The evolution of the NFL (and, in general, most professional sports) doesn’t stop there. Not only does its supercharged economy demand increasingly impressive physical specimens on the gridiron, we also want to see more and more of them! In 1943, the regular season was only 10 games long. Today, it is 16 games. That’s a 60% increase in games for regular season play. From 1933-1966, the post-season was comprised of a single championship game. In 1967, the post-season expanded, where four conference champions would meet at the NFL Playoffs, a two-round playoff. Today, there are 12 teams invited to the NFL Playoffs and 11 games are played. That’s an 1,100% increase in the length of the post-season.
Phew, that’s enough…I hope you get the point. America has demanded bigger players and more games. This essentially amounts to more awe-inspiring feats of physicality and more time spent in front of a television, or playing ESPN fantasy football, or betting, or…you get the point. There’s an entire economy built around the NFL, and not just a financial one (hence this blog). And this is just one professional sport we’re talking about here!
Have you ever been to a busy airport during football season? How about one which boasts a professional football team (or any professional team for that matter)? It’s like a sea of team colors has beset the crowd - hats, team jerseys, stickers, handbags, t-shirts, you name it. America loves its professional sports teams.
But why? This is the question I’ve been asking myself. Here’s what the Spirit has revealed to me.
The human flesh is bound to something I’ll dub “creature-credit”. “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever” (Romans 1:25). Creature-credit, as I’m describing it here, is the currency of the world’s economy. This economy is led by the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4), Satan. Just like a financial economy, in order to purchase, one must possess a sum of currency. Here’s where it gets tricky…
In Satan’s economy, people “earn” creature-credit by selling their core product, themselves. How much creature-credit a person is awarded depends upon what the demand is at the time they choose to put themselves up for sale. The NFL is a perfect microcosm of this. Have you ever seen the NFL pre-draft goings-on? It looks like the slave trade of old (I speak not of race here), grown men being paraded half-naked in front of potential buyers (not just team scouts, but since it’s televised, every fan sitting in an armchair at home). If a particularly impressive physical specimen walks on stage, you can literally hear the audience gasp. It’s utterly grotesque, but it fits perfectly into Satan’s economy. And, to be frank, those posing on stage are there because they want to sell their wares to the highest bidder.
The chances of the average person being awarded the same level of creature-credit as an NFL athlete is very low. So, the guy sitting at home with his beer belly watching all of this transpire says to himself, “Man, I’ll never measure up.” This is the critical point of the blog. People with the most creature-credit in Satan’s economy become idols. By definition, an idolater never measures up to their idols. The result is a concession in the soul that ought never take place. Instead of simply enjoying the sport, this person walks away with a large dose of insecurity; after all, they’ve been visually assaulted with, “You’ll never be as highly esteemed as your idols!”
So, what’s the next best thing for a person whose self-esteem has been decimated by their idolatry? What hope does the armchair quarterback who’s in bondage to this unholy economy ever have of enjoying some creature-credit of their own? Well, it turns out that glomming onto a professional team (or even an individual player on that team) is the next best thing. By simply associating with a team, especially one that is winning, a person can cling to something greater than themselves, like a parasite. Only instead of sucking blood, they lap up whatever creature-credit their idols and their handlers offer up as scraps.
Don’t “see” it yet? The next time you go to a public place of gathering, look around. In New England, when it’s football season, New England Patriots jerseys can be seen everywhere. My first question is always the same, “I wonder if that person is saved…I truly hope so.” With so many people supporting the NFL’s economy, is it fair to say that some of them, at least, represent Paul’s words, “For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25)?
To answer my own question regarding the post-season expansion in the NFL…why? Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? It’s economics 101 all over again. In any economy, if there’s a demand, suppliers will find a way to fulfill it. America demands idols on the basis of Satan’s economy, where creature-credit is the currency. We say stupid things like, “That’s my team!” Listen, unless you’re Robert Kraft, you have zero ownership of the New England Patriots. The best a person can ever hope for is a smidgen of creature-credit as other idolaters in this unholy economy nod their heads with respect, as if simply choosing a team and purchasing some fan paraphernalia is worthy of such things. That’s the pathetic nature of Satan’s economy; it’s filled with a small number of fat cats surrounded by millions of starving feral cats.
The truth is that if we dwell too long on all of this, it can bring our spirits quite low. Don’t feel alone, it had the same effect on Jesus Christ, Himself, when He experienced the wretchedness of this world.
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Jesus entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling, saying to them, “It is written, ‘AND MY HOUSE SHALL BE A HOUSE OF PRAYER,’ but you have made it a ROBBERS’ DEN.”
— Luke 19:41-46
Two key things are noteworthy in this passage, relative to this blog. First, Jesus wept over the depravity of Jerusalem. His heart was broken, having seen firsthand the effects of merchandising in an economy given to the affections of the devil. Second, when Jesus busted up the trade market in the temple, He provided a picture of the Lord’s general response to an unholy economy. Think about what God might have to say this coming Sunday (it’s football season at the time of this writing) when vast majorities of so-called “Christians” forgo attending a church service or spending any time giving thanks to God in order to secure their position in front of the television. Consider what God must think of this scene.
One last thought:
It makes total sense that we’ve seen a huge expansion in the NFL. The NFL Playoffs is merely a symptom, an answer to a demand. You see, a shorter season (e.g., one without the extended post-season) means there’s less for an insecure person to grab hold of, less for a fan to leach off of to feed their own insecurities. You may be saying, “Whoa, slow your roll, there’s nothing wrong with watching a football game!” I agree, there isn’t. That’s the excuse that everyone uses to cover up the truth, though. The truth is that man is always looking for an idol to cling to. It gives him a false sense of security for a time (no worries, in addition to football season, there’s baseball, basketball, soccer, etc....wash, rinse, repeat year after year). In fact, the more superior the idol, the more secure he feels. Just ask a Patriots fan (since 2001, the Patriots have won 6 Super Bowls). Tom Brady, the starting quarterback, is like a demigod in Massachusetts. Man asked, Satan delivered (I’m not positing Brady is from the devil, only that the promotion of him is).
As this world drifts further and further away from Christ, I fully suspect that it will continue to figure out ways to capitalize on the demands of the human flesh. Professional sports teams are only one identifiable area where Satan’s economy is thriving (e.g., new fads). The post-season expansion in the NFL is an indicator of a much larger issue, my friends. People have become increasingly dependent on alternatives to Christ. The more this occurs, the more backfilling is required.
To flee from Christ, our Creator, is to abandon any sense of security we might ever hope to have in this world. To become a member of the throng of idolaters painting their faces and wearing idolatrous game jerseys is to become a fool. What has the NFL post-season done for you, really, besides take more of your money and usher you further into the bondage of creature-credit? It’s a fair question we all need to ask ourselves, regardless of which sport (or fad, etc.) we might favor. Satan says, “Choose your poison!”…and poison it is.
Love in Christ,
Ed Collins
