20 Years, Part Four: One of the WORST Enduring Legacies of 9/11 -- A National Obsession Becomes National Religion

A lot of people talk about the enduring legacies of September 11th.

I don't think anyone dares talk about this one.

I make no secret:  From the high schools to the NFL, football has always held an inappropriately obsessed place in our nation's hearts.  For many small towns, the high-school football team is all they really have.  

But 9/11 took that to a completely new dimension in about three different ways.

First, the media overhyping the whole connection of "football bringing back some semblance of normalcy" on September 23rd when the NFL came back after a one-week break.

Second, I still recall that Green Bay Packer (it wasn't one of the more prominent players on the team at the time) on Monday night running out with the huge American flag at Lambeau Field so put a bow on that week.

And the third???  How many people do you think will ever have heard of this logo??

Yes, that was supposed to be the Super Bowl logo that year -- you know what it was changed to...

And that was when, after an injury to Drew Bledsoe (wrong lower-expected Patriot QB, thanks anonymous friend), an unheralded sixth-round draft pick from the University of Michigan who no one really took seriously came to the fore.

He was the White Meat Babyface (emphasis on WHITE) which the NFL has spent two decades hitching it's fortunes to ever since.  And a lot of it was, in fact, "IF YOU ARE A PATRIOT, YOU TOO ARE A CHAMPION..."  Tom Brady and Bill Belichick led the Patriot charge to 13 AFC Championship Games in 19 years, 9 AFC titles, and 6 Super Bowls -- Brady adding a 7th this past February with the mercenary Buccaneers.

And most of these wins were under suspicious circumstances, as has long been made evident on this blog.

But that's only the frontman for a lot of this.  What has happened in the last 20 years is that football, especially the NFL (and doubly-especially with it's partnership with the military for many pre-game military stunts like honor guards, surprise reunions, gigantic American flags, or somesuch) is that we've turned the game of football from a national obsession to, quite literally, a national religion, sacrosanct above all and anything else in one's personal life, much less the safety of the players on the field at any level.

And now, since Colin Kaepernick, the league is being used by the White Right as a political chip to walk away from the entire American Sports Machine -- but not for it's corruption or rigging or anything to that element...  Simply because it's TOO BLACK...

And 9/11, and especially the NFL's trying to lash itself to the propaganda machine of America in the "War On Terrah", turned this nation crazed to (and eventually against!) football.