Nancyboys and Fairies League (part 3)

One of the biggest differences between American Football and Sports As Practiced Elsewhere In The World is this business of pointing at the sky after a touchdown. With the exception of the Brazilian football team, very few sports teams or players around the world make such a big deal out of thanking their god when something goes right. But in the NFL, it's a very rare game when some player doesn't do this.

Now, I'm not interested in telling people what to believe in. If you want to believe that there's an invisible old man who lives in the sky who helps you score, then that's your bag. It would be nice, however, to actually get to ask some of these people what they think they are doing.

Let's briefly touch upon the staggering hubris involved in a player who believes that their god favours them over the other team. Why? On what grounds? Is this one of those theistic circular arguments that goes "we couldn't score if god doesn't want us to so the fact that we did proves that god loves us more than the other guys"?

And why thank your god when you score, but don't get annoyed with him when you don't? We never hear players grumbling that they would have scored if "god hadn't made them fumble". Why not?

And what about winning and losing? All credit to The Invisible Sky Buddy when you win, but nobody blames the big guy when they lose. Why not? In preseason week 1, god liked the Patriots, Green Bay and Seattle, and on his holy hit list were the Bengals, the Eagles and the Cowboys. By week 2, god shed his loving countenance upon the Bengals, the Eagles and the Cowboys, and gave the divine middle finger to the Patriots, Green Bay and Seattle. My, capricious, isn't he?

So why don't they blame their chosen deity, even when there may be a logical reason for the loss? Take T.O. and his "god wants me to win the Super Bowl" lines from earlier this year. How about reading the bible and looking to see what it says about pride and humility? Why has nobody thought that the Eagles lost the Super Bowl because Owen's unfeasible arrogance and presumption verily caused the Lord to be mightily pissed, and thus a swift lesson in humility was formulated. Pity it didn't work.

I'll leave with this thought:

It's a shame god spends so much time helping professional sports players that he has no time for all the kids with cancer.