No comprendo

I know I will not be popular for this post. And I apologize in advance for posting maybe my most annoying, preachy-esque post. I know people will feel like I am a curmudgeon, and maybe I am..... but, I just don't understand football. I don't understand why it's okay to stop the world for a football game. I know I must be missing something here, so maybe you all can help me understand.

Last year I watched the Super Bowl and I kind of loved it. I loved how everyone came together and randomly ate Skittles. I loved being "sporty." I really loved the community feeling. And then about six months ago I read an article in the New York Times about a class action suit being filed by NFL players who've sustained major brain damage. And then I learned that the NFL is a non-profit and gets major tax breaks. It doesn't help that I have a kid in Seattle Public Schools and they kind of suck and could use a big infusion of tax dollars (maybe from the NFL).

My partner, unabashedly unsupportive of pro-football, happens to be an employment lawyer and makes a really good argument for how we have evolved as a culture; how we no longer support jobs that injure people; how in fact those jobs are illegal in current day, at lease in the United States. But not the NFL, not football. No comprendo.

I have tons of friends, virtually all of my friends, who are pro-football. They aren't pro-brain injury or pro NFL being a 501(c)(3), but they all watched the Super Bowl, throwing down in support of pro football. No comprendo.

I contemplated canceling our 4pm class at The SweatBox on Super Bowl Sunday. I really figured no one would come. And part of me wanted to experience the collective excitement of our city. Then I remembered a few weeks ago when, on MLK Day I wasn't able to attend the huge downtown march because I was working. I could have attended had I canceled class.... That sealed the deal. If I wasn't going to close to honor a great man who changed the world, I wouldn't close to watch football!

I covered class for the regular teacher. I guess she went out of town, maybe to the Super Bowl..... I prepared for having one or maybe two students in class. I sat behind the desk, one of the handful of people in Seattle not wearing green and blue at that moment, listening to the cheers from every direction, and waited. One person, two, five, ten, fifteen people showed up, all with stories of trying to go to their regular studio to no avail because everyone was closed. For the SUPER BOWL.

You can imagine what an amazing class it was. More than usual, everyone really wanted to be practicing Yoga. Even with our heaters blaring, Savasana was periodically interrupted by cheers or stomps from fans running through our hallways into the streets and back into the building, but we just laughed. One person lifted his arm from corpse pose and shouted in response to the noise explosions, "Go Hawks" into the otherwise silent room of bodies. It was ninety-minutes of hard work, great focus, and amazing energy and everyone was really happy and grateful to be there.

This morning at the studio, many people came in downtrodden, forlorn, so sad about the loss of our team. I read things on Facebook that surprised me-- descriptions like "heartsick", "devastated", "destroyed." I don't really have a point here. It's a question. Help me understand football because really, no comprendo......