The Chico Kid v. The Turlock Tornado and My (Our) Hypocrisy

Tomorrow is a big day for football fans in the Bay Area. Tomorrow is when the Green Bay Packers led by Aaron Rodgers (of Chico, California) come to town to do battle with the San Francisco 49ers led by Colin Kaepernick (of Turlock, California) in one of the four featured playoff games being played this weekend. Despite the fact that I have reservations about the suspected PED use in the NFL and despite the sobering news that Junior Seau, the Hall of Fame caliber linebacker most famously with the San Diego Chargers who committed suicide last year, had developed a degenerative brain disease linked to blows to the head from his 20 year NFL career, I suspect that I will be in front of the television set rooting for the Niners to beat the Packers in a "hard hitting" game.

In my mind it does raise a number of questions. How can one take enjoyment from a game that results in the physical and mental damage of so many? How can one really respect a game wherein one suspects that so many of the players are "juiced?" In light of what happened to RGIII last week, where the coach continued to play him even though he clearly was only able to use one leg, one must ask who really cares about the athletes? Granted many of them make millions of dollars, but whatever money Seau made during his 20 year career brought him no peace in the end. Should we care about these individuals even when they appear not to have the sense to care for themselves?

And yet despite the reservations and the questions, I will still be watching the game tomorrow. I will marvel at 340 pound linemen that are able to run faster than I could in high school. I will marvel at athletes that are able to rush for over 2000 yards only a year after tearing an ACL. I will be astounded at the ability of guys to pick themselves up after being hit head on by a 250 pound linebacker with a force that would cause most humans to suffer from whiplash for the next few months. I will marvel at all this and, in the end, I will quietly acknowledge my own hypocrisy because it is precisely this display of the extraordinary that makes this game so compelling.

Go Niners!