February 2024 – Finding Ourselves In The Bible

The Niners and the Chiefs will play the “Concussion Bowl –aka– the Super Bowl next Sunday in Las Vegas. For many millions it is the not to missed High Holy Day of American Civil Religion.

And I see on the internet that decent seats – not great but decent – can be had for about six grand. So, I find myself wondering:

What would I do if my doorbell rang, and a person handed me two fifty-yard-line seats, two first class tickets to and from Las Vegas and a voucher for five nights in a luxury suite on in one of the finest hotels on the Strip?

Oh, I would be tempted, but I hope I would decline the gift.

I hope I would decline the gift in the same way I hope that if I lived in ancient Rome, I would decline a ticket to see gladiators battle to the death for the amusement of the audience. If you look at the statistics, and they are irrefutable, you will see that American football is just a couple of degrees more civilized than the gladiatorial contests of ancient Rome!

According to Wikipedia based on a whole host of other sources as indicated by the footnotes:

“Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) has been found in 345 of 376 (that is 91.76 %) deceased former National Football League (NFL) players’ brains, according to a 2023 report by the Boston University CTE Center, which has led the effort to diagnose CTE cases. In comparison, a 2018 BU study of the general population found one CTE case in 164 autopsies, and that one person with CTE had played college football.^[1] The NFL acknowledged a link between playing American football and being diagnosed with CTE in 2016, after denying such a link for over a decade and arguing that players’ symptoms had other causes

Although the symptoms of CTE can vary, it doesn’t directly cause death but instead changes personality and behavior, making a person not feel like themselves anymore.^[15] Players with CTE can become isolated from their friends.^[16] Sometimes they become unable to tell a story,^[17] carry on a conversation,^[18] or recognize their loved ones.^[19] One former player later found to have CTE described having headaches that felt like ice picks hitting his brain.^[20]

Some former players with CTE suffer from memory loss and depression.^[21] Some players and those around them deal with their violent mood swings, rage,^[22] and paranoia.^[23][24] In some cases, damage to players’ brains contributes to severe alcoholism leading to death.^[25][26] Two former NFL Man of the Year winners suffering from CTE symptoms shot themselves in the chest so their brains could be studied for the damage inflicted by football.^[27][28]”(Dave Duerson and Junior Seau)

And speaking of injuries according to an article in the February 2020 issue of Forbes magazine:

No sport racks up injuries quite like football, so it’s no surprise that NFL teams spent an estimated $521 million on sidelined players during the 2019 season, according to a study by The Associated Press

521 million dollars

I think of the number of schools, low-income housing units, medical care facilities and other worthwhile causes that could be served by 521 million dollars annually. It sickens me to fathom that that money is going to treat injuries inflicted in the pursuit of spectator entertainment and the almighty dollars of ticket sale, TV, and advertising revenue.

As a Rabbi, but more importantly as a human being, created in God’s image, can I really be a fan or even an observer of a spectacle that shortens the lives and drastically reduces the quality of the post-career lives of the participants? Oh, like millions and millions of others, I used to be a fan, but several years ago I realized I can no longer be.

You see, where evil exists, we have a simple choice: We can be part of the problem or part of the solution.

“Whoa, whoa, Rabbi,” so many have responded, “Let’s not get carried away. The players know the risks, and they exercise their own free choice to participate.”

It is an argument that assuages the qualms of many but not me.

Are we not complicit in the life-altering and life-threatening injuries and early deaths of the players when we dangle untold riches and glamor before the eyes of the participants? I conclude that we are…no. matter how cute the commercials.

Therefore, though mine may be a lonely voice crying out to tuned out ears, I must say, “No,” to “The Concussion Bowl” and all the dementia-causing life-shortening contests that precede it.

When Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz saw a photo of Vickie when she was young on Facebook, she commented to me, ”You were clearly punching above your weight.”

I have never met Rabbi Hugenholtz in person, but clearly she was correct: in marrying Vickie I was ‘punching above my weight’. Nearly fifty years later I still am.

At the end of September 2022 Hurricane Ian hit and devastated our home in Sanibel Island. It was our “second hurricane” because a month earlier Vickie was diagnosed with Stage Three Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Six days before we had to evacuate the Island, she underwent her first of six chemotherapy treatments that were debilitating and that cost her all of her beautiful hair. But she beat back the disease and triumphantly “rang the bell” to symbolize the end of chemo at the renowned Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa.

The doctors told her she was ‘cancer free’.

You can imagine, therefore, how devastated we were to learn in November 2023 that Vickie, who had never smoked, had non-small cell lung cancer. She underwent major surgery at Moffit which took away the top third of her left lung.

Pain is not a strong enough word to describe what she has endured since.

But Vickie is a warrior. Her hair has grown back stronger than ever. Before chemo it was straight. Now it is curly. It looks, proud, fierce and beautiful. It typifies my wife.

After consultations with two oncologists, she will proceed with drug therapy to keep the cancer at bay. I will proudly carry the spear of Vickie, the Warrior Queen, as she fights and triumphs over this disease. I am in awe of her, and yes, Rabbi Hugenholtz, I am definitely, “punching above my weight.”