Robert Lipsyte: Sports As A Lifeline
The Saints went marching out, an apt metaphor of Hurricane Katrina, even though it was part of football's footnote to the disaster. The New Orleans Saints played their NFL home games in the Superdome and thus needed a new home. For now, at least, the team's headquarters will be in San Antonio. Meanwhile, more important, hundreds of Pee Wee, high school and college football teams, as well as other fall sports, have also been displaced.
With Americans drowning in their attics, the postponement or relocation of games might seem trivial. But it's not. These games do need to go on.
"Sports needs to be restored as quickly as possible," says Ronald Kamm, immediate past president of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry. "It reduces stress, bonds people and offers a veneer of normalcy."
It might be only a veneer, but it's a critical one in the hurricane's swath -- Southern states where the passion for football appears almost religious.
"Southern football and evangelical religion are soul mates," says William Baker, a University of Maine historian who was known as the "Passing Parson," who quarterbacked Furman while preaching on Sundays in the 1950s. "You win or you lose, heaven or hell. There are definite rules, boundaries and clear measures of success."
Football became so important in the South, Baker said, because "manly prowess" became such a badge of courage for people "whose forefathers had tasted bitter defeat in the Civil War."
This is not just history. Political analyst James Carville, interviewed last week in The Washington Post, said: "Anybody who can't understand what football means to us doesn't understand what the heck goes on down there."
Carville, a Louisiana native who graduated from the college and law school of Louisiana State University, added: "It's unbelievable what LSU football does to the psychology of the state. If they play well on the 24th, it'll go a long, long way toward building back the morale of the people."
With Americans drowning in their attics, the postponement or relocation of games might seem trivial. But it's not. These games do need to go on.
"Sports needs to be restored as quickly as possible," says Ronald Kamm, immediate past president of the International Society for Sports Psychiatry. "It reduces stress, bonds people and offers a veneer of normalcy."
It might be only a veneer, but it's a critical one in the hurricane's swath -- Southern states where the passion for football appears almost religious.
"Southern football and evangelical religion are soul mates," says William Baker, a University of Maine historian who was known as the "Passing Parson," who quarterbacked Furman while preaching on Sundays in the 1950s. "You win or you lose, heaven or hell. There are definite rules, boundaries and clear measures of success."
Football became so important in the South, Baker said, because "manly prowess" became such a badge of courage for people "whose forefathers had tasted bitter defeat in the Civil War."
This is not just history. Political analyst James Carville, interviewed last week in The Washington Post, said: "Anybody who can't understand what football means to us doesn't understand what the heck goes on down there."
Carville, a Louisiana native who graduated from the college and law school of Louisiana State University, added: "It's unbelievable what LSU football does to the psychology of the state. If they play well on the 24th, it'll go a long, long way toward building back the morale of the people."