Sports bores me. I only really get into it when it goes to a higher level mental game, like the 1998 Chicago Bulls, and this year’s Saints. And then I *really* get into it. The lower level game is where you get the ugly fans like some of those Bears and Eagles ones others have blogged about. It’s like, that’s the businessman’s line of defense, the jarring egghead. Because so many deals are brokered behind the scenes of the powerhouse teams, it’s almost like a training ground for CEOs to watch the interplay and discuss strategy. Pure politics (which might be why it bores me).

The academics, rather than the pure intellectuals, are those who criticize team allegiances. Of the serious thinkers, it certainly can be said that “we [bring] the same level of analysis to serious social problems as we do to sports.” In fact, I’d wager that’s why this season drew you in, more than the fellowship of the community. But the collective needs to swing that way, to social conscience.

It’s a good dialogue. I don’t think you’re being oversensitive. You’re recognizing division as being caused by artificial boundaries, in whatever medium. There are people, especially rhetoricians, who do not want those boundaries crossed.

Now, if only I could stop crushing on the King of Orpheus, I could put the season behind me. Smart men are just such a turn-on.

As the Seagulls went to the big game last year and made a run this year, Viv began asking many questions about the game – after all, her folks are from another country and so she had never been exposed to it as a kid. She remains in a bemused state as my father-given knowleldge unfurled before her, to my own surprise.

I am bitterly disappointed that the Saints won’t win the Superbowl this year. I am bemused to find the team I loved as a child – BECAUSE THEY LOST ALL THE TIME – facing the team that sneaked into Indy about the time I split. I was telling my dad that I remember the last time the Colts were in the Superbowl, in 1970. My sister and I were snuggled into my dad’s torso in a beanbag, and I wanted to know why the men on the TV called Johnny Unitas the ‘Man With the Golden Arm.’ He responded by telling us the Mark Twain ghost story “Who took my Golden Arm,” scaring us silly in the process.

He wrote back today noting that a Baltimore QB prior to Unitas, YA Tittle, had spent time hanging out with Alexander Kerensky in the Bay Area while playing for the SF 49ers. Kerensky spent the last few decades of his life in the Bay Area as a sort of professsor emeritus of Russian history. Apparently my dad ran into this unlikely pair while attending Stanford, or something. So there you go: the Russian Revolution connects directly to Peyton Manning’s Superbowl appearance.

I could not agree more!

Seriously though: It always surprises me to see smart people assume that intellectual curiosity is a zero sum game and that interest in one area of analysis precludes participation in others. I would argue the converse, that living a full life means harboring a healthy interest in as many subjects as one can get one’s mind around. But then.. I work in libraries so that’s not a big surprise I guess.

But I do think it brings people together. This football season certainly gave a lot of people something to think about other than The Storm.

As you said, sports bind us across our differences. They harness and focus, and yes, sometimes divert, copious amounts of collective human energy.

They also show us that a team together, driven by spirit, can do more than anyone could ever do alone.