Packers Beat Steelers
to be World ChampionsIn the world of Wisconsin sports today was big, Green Bay Packer are the World champions. They won Super Bowl XLV. Since American Football is only big in the USA, thus the winner of the Super Bowl is World Champions. Actually we call the winner of the USA World Series in Baseball World Champions and the winner of the USA NBA basketball series World Champions. The same is true for hockey, although Canada is included in that game. I guess in all major team sports except soccer, whoever wins in the USA are World Champions.
This World Champion attitude fits in well with what the president said in his State of the Union address and his interview today before the game with Fox news conservative Bill O Reilly. Recently he repeats again and again that the USA will be number one in education, science, education, manufacturing, military and anything that matters.
At one of Jim Douglas talk at Marquette one of the university students mentioned how she was somewhat taken back by this We are Number One attitude. So am I. It reminds me of a philosophy called exceptionalism, a “perception that a country, society, institution, movement, or time period is “exceptional” (i.e., unusual or extraordinary) in some way and thus does not need to conform to normal rules or general principles.” Many countries, like Germany, Imperial Japan, China, ancient Rome and Brittan have had this view of themselves.
I do not think the President or NFL football would call being “number one” or “World Champions” a form of ‘exceptionalism, but it sure seems that way to me.
Personally I believe it is a dangerous attitude that leads to tragic out comes. I remember President Bush saying the war against Iraq was “preemptive war” or President Obama calling the Afghanistan a “war of necessity.”
Sorry Vince Lombardi, the former great Green Packer coach for whom the Super Bowl trophy is named after, but I do not believe winning or being number one is everything. Winning, being number one or World Champions is good but it is not everything. Winner or loser, rich or poor, world champion or not does not make for being exceptional.
Comments
Dave Kruschke — 12 February 2011, 10:47
Maybe Vince Lombardi agrees with you, in a way.
I read somewhere that he stated, “Winning isn’t everything, is the Only Thing.” And when he first arrived at Green Bay, he gave a talk to the team where he declared, “I didn’t come here for us just to be Good. We are going to constantly strive to be Excellent, even though we know that Excellence can never really be achieved.” Yep, Lombardi, The Individualist…
Dave Kruschke — 12 February 2011, 20:35
Maybe Vince Lombardi agrees with you, in a way.
I read somewhere that he stated, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the Only Thing.” And when he first arrived at Green Bay, he gave a talk to the team where he declared, “I didn’t come here for us just to be Good. We are going to constantly strive to be Excellent, even though we know that Excellence can never really be achieved.” Yep, Lombardi, The Individualist…
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