For those of you clinging to the desperate hope that baseball is still America’s pastime — let it go. The biggest sporting event of the year is upon us, and it has nothing to do with the game that Babe built.
I am talking about football’s Super Bowl.
Have you ever taken a moment out of your precious time to ponder the reasons football has taken over as America’s favorite sport? I have, and I will illustrate the reasons.
Football represents the rise of the United States as the world’s super power. The sport combines two of the greatest phenomena in American history: the assembly line technique — the fruit of the Industrial Revolution — and Manifest Destiny.
The idea of the assembly line first was introduced in the meat-packing industry of the Midwest in the mid-1800s and later was perfected by the Henry Ford Motor Co.
In an assembly line, employees line up to perform a specific function different from the person before them. Their actions together produce the goal, whatever that may be.
This technique helped America’s economy to become one of the strongest in the world.
In 1845, John L. O’Sullivan coined the phrase “Manifest Destiny” when he wrote, “…the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the whole of the continent.”
Manifest Destiny became the rallying cry throughout the country donning that somehow the United States was destined to expand from the East Coast to the West Coast. That cry became the torch that lit the way for American expansion.
Football illustrates both the pragmatism of the assembly line and the drive of Manifest Destiny.
Each player has his own specific function, and they combine to produce a play. Offensive linemen block, running backs run the ball, receivers catch, etc.
The goal of football’s assembly line technique is to gain as much ground as possible, from one end of the field to the other, in hopes of attaining points.
Football’s Manifest Destiny is a touchdown.
These two forces paved the way for America’s dominance in the world and did the same for the sport of football. We love football because it is an accurate depiction of the country we live in, and the Super Bowl is the climax.
So as you prepare for your big Super Bowl bash this Sunday, take time to think about how these things have made football so popular that companies foam at the mouth for a chance to spend millions of dollars for a 30-second advertisement during a time out.
By the way, Oakland wins this year by six.