Football and the American Character
Posted by richrobinson 10 years, 5 months ago to The Gulch: General
Hard to believe the game of football was almost stopped by Progressives. Interesting history of the game and how Progressives think.
SOURCE URL: http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/current
http://youtu.be/qFjGj77wG-4
I'm sure I'll get an earful, but whatever.
I was going to argue against "it gets more intense when the real world is falling apart at the seams", but then I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume (there we go again...) you meant it becomes more relevant, more important, rather than more intense.
Sports can be very important to a society; sports can help restore a society that's falling apart. Sports can give a society that's falling apart hope; and as Napoleon said, the moral is to the physical as 3 to 1.
The year is 1980. The United States is suffering from malaise, the economy is in the toilet, the great enemies are expanding, we're no longer certain of our exceptionalism or righteousness, we're being told that the world is going to end in either ice or overpopulation, that we need to be content with less, that sacrifices have to be made...
And then a handful of nobodies from nowhere, USA defeat the greatest *professional* athletes at hockey in the world. Literally, it didn't really mean anything. Metaphorically, it meant that the American character wasn't dead, wasn't wrong, wasn't a myth. By itself, it didn't change anything. But, what it did do was set us up for when Ronald Reagan came along and made it clear that we weren't over.
I view the 1980 Olympic hockey team victory as the beginning of the 1980s renaissance.
LOL. This is great. I can't stop thinking about Khalling's reaction....lol. Good times.
But wait, there's a problem. Who would we play against? Ok, somebody's got to agree to be on the opposite team: the Gulch moochers? Is that even possible? Nevermind, I think the idea just went down in flames. I guess this is when kh would be yelling her version of YYEEAAAAHHH!. lol.
In my opinion they should reduce the padding, as I think they should do with boxing gloves. I think going back to the era of leather helmets and thinner pads would add a lot back to the game. Not only would players be more careful for fear of feeling pain, but it would lessen the advantage of mass.
speaking of the Olympics... one of my prized possessions is a signed USA jersey from Jim Craig. I can't watch Miracle On Ice without getting teary eyed.
That belongs in the Smithsonian!
Jim Craig... "carraig" in Gaelic means "rock" btw, which I thought appropriate for the goalie.
I was grabbing this link to add to a previous post and I'm wiping tears: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYscemhnf...
Jim Craig was a hero of mine for a long time. Nothing changed, except the memory of those days and the 1980s became too painful to dwell on.
That's really cool that your dad was a goalie. I can understand why that jersey would hold such meaning for him. My husband played goalie for a few years in high school/college. That to me has to be the most nerve wracking position in any sport going.
I actually asked that one time to clearly some troll. it's in here somewhere
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkJbvv3p...