Why I Am Watching Football Tonight

I am watching football tonight.

I am not watching football tonight because I agree with Colin Kaepernick (I don’t) or because I agree with Donald Trump (I don’t).

I am not watching football tonight because I agree with the players who wish to kneel in support of Kaepernick’s lead (I don’t) or because I sympathize with the NFL owners who wish to do whatever is their best option to maximize their profits (I don’t).

I am not watching football tonight because of my resigned, weary feelings towards a multi-billion-dollar maker of overpriced shoes, with decades of commercial success thanks to marketing savvy and decades of notoriety for exploiting workers in sweatshops, which now in its marketing brilliance has decided to exploit our own mindless political divisions for its own profit.

I am watching football tonight because I enjoy watching NFL football. I enjoy the athleticism, the speed, the strategy, the unpredictability. I enjoy watching the greatest QB and coach of all time lead my favorite team for as long as they still can. I think it’s a great game.

That’s why I am watching football tonight. Because I like it.

If you want to be subversive, if you want to be an individual, if you want to be (sad to say) different, here’s the best thing you can do: Watch football tonight if you like football. Don’t watch football tonight if you don’t like football.

No politics. No virtue-signaling. No retreating into the safe space of what’s supposed to be your little political tribe.

The boldest political statement you can make is the statement that our every decision does not need to be, and in fact cannot be, a political statement if we are going to stay healthy (or perhaps regain our health) as a culture.  If you find that your daily relations, your purchasing decisions, your decisions of what sports to watch, your friendships are being driven or even significantly shaped by whether you align yourself with the left or right, you are being played for a fool by the powerful. You are being manipulated. And you need to rediscover the joy and skill of thinking for yourself.

If you like football, watch football. If you don’t like football, don’t watch football.

Just do… what you please.

That is all.