Zizek: Love as a Political Category

Searle on Intentionality and Perception

Thoughts on Superbowl

Thoughts on Superbowl XLIX

• Patriots vs. Seahawks. The sports book calls it a pick ’em. Turns out to be a pretty thrilling game between two teams I don’t like.
• Katie Perry was very entertaining at half time. Big show for a big stage. Well done.
• The vaunted Superbowl ads were just so-so. The “lost dog” ad seemed to be a favorite, but it was just emotionally manipulative. Wait…all ads are manipulative. Okay, I liked it. I wept. Not.
• Loved the Seahawks’ call to go for the TD at the end of the half. Bold in a big, close game.
• LOVED the catch by Jermaine Kearse to keep the Seahawks, trailing by 4 points with just minutes to play, in the game. It would be known as The Catch, if things had turned out differently.
• Loved the run by Marshawn Lynch to take the ball to the 1 yard line with seconds to play. Victory a yard away, he must be thinking. Just one more carry. I am LARGE, I am INVINCIBLE. Just GIVE ME THE BALL!
• On 2nd down, the Seahawks call a slant route (!), which is intercepted. The Seahawks snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Stunning. This will probably go down in infamy as “The Call”.
• Apparently, according to Doug Baldwin, the new way to do a touchdown dance is to simulate pooping. Who knew?
• Both teams show their true colors by having a ridiculous, embarrassing fight at the end of the game. Perfect.

So, what does that one play mean? It depended on the outcome. Let’s examine two alternatives, one speculative, one actual.
A. Let Lynch Run the Ball (LLRB): 1 yard run, touchdown, time expires, Seahawks win.
B. Actual (The Call): Patriots intercept, run out the clock, win.

If A, then Kearse’s catch goes down in history (along with the Immaculate Reception and the Helmet Catch) as one of the greatest of all times. Chris Matthews, who never caught a ball in the NFL, might win MVP (maybe), or Russell Wilson gets it instead for beating both Manning and Brady in consecutive Superbowls, or maybe Marshawn Lynch gets it just so we can hear him say NOTHING after the game. Hard to say (no pun intended). Meanwhile, question about Brady abound. He’s 37. He can no longer finish. He made some very bad passing decisions. Maybe it’s time for a change. The Karma argument ascends (deflation-gate meant they had it coming).
But it was B. So Brady is MVP (!), but no one can say why. He is tied for the most Superbowl wins, of course, so the Legend continues. The Catch is quickly forgotten (hardly any discussion of it on the sports stations this morning. The Call is the main topic of conversation and not the performance of the Patriots (which was good, but perhaps not great). The Patriots didn’t win; the Seahawks lost.
And fortunes changed hands, contract potentials have shifted, the rosters of the teams (the Seahawks in particular) are up in the air.
It was a good day.
I guess.