A Super Super Bowl

Back at the start of the playoffs, I called it. "Watch out for New York." I told people, particularly when they ousted the Champs. Nooooo. Every one around here was, "Go Niners. We're going to the Super Bowl." The overlooked the Giants, as did Green Bay, and New England. The Giants, because of my personal boycott of both the 49ers, and the Raiders, over the fighting, and shooting at the preseason "rivalry" game. My guess is that those games are gone, now...
To be honest, and I am always honest in my blogs, I was rooting for the Giants, at the beginning of the season, and after their mediocre start, I stopped keeping track. Since I was a Fan-at-large, so to speak, I was pulling for Green Bay to go undefeated, but when that streak was ended, lo and behold, the Giants are 7 and 7, and getting healthy. We don't get many Giant games out here on the Left Coast, I did see one of the two final games, and of course, all of the playoffs, but the Bay Area Faithful never saw it coming. It was a thing of beauty, the game at Candlestick. Any gunfire that erupted after that game was the Niner fans committing suicide... the Monday after, people acted like someone had died. I had a blast, watching the suffering.
OK, before anyone gets out a rope, although I did not support the Bay Area teams this year, the Conference Championship game was the only one I actually rooted against one of them. Look at it as going on a fan's injured reserve. Prior to that fateful game, I supported both teams, equally, as I could because of the Conference-difference. The idea of a SF - Oakland Super Bowl, to me, would be the best game ever. No matter who won, it would be the best. I was proud to be a fan of both teams, and to call myself a Niner-fan, or Raider-fan. That all ended this past pre-season.
I was injured by the eruption of violence at a sporting event in the US. It's bad enough to see it abroad, but in America? In the peace-loving Bay Area? It was a bit more than I could stand. I decided, that day, that I would not support either team, this year, and to keep an eye on their fans. At the end of this year, like now, I am supposed to make a decision whether to go back, or not. Yeah, I know, "Nobody cares." Well, I care, damn it.
I have been a loyal fan of the Oakland/LA Raiders since their first year in the AFL. Fifty-one years, up to the time of the "incident". The first professional football game I ever went to was a 49er - Green Bay game, back when YA Tittle QB'd the Niners, and Bart Starr the Packers. It's a long time invested; many more heartbreaks than rejoicings; but at the end of the day, they're my teams.
It's like rooting for both the Giants and A's in baseball. I did that for years, until my wife and daughters had to witness a violent act at the Oakland Coliseum after a preseason match-up between the Bay Area Teams. This poor guy, wearing a half-Giant/half-A's cap, never saw the punch that dropped him, delivered by a guy in a Oakland A's cap. Nope, sorry, I am no longer supporting the A's. EVER. Again, who cares? And again, I do.
It's a matter of principle to me. I am not a violent person. Sure, I have people I'd like to mutilate, but there's a big difference between hoping it happens, and causing it to happen. When it comes right to it, I haven't got the stomach for it. I no more want to be the cause of someone elses pain than I would want someone to inflict pain on me. My belief is that there is too much pain in just living. I don't wish to have more, neither does anyone else. There is always a way to resolve conflict without violence. If you must resort to violence to prove your point, you've lost the argument anyway.
"Football is a violent sport." People have told me this, in a futile attempt to rationalize what happened at that game, and it is true. However, the owners, and stadium people go out of their ways to make sure that injuries are kept to a minimum. As difficult as that may be, considering plays usually end with a crashing of two large, fast-moving bodies, it doesn't justify brawling in the stands, and gun-play in the parking lot. It cannot, not ever.
Most sports have a violence aspect to it, and I can think of few that do not. Wrestling. As odd as it sounds, wrestling is one of those few non-violent sport. I can hear the sputtering now, and anyone reading this is going to have a "Yeah, but...," and I will get to as many of them as I can think of. Since this started on football, let's compare wrestling to football.
Both have "offensive," and "defensive" aspects, but that does not make them violent. Agressive, perhaps, but not violent. Football has "attacks," air-attacks, ground-attacks, it uses blocks and tackles to fight for yardage. The object isn't just to win the game. It's to crush your opponent. To "beat the opponent to a pulp," massacre them, drive them into the mud. Wrestling, on the other hand has "holds," and "levers," and "falls." The object is to capture and restrain; not catch and kill. In wrestling, one is forbidden to cause undue pain, or do anything that might actually result in any injury. Points may be taken, warnings issued, or the match may be forfieted by anyone who does. That's why wrestling is a non-violent sport. Collegiate wrestling, that is. Not the WWE, or RAW, or any of that. Hell, that isn't even a sport.