High school was the only time I’ve ever cared about football. And I only cared because I was in the marching band. Yet, despite sitting in the stand for four yeas, the only thing I ever figured out about the game was that if the ball went across the line or through the big posts then I had to play the fight song.
Now I’m in college, my own academic lala-land, and football isn’t exactly on my radar (my college is tiny and our football team isn’t the greatest). Yet, despite living under a rock when it comes to sports, I couldn’t escape the hoopla surrounding the Super Bowl. As you may guess by my use of the word “hoopla”, I viewed all the commotion surrounding the big game with the soul of a grumpy old man who is real tired of all these youngsters and their shenanigans.
I’ve never had anything explicitly against football or all the fanfare that goes with it. But for some reason, these past few weeks I’ve been hyper-aware of just how irksome I find the whole spectacle. Specifically, I take issue with the pervasive violence in football culture. From the actual violence of the game, to the animals who are violently killed to feed spectators, the whole thing just became too much for me.
So, in my own way, I decided to resist the culture of violence, and had a celebration of my own on game day. And, in my mind, logically cute puppies are the best way to show resistance to a game that celebrates violent masculinity.
Yes, the Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet was my chosen form of protest this past Sunday. Instead of tuning in to watch people hitting each other and commercials celebrating the consumption of animal carcasses, I watched puppies frolic. I disregarded all the articles and blog posts claiming that chicken wings are a must for a Super Bowl party, and instead made a Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter Cheesecake (vegan or course), and served chips and hummus. So, while most of America was cheering on Beyonce (in her python and iguana skin outfit, I might add) my guests and I stuffed our faces while watching puppies being fowled for “excessive cuteness”.
This leads me to my second resolution of the year: participate in my existing communities, and create new communities.
Because, at the end of the day, events like the Super Bowl and the Puppy Bowl are about one thing: bringing people together. So I resolve to participate more, so that I can enjoy all the wonderful, talented people around me and learn from them.
And also because when you get together with other people, they show you youtube videos of cute puppies that you’ve never seen before; and who doesn’t want that? ;)
Want to read more about the Puppy Bowl? Here’s a great article about the making-of!