What I watched Monday night through Tuesday afternoon this week is a snapshot, not just of where we are as a culture, but who we are as a people.
Reactions to a professional football player being resuscitated on the field alongside the goings-on of federal legislators the following day was a jarring and revelatory experience. We should step back and take notice.
Trying to elect a speaker
I’ll start with the boring part—watching government proceedings on C-SPAN.
Tuesday afternoon, I tuned into several hours of the first day of the 118th U.S. Congress, during which the U.S. House of Representatives held three votes for the next Speaker of the House. I didn’t watch every minute of all 434 votes cast each of three times, and I don’t plan on watching remaining rounds. Rather, I had the droning roll-call vote playing as I worked and ran errands.
What is generally a one-ballot formality turned into a six-votes-and-counting history-making event. The last time representatives needed more than one vote to elect a new Speaker of the House was in 1923, and it took nine ballots.
It’s no wonder the opening hours of the 118th Congress received less attention from the viewing public than did a few seconds the night before.
Trying to save a safety
Jon Lewis—known as Paulsen—predicted 22.85 million people would watch the NFL Monday Night Football game between the Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals, making it the most-watched Monday night football game since 2001.
I don’t know the official tally, but let’s assume 20 million people were watching as Bills’ safety Damar Hamlin collapsed after tackling Bengals’ wide receiver Tee Higgins in the first quarter of the game.
What those millions of viewers didn’t know at the time was Hamlin’s heart had stopped. Most viewers assumed he passed out, perhaps from a concussion. We’ve grown used to players passing out during football games.
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What looked like just another football player passing out turned into a traumatizing scene that captured the collective attention of millions. Millions watched medical staff work to save Hamlin’s life and then watched him transported off the field by ambulance to a hospital where his uncle said he was resuscitated again.
“Thoughts and prayers” have poured in steadily for Hamlin since then, and NFL teams and players have joined cause in shows of support for “No. 3.” This is all for the good.
‘Ready to die for this’
While sports commentator Skip Bayless was blasted for his tweet about postponing the rest of the Monday night game, former NFL player Ryan Clark was lauded for what he said on ESPN’s Sportscenter in response to Hamlin’s collapse. It’s Clark’s words that captured my attention and echoed through the droning roll-call votes on Tuesday.
Clark noted NFL players often say they are “ready to die for this”—for living their dream of playing professional football. He called it a cliché.
“Part of living this dream is putting your life at risk,” he added.
“Tonight … we got to see a side of football that is extremely ugly, … a side of football that no one ever wants to see or never wants to admit exists,” Clark said.
The next day, 434 men and women went to a place where being “ready to die for this” has a particularly chilling ring and alludes to a different kind of fight.
Tuesday afternoon, the fight was much more subtle. Rep. Jim Jordan (R.-Ohio) opened the second round of voting by nominating Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) for Speaker of the House. Jordan praised McCarthy’s “fight” and “tenacity.”
He then quoted his “favorite Scripture verse,” 2 Timothy 4:7, “Paul the old guy giving advice to the young guy, and he says: ‘Fight the good fight. Finish the course. Keep the faith.’”
Jordan likes the verse, “because it’s a verse of action—fight, finish, keep—not wimpy words, words that I think fit America. That’s what the American people want us to do. They want us to fight for the things they care about and they elected us to do.”
Americans certainly care about football.
Like Clark alluding to the rarified air of professional sports, Jordan pointed out the privilege so few have had to serve as U.S. representatives. Both said their job is to fight for someone else. Both know we’re watching.
The differences and similarities between Monday night and Tuesday afternoon are jarring and revelatory indeed.
What all of this says about us
We don’t yet know if sudden cardiac arrest would have happened to Hamlin anyway, regardless of where he was or what he was doing. But we do know enough football players are willing to die playing the game that their willingness is cliché.
And why would they be willing to take that risk? Is football, by itself, that great? Or is it the money to be made, the fame to be had, the worship and adulation from the fans? Aren’t we some of the fans?
Aren’t we some of the ticket holders? Don’t we watch the sportscasts paid for by well-heeled advertisers? Don’t we buy, wear and display the team gear? Don’t we arrange Sundays so we can get home from church before kick-off—or skip church altogether lest we miss those precious opening seconds?
What does it say about us that we are so passionate about football that young men dream of playing it professionally? What does it say about us that our passion for the NFL is so thick these young men are willing to die to play at that level?
Clark wasn’t wrong. But we didn’t see something ugly only about football. If we pay attention to more than just Monday night, we’ll see something ugly about us we don’t want to admit. We’ll see we’re willing for our entertainment and our government to get ugly so long as it’s a good fight.
Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected]. The views expressed are those solely of the author.
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