Monday, December 27, 2004
Is it Encomiums or Encomia?
We take our football seriously up here in Wisconsin. It's why churches adjusted the start times of Christmas Eve services to accomodate the Packers' game against Minnesota, and it's why we were more shocked than most to learn yesterday of the death of Reggie White, who played for Green Bay from 1993 through 1998. At a time when few prominent players (especially African-American players) wanted to come to what is essentially rural Wisconsin, Reggie chose to sign with Green Bay. Other talented players followed, as did a Super Bowl championship after the 1996 season.
White tarnished his legacy by making racist remarks in a speech before the Wisconsin Legislature, by failing to rebuild a burned-out church in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, after Wisconsin fans donated thousands of dollars for the project, and by apparently failing to come through on other charitable pledges he made. (A sports reporter who covered the Packers in White's era told me over beers one night that White was, in fact, the biggest hypocrite he had ever met.) But all of that is getting lost in the encomiums being heard today. And thanks to the contradictions of sports fandom, all of that will eventually be forgotten entirely in favor of happier memories. One of them is Reggie running the Super Bowl trophy over to the contingent of Packer fans after the game, as if to say, "This is yours." Which we firmly believed it was, because that's how we are about football up here.
(Coverage of White's death is sharing the spotlight today with the Asian tsunami, which has killed upwards of 23,000 people. But that's America for you. One of the first stories I heard yesterday focused on the fact that there were "only" two American casualties among the dead. We are truly the navel-gazingest people on Earth.)
Quote of the Day: Atrios says that since Christmas is over, it's time for godless liberals to start discussing strategies for the war on Easter. Several hilarious comments ensue, none funnier than the one from NTodd:
We take our football seriously up here in Wisconsin. It's why churches adjusted the start times of Christmas Eve services to accomodate the Packers' game against Minnesota, and it's why we were more shocked than most to learn yesterday of the death of Reggie White, who played for Green Bay from 1993 through 1998. At a time when few prominent players (especially African-American players) wanted to come to what is essentially rural Wisconsin, Reggie chose to sign with Green Bay. Other talented players followed, as did a Super Bowl championship after the 1996 season.
White tarnished his legacy by making racist remarks in a speech before the Wisconsin Legislature, by failing to rebuild a burned-out church in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, after Wisconsin fans donated thousands of dollars for the project, and by apparently failing to come through on other charitable pledges he made. (A sports reporter who covered the Packers in White's era told me over beers one night that White was, in fact, the biggest hypocrite he had ever met.) But all of that is getting lost in the encomiums being heard today. And thanks to the contradictions of sports fandom, all of that will eventually be forgotten entirely in favor of happier memories. One of them is Reggie running the Super Bowl trophy over to the contingent of Packer fans after the game, as if to say, "This is yours." Which we firmly believed it was, because that's how we are about football up here.
(Coverage of White's death is sharing the spotlight today with the Asian tsunami, which has killed upwards of 23,000 people. But that's America for you. One of the first stories I heard yesterday focused on the fact that there were "only" two American casualties among the dead. We are truly the navel-gazingest people on Earth.)
Quote of the Day: Atrios says that since Christmas is over, it's time for godless liberals to start discussing strategies for the war on Easter. Several hilarious comments ensue, none funnier than the one from NTodd:
Jesus died for our sins, right? And all good Christians will be resurrected and get to rule the world with Him, right? So why don't we just kill all the Christians and then say we're really sorry that we sinned, but we're really glad Jesus got nailed to that tree so can we please go to Heaven with all the dead Christians?And now, NTodd's concluding remark, which is the quote of the day: "Please note that I can't actually be in charge of the killing because I'm a Quaker. But I'm cool with outsourcing."
Just thinking out loud here.
