The NFL, Saints, and Vince Lombardi

It's not exactly news that the NFL is very popular.  The league gets paid more than $3 billion a year for the broadcasting rights to its games, and beginning in 2014, when new, still-to-be-negotiated contracts begin, that number is likely to double.  The NFL can command such high prices because the NFL dominates TV ratings, and it’s getting more dominant all the time.  This fall,  13 of the 15 most watched broadcasts have been NFL games.  Why do so many of us watch?  Undoubtedly, there are many reasons.  For instance, NPR credits HD, slow motion, and the NFL's efforts to interest women in the game.  However, the NFL itself understands what the fundamental draw is, and the NFL put a spotlight on it before the start of last night’s Jets – Broncos game, which happened to be broadcast on the NFL’s own network.  You may watch the video by clicking on the link above.  In tight close up, we see the face of a key player or head coach reciting a portion of a series of quotations from Vince Lombardi, the great coach in whose honor the NFL’s championship trophy is named. 

Here is the text:

“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing.  You don’t win once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time.

“Every time a football player goes to play he's got to play from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head.  Every inch of him has to play.  Some guys play with their heads.  But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body.  The object is to win fairly, squarely, by the rules – but to win.”

Advancement in the spiritual life requires great effort and dedication.  To those wishing to advance in the spiritual life, the Church, from the days of St. Paul, has proposed soldiers and athletes as models, since they must likewise endure hardship to achieve their objects..  In the hyper-violent game of football, the soldier and athlete are combined as in no other sport.  The profoundly Catholic Vince Lombardi, who was not only educated by Jesuits (back when that meant something), but who also inscribed one of his Super Bowl rings in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and the other to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, understood instinctively the similarity between the effort demanded of winning football players and the dedication required of saints.  By substituting “saint” for football player, and “attaining sanctity” for “winning” in the above quotations, this becomes clear:

“Attaining sanctity is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing.  You don’t attain sanctity once in a while, you don’t do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time.

“Every time a saint strives after heaven he's got to strive after heaven from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head.  Every inch of him has to strive after heaven.  Some saints strive after heaven with their heads.  But more importantly, you've got to strive with your heart, with every fiber of your body.  The object is to get to heaven fairly, squarely, by the rules – but to get to heaven.”

So, when watching the NFL, we are absorbed by a drama which parallels, albeit on a lower plane, the drama of our own individual struggles after sanctity, the struggle for which we were made.  In enduring hardship for the sake of achieving his goal the football player does as we know in our hearts we must do to achieve our spiritual object.  However, the pleasure in watching football is merely vicarious, since even if our team wins, it doesn't make us champions.  Getting to heaven, is of course, open to all, but I fear that very few are inspired by the example of football players to strive with greater dedication towards sanctity.  Maybe that's because nowadays, unlike when Vince Lombardi was being formed in the Faith, so few are taught the importance of doing so.