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Hero For Christ

Transcendence on the Gridiron



(c) 2006 Christopher Sunami

Even having been raised in the cradle of Buckeye-mania, it wasn't until I was nearly an adult that I learned to appreciate the sport we call football. As is typical for me, it was the philosophical aspects of this most physical of games that held the earliest appeal.

At a basic level, the goal of football is to transport a ball one hundred yards and across a goal line. The first thing to note is that one hundred yards is not a long distance. A track star could cover the entire length at top-speed, but even the most unfit among us can generally manage to walk, crawl or otherwise transport him or herself that mere fraction of a mile. What makes the task difficult is the requirement to follow an arcane set of rules and regulations, while facing off against an entire team of over-muscled opponents whose sole goal is to prevent you from achieving success.

While it may not be immediately obvious to the less football-literate, this added complication is enough to turn the entire field into a kinetic work of art. A piece of classical music, for example, has much the same general structure. The goal is to reach a place of resolution, but the task is made harder by the introduction of musical tensions and dissonances, and by the requirement to follow the rules of melody, harmony and counterpoint. Accordingly, an inspired piece of music creates a sense of transcendence, as the musicians achieve the seemingly impossible goal of resolving all the tensions and requirements of the music simultaneously.

In the same way, the moment of touchdown in a football game brings with it a release of emotion and stress, and a sense of victory and accomplishment results that could never be duplicated by a simple stroll across the field. It is as though the painted yardlines and opposing players have made visible, tangible and thus defeasible the many oppositions we face but cannot touch in our own everyday lives.

In addition, football is, at its best, a moral game, representing the triumph of law and order over all baser instincts. What might look like an untamed free-for-all is generally highly planned, strictly rehearsed, and executed with focus and determination. The choreography of the gridiron is made all the more impressive by the fact that it holds in check the strength, power and emotions of young men, the most volatile and uncontrollable members of human society.

In the hands of the right coach, therefore, football becomes a means to an end, a tool for teaching discipline, self-control, industry, loyalty, humility, and interdependence. And although it may have become overshadowed by the allure of professional contracts, multimillion dollar endorsements, and overly idolatrous fans, the ultimate value of participating in a season or two of football is exactly the same as the value of single game: It makes the passage through a particular segment of time and space more difficult, more dangerous and more demanding, and consequently more rich, more rewarding, and more real.
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