Enjoying my new social media homeland Bluesky, but as a Philadelphian proud of my team winning their second ring Sunday night, didn’t like having to feel guilty seeing all the “boycott” posts and sending me back over to KC Chief-friendly Twitter for game chatter. If we’re going to agree to make the move, we need to find a healthy way to incorporate conversations about sports without ruining them with politics.
It sucked that the President had to make it about him by attending. It sucked worse that the NFL first said they had no plans to end Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives and then promptly removing the stenciled phrase “END RACISM” from the endzones for the first time since 2021. And I’m surprised in selecting the vague, mildly pride-sounding words “CHOOSE LOVE” the NFL didn’t have small print reading “choose white same sex heteronormative love consummated in marriage and full term pregnancies.”
I was bummed to see the Super Bowl “boycotts” because if you skipped the game you missed the Eagles put a beat-down on the Chiefs. Here are 10 reasons your “Super Bowl boycott” was meaningless.
—While early numbers show a five percent viewership decline, this number could easily be attributed to “Chiefs fatigue” as people are just sick of watching the Mahomes and Kelce routine, so “boycotts” aren’t going to get credit for making a big existential difference.
—No one is going to know why you boycotted it since there were at least three groups of “protesters.” People boycotted the Super Bowl because Trump went, because of the removal of the “End Racism” words, because the Chiefs refs rigged the game against the Bills and other games, or because they’re racist and they were protesting the singing of the Black National Anthem. With that many boycotts, yours got lost in the shuffle, and do you want people thinking you were protesting the wrong thing?
—Boycotting the event skips the celebration of the culturally inclusive local history that occurred as part of the during the game—from New Orleans marching bands to the honoring of the local first responders from the recent terrorist attacks, performances and stories took place that deserved to be heard.
—"The National Anthem” was a protest in itself, creating a moment where performer Jon Batiste, who was a Kennedy Center board member until recently “fired” by Trump, jazzed up the song and purposefully sang the line “land of the free” three times.
—Why allow the game’s story to be about Trump’s attendance? He’s an attention-craving baby with a martyr complex, so if ratings are low after his team lost, he’ll just say “failing NFL” because they didn’t give him enough praise. He proclaimed “Gulf of America Day” and canceled the freaking penny during the game because he loves doing fake king shit.
—You missed some great humanitarian stories. Did you read about the player who was wearing the coat his dad left behind after dying in a car wreck when the player was an infant? Or the Eagles fan who vowed he’d never return to New Orleans after his best friend died there on New Year’s Eve in the terrorist attack, but the team surprised him with tickets so he could return to honor his friend? Or my favorite: the Eagles giving tickets to their most steadfast fan: 102-year old Eloise Brown—she arrived to a personal greeting and signed jersey gift from her favorite player A. J. Brown; he even scored a touchdown for Ms. Eloise.
—If you’re a football fan, you missed a good game, a legacy moment signifying the end of a so-called dynasty. The Eagles defense forced three turnovers and sacked Chiefs QB Mahomes six times in a game the Chiefs were favored to win.
—In addition to a Gaza protest happening, Kendrick Lamar made more of a statement about racism than some chalk on astroturf ever could in a cultural moment of true rebellion in music, dance and lyrics, highlighted by Uncle Sam-uel L. Jackson’s narration.
—In Philadelphia we love redemption and a comeback story. People love to loathe our fans but as they say “they hate us cause they ain’t us”—and if you’re a hater it’s because you don’t understand the passion and emotion in a city that bleeds green for its team. The win against Trump’s team and its racist team name, chant, players, logo and tired dynasty narrative was a long time coming.
—Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts earned and deserved the win because of how underestimated and underrated he’s been for so long. On February 12, 2023 when the Eagles lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, Hurts changed his screensaver to an “agony of defeat” photo of him surrounded by Chiefs confetti and that photo stayed on his phone every day for the last two years, reminding him of his goal. Sunday he changed the script.