Believing the Hype

I am ready to change football teams. For years I have been true to the Lions, the cry’in Lions. It has always been one thing to fix before the start of the next years, when we could win. We just need a better coach. We just need more than a runner. We have a great D we just need to adjust the O. Every woman can relate to needing a good O. If the Fords would only sell the team so someone could money into the players.

But it is done. I can no longer believe that the Detroit Lions will have a winning season. That they will go to the Super Bowl or for that matter, score a touch down (we do have the worlds greatest kicker but field goals are not enough.)

Still, here I sit on a Sunday afternoon when I should have gone to see a movie my father recommended watching these idiots’ blow chances. All week I have heard that this would be the game the Lions have a chance to win.

The spin about this team is amazing. Prognosticators of the NFL will tell you about the grass, the weather, individual players and their performance, what is happening in the tackles marriage that gets him to hit a little harder, or how loud the alarm in the hotel room will be to affect the outcome of the day. And I believe. I believe because I hear the experts talk about the momentum and the building that has gone into the successful outcome.

The hype here in Detroit for our other team is just as bad. I love the Tigers. It has not been easy to love my Tigers because they have been losing for years as well. But at least I remember the last time that they won the World Series it was during my lifetime. Even if they don’t go all the way it has been a very fun year. Pistons, love the Pistons. Great basketball being played on that team. I don’t watch or like hockey, but know that our Red Wings have had several great years.

But the hype is always there. It is optimistic in times we know we can’t win, and low to manage expectations when we have a chance to go all the way. I hear the talk and the spin and the messaging of the minutia of microorganisms that influence the outcome.

It is not just the Lions, who have since the start of this had a touchdown and field goal just to prove me wrong, but also the political play of the last month. A man quits his job because he is gay and either flirted with or had sex with young men. It wasn’t illegal. It was distasteful and nothing I would endorse, but not a crime. So I am puzzled by all of the attention and hype over this. A crazy leader says he will test a nuke unless we talk with him directly, using the same hype machine to make certain his agenda prevails. More US soldiers died in Iraq last month than have in about a year, a point made clear through several outlets. But when we consider that the highest number of casualties during World War II occurred during the month prior to its end, and as many brave men and woman died on D-Day as the month after the war ended, I think we have to conclude that the correlation between number of soldiers dieing and “success” or “failure” in conflict is not there. Don’t get me wrong; even one death is awful, I am just making a point.

What is that point? I am tired of the hype. I grow weary of the manipulation of my emotions. I hate that growing up I was more certain of right and wrong but now see more gradations of tolerance for questionable actions. I am giving up on the Lions, even if they win. I still love my Tigers if they loose. I am voting for the same people I decided to vote for two months ago because of who they were before the spin cycle started, and I still believe that there is good and evil, right and wrong, in this world.