and tell you who was leading the league in stolen bases or runs scored. To use the parlance of our times, I had done my research.
If I was confronted with an argument that I knew to be false, I had the confidence to challenge it. When I was proven out to be correct, I was supported again and encouraged by my elders. My knowledge and interest and perspective were valued, both because I was loved and because I knew what I was taking about. I was rewarded for having done my own homework. I was raised in a world where knowledge and truth were firm, and held no favor. The rules were the rules, and the facts were the facts.
At a family function this Fall, I overheard a number of family and friends furiously debating just how good the Lions would be this year. It was early in the season, and hopes were high. I listened and smiled with a beer in hand and thought of how wrapped up in it all I used to be. There were names of players, coaches, and even play formations that might as well have been in Greek to my ears. I was truly clueless. I stood idly by and just watched the good natured debate play out.
Eventually, someone, turned their head my way and said, “Matt, what do you think?”
Frankly, I was a little stunned. It had been a very long time since I had been a part of one of these discussions, but I was flattered to be included. There was the tiniest part of me that wanted to see if I could still hang without knowing much of anything about the current state of the NFL. That thought quickly passed and then I began to scramble for a way to politely extricate myself from the discussion without sounding as though I was shitting on their debate.
The truth is that while I don’t enjoy American football much these days, it was nice to be in that room for just a few minutes again as a fly on the wall. I was happy to be there for a bit and just eavesdrop. Now, I had been outed as a voyeur and was being asked to participate. I struggled for a clever way to talk about it without really talking about; a way to make a joke and an exit while also saying to the group, “I still have a bit of an opinion”. Wink
I let out a big sigh and stood up a bit straighter as I prepared to walk away from the table. I took a swig of my beer, and I replied,
“It’s been a very long time since I watched the Lions with any real attention. Seems like they might be really good this year. I hope that happens. All I know is that in my lifetime, even with the greatest running back the game has ever seen, the Detroit Lions have always found a way to eventually just be the same old Detroit Lions.”
A chorus of hearty chuckles filled the room. I felt a small bump of pride. With just a couple of sentences I had managed to avoid being dragged into a debate about a subject on which I knew very little, but I had also made it clear that I had an opinion based on years of futility as a fan. Lastly, I had managed to deflect any possible tension with humor. A pretty deft handling of the matter, if I do say so myself.
It would have been a fool’s errand to engage in the debate without knowing anything. It would have been disrespectful to just respond that I didn't care for such petty matters. So, I framed a quick joke, and then showed that I knew enough to be let off the hook and it was back to the BBQ.
As I strolled around the party for another few minutes, I began to fixate on the situation that I had just exited. It was a scenario where I was expected to have an opinion that was informed, based in fact, and built upon the trust for a certain set of truths that were taken for granted. I needed to be aware of the principal parties involved, and be attuned to their strengths and weaknesses. To hang in that crowd, I would need to be armed with statistics, trends, and proof for any and all arguments to be taken seriously. I needed to know the game inside and out to even take part in that discussion with any degree of good faith.
As I drove home, the nagging sensation began to grow louder and more persistent. Examining the set of criteria that were in place, it was obvious that for me to discuss the Lions or Spartans or Tigers required knowledge, expertise, and research. If I failed to prepare properly, I would rightly be rebuffed. If I offered bad information or false statistics, I would be shown the error of my ways. And this was all to discuss a fucking game!
In the thirty years since the Lions last won their division I have spent a great deal of time studying and learning American history and political thought, much of it time that I used to spend studying the Lions. I was even such a nerd in high school that I worked on the failed Michael Dukakis Presidential campaign in the fall of 1988 despite the fact that I was two years away from being legally eligible to vote. Things have only gotten “worse” since then.
My daily routine involves listening to at least three news and public affairs podcasts; One from the BBC, one from Reuters, and one from independent producer Pete Dominick. Those first pair, by all accounts are two of the most objective news sources in the world. The third leans progressive, but is still deeply rooted in a search for the truth and is based on the concept of ethical journalism.
Additionally, I spend several hours each day reading and paying attention to sites like the Associated Press, National Public Radio, the New York Times, the Washington Post and more. I do not claim to know it all, but I do have a fairly good idea of what is happening in the world and around the country. I trust my news sources in the same way that I trust ESPN to give me an accurate score for the most recent Tigers game, and not just the score that I want to hear.
If one of the nice folks at that table who knew his Lions inside and out, came to a party at my place and we had a group of folks discussing a National Healthcare Plan, they would be welcomed to join our discussion. Their view points would be listened to with respect and given thoughtful reply. Those points however, would need to be just as well informed about the issue of healthcare, and how to pay for it fairly and effectively, as I would need to be about the Lions and their defensive philosophy.
Instead of holding political debate to the same level of knowledge expectation as professional sport, politics has become the new bandwagon sport and rabid fandom seems to have come right along with it. There is clothing, merch, team colors, and even hats to make it seem more like they’re in uniform. These folks root with the same abandon as they would for their favorite team at a drunken tailgate, but with none of the context or knowledge that they would give to men playing a game for money.
When real lives are on the line with issues like education, health care, voting rights, reproductive rights, and foreign policy it seems an opinion is worth far more than experience or education. Look not further than the treatment of Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Where I might be laughed at for not knowing the current defensive coordinator of the Lions, it appears that it matters not if your idiot neighbor has no clue who the Secretary of State is, you should still hear him out on what’s happening in Ukraine.
Even worse than being uninformed is the obstinate refusal by some of the new political advocates to learn on the job. Instead of finding factual information or accepting hard truths, they mine the dark corners of the internet for flawed conspiracy theories to use as a convenient excuse. When the truth is constantly changing, nothing is ever true.
Still, there is seemingly never any punishment for those that refuse to know the rules of the game, the way it is played, or the stakes at hand. These nascent political acolytes are hardly willing to give the same credence to meaningful public policy that they would give to a weeknight Tigers game in late April. We are debating ways to change the actual everyday lives of Americans, not just balls and strikes.
At a recent gathering, an attendee (who shall remain nameless to protect both the innocent and the guilty) began to rail against socialism. I did my best to remain calm and asked what they were talking about. In essence, this person was concerned that a group that he kept referring to as THEY, would soon own up to roughly half of the housing inventory in America. When I asked who THEY were, I was told it was four huge real estate companies.
With a note of sarcasm in my voice and a smirk on my face, I replied, “That’s a monopoly caused by unregulated capitalism. That’s not socialism. Socialism would help to fight against that. Even still, what you are worried about is unchecked capitalism.”
“Oh well, the government is part of it too”, he shot back.
I said, “Well, if the government is doing its job on behalf of the people, it would regulate a monopoly like that. The problem is that . . .”
At this point, a couple of family members stepped in to try and stop the discussion before it escalated. I agreed to stop and then attempted to finish my sentence and offer a polite end to the discussion. As I began to offer the next phrase, the attendee in question looked at me and said,
“You can go ahead and stop talking. I wasn’t fucking listening to anything you were saying anyway.”
Here in essence, is the problem. The lack of listening.
I’ll admit that I could learn to be better at it, but the studying and daily information routine that I absorb are a form of intentional and deliberate listening to be informed on the facts and the facets of the issues of our time. Now we have reached a point where a relative at a family function cannot even be bothered to “listen” to something he might disagree with? This utter lack of respect and investment from those who claim to be willing to “debate” is baffling and unacceptable.
Bravado and posturing have replaced true debate techniques like research, context, and philosophical reflection. Furthermore, this bro class of would-be political scientists is only willing to present and accept the facts that support their arguments. They are armed with nothing more than malformed conspiracy theories, toxic masculinity, and fragile egos.
Yet these are the same crowd that regularly wear merchandise brandishing the phrase FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, and you’ll find them calling the progressives in their wake Snowflakes. In reality, these fragile, ignorant, and stunted dudes are the true snowflakes. When they arrive into a discussion based on policy ideas, extensive knowledge, and compassion they melt as quickly as snow hitting warm pavement. The only thing that surpasses their cluelessness is their fragility.
Public policy and the way it affects the day to day lives of Americans ought to secure more of our attention than grown men or women playing a game; any game. If you can take the time to know the intricate details of your favorite team’s offensive system, maybe you could at least know the name of your US Representative.
These would be political ideologists want to be fans without the knowledge. They seek to engage in the passion and the glory of the game with none of the investment or research to genuinely understand how the game is played and what the facts and stakes actually are. Instead of constantly shifting the rules to always achieve victory, they could play the game honestly and with heart to see the best idea, and not the best team emerge victorious.
Sport is fun, entertaining, and even necessary to our culture. It is still though, just a game. Elections, politics, and public policy are not a game. They are a complex system of disparate parts that affect the real lives of everyday people. When your team loses in the playoffs, you naturally feel bummed out. When public policy renders you homeless, sick, or bankrupt it is more than the disappointment of loss that you’ll feel. It is truly a life or death situation, and not a meaningless game.
We should start acting once again like there is a difference between the two.
Cheers,
Matty C
The Lions are due- I hope they finally make it to the big game...
Well said Matty.
I thought I was going to read about the Lions, and you changed course.
I first signed up for Sirius to get sports talk that I missed after moving to NC from Detroit. Then I found POTUS and Pete Dominic.. Pretty much changed my priorities and listening habits..
but for a minute....
I finally gave up on the Lions and football when they fired Jim Brandstetter instead of the coach or GM or anyone else that could help them win a playoff game in my lifetime. One so far in the year you were talking about. I'll believe it when it happens now. I almost hope they lose in the first playoff game so I can continue my rant on their futility for awhile longer.
Paul
look forward to seeing you in June