Of pride and purpose

by 3k on Feb 1, 2009 10:54 AM CST

Today is more than just a football game. Today is more than an American holiday. Today is a symbol.

What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

T.S. Eliot is my favorite poet for too many reasons. His use of reversed irony has always amazed me. "The end is where we start from." What a perfect sentence. The Super Bowl is often seen as an end: an end of a season, an end of a team effort, an end of a era. It is, strangely enough however, a beginning. Every preseason, the goal of every NFL team is simple: the Super Bowl. It is the beginning of every effort, every action, every consequence that develops in the National Football League.

T.O. has a reality show? There goes the Cowboys' chances. Bad draft for *insert random team here*? So much for Super Bowl XLIV. Will he need surgery? There's always next year.

The Super Bowl is a symbol for, chiefly, temporal reasons. Every year, dozens of men come together to don the same uniform to strive for a single goal. Not MVP, not a Pro-Bowl nomination, but the Super Bowl. The end and the beginning.

All week, people have asked me (as I'm sure they have all of you) who I'm rooting for. My answer, predictably, is the Rams. And when people give me that quizzical look, I have often recited the above quote because it fully explains in so few words the timelessness of my devotion to the Rams.

The end of this season is the beginning of the next. The beginning of next season leads to the end of next season, the next Super Bowl. And so as I watch tonight's game, I wonder how my team can find their way there again. It is a perennial struggle. Are Giants fans still celebrating their last Super Bowl victory or dealing with the departure of Spagnuolo? Such is the temporal agony of football. What has just happened has to happen again if we are to find any lasting joy.

So this is a short reminder of pride and purpose. The pride we take in supporting the Rams, and the annual fountain of purpose that springs up when we think it is most dry. Tonight's Super Bowl is a game for every football fan. Yes, only Arizona or Pittsburgh can, win, but it is a strak reminder of what we can achieve. Arizona has waited for a long, long time to get to this point. Luckily for them, it's only the beginning.

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And thankfully,

our Rams won the Big Game before the Phoenix/Arizona Cardinals.

A teenage boy with a sprit inside
Of a Samurai warrior who long ago died.
Now he's O....O....O....O Oshikuru!
O....O....O....O Oshikuru!
My oh My he's a demon Samurai
Who's the guy who had to die.......Oshikuru!

by Tackle Box on Feb 1, 2009 11:50 AM CST reply actions

warner

the beauty of rootign for warner is as a Rams fan you’ve got a variety of reasons: throw it in the face or martz, zygmunt; the hero story; or just plain because he’s a former Ram….

i gotta get back to the guacamole.

by Ryan Van Bibber on Feb 1, 2009 12:38 PM CST reply actions

I totally agree

“The end is where we start from.” What a perfect sentence.

A great way to explain the way I feel today. Go Rams!

To be fair though, the perfect sentence wouldn’t end in a preposition.

by BruinHalo on Feb 1, 2009 3:04 PM CST reply actions

The end is from where we start.

Or, I kinda like this twist…

“The end is from whence we start”.

by Tackle Box on Feb 1, 2009 3:29 PM CST up reply actions

Rec'd

Nice to step outside the realm of normal football talk, especially with pre-game coverage in its 128th hour. Plus points for well-roundedness. Think they’re talking about the Super Bowl on the poetry blogs today? No!

"Attaway to stomp 'em. Stomp the piss out of 'em. Stomp 'em when they're down. Kick 'em and stomp 'em. Attaway to go boys. Pound that old Budweiser into you and go get them tomorrow." -- Joe Schultz

by taiko on Feb 1, 2009 3:49 PM CST reply actions

That play to end the 1st half...

sure looked like the 2002 to 2006 Warner.

by Downing Rules on Feb 1, 2009 7:28 PM CST reply actions

Great game

I was worried this was going to be boring as all hell. Wonderful game!

Jay Zygmunt, now that you have fired yourself, please have yourself hired by Seattle. Thanks.

by 3k on Feb 1, 2009 9:46 PM CST reply actions

Pittsburgh titles since 05, 2.

Patriots, 0.
Dynasty in the making for Pittsburgh meaning possibly the end of one for New England.

I have witnessed time and time again.

by srdmad on Feb 1, 2009 10:19 PM CST reply actions

For what it's worth

I’d have given the MVP to Roethlisberrger.

by Tackle Box on Feb 1, 2009 10:52 PM CST reply actions

You could have legitimately made the case for Warner, too

But it was a pretty spectacular catch by Holmes and he was the difference maker for the Steelers … I had no quibble with it.

"Attaway to stomp 'em. Stomp the piss out of 'em. Stomp 'em when they're down. Kick 'em and stomp 'em. Attaway to go boys. Pound that old Budweiser into you and go get them tomorrow." -- Joe Schultz

by taiko on Feb 1, 2009 11:22 PM CST up reply actions

It wasn't going to be Warner

since the Cardinals lost. Had they won, he gets it hands down.

But, in regards to his catch. He was covered by 3 defenders and Roethlisberger put the ball in a place where the only guy on the field who could get even one finger on the ball was Holmes. Hell of a pass, IMO.

by Tackle Box on Feb 2, 2009 10:15 AM CST up reply actions

Well, Warner did throw that pick.

In the 06 Super bowl, some people thought Rex Grossman should have been MVP, I was one of them. And did you guys see Fitzgerald run into Rolle on the sideline, when he was running after Harrison? If Rolle isn’t standing there Fitzgerald would have caught Harrison( he almost did, just a yard late) and it would have only been a 3 point game at half time.