Thursday, September 01, 2005

Playing Football Seems Trivial

The most insidious influence on the young is not violence, drugs, tobacco, drink or sexual perversion, but our pursuit of the trivial and our tolerance of the third rate.
Eric Anderson, teacher

I suppose life goes on, but the news story about the where the New Orleans Saints were going to play the coming football season’s games should be filed under who cares (and I’m being polite).

At least someone in the Commissioner Paul Tagliabue’s office knows how to present a public face, when talking to the press. The commissioner and league officials have discussed the situation over the past few days. Location hasn't been the most important topic.

“We've been talking about how we as a league can assist with relief efforts,'' NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said. ``Not only for Saints players and officials and their families, but also for a lot of other players in the league who live or have families in the region.''

I would like to see the multi-million dollar players step up, donate funds to help people, and help rebuild the city.

3 comments:

Steven Taylor said...

On one level, I concur.

On another, when the Saints play, they will represent essentially the only visible functioning portion of the city of New Orleans. That has a certain amount of symbolic significance. Further I expect that it will actually mean something to the scattered citizens of that city that their team goes on.

Steven Taylor said...

It occurred to me later that also these teams should play because if they don't the support staff could lose their jobs. As it stands the Saints represents one of the few "industries" based in NO that is at least semi-functioning.

It is about more than playing football, it seems to me.

The Misanthrope said...

I agree. I thought the news article about where they would play was ill timed, both your points are good. The homeless football team will be symbolic of the homeless people in the area.