Football— the language of US politics while baseball
reflects the American Dream
by
Howard Richler
This Feb 4th marks Superbowl LII, arguably the biggest sporting
event of the year in North America. For those who aren’t aficionados of the sport
of football, bear in mind that you should at least understand its lingo in order to comprehend American
politics. This epiphany came to me last March when I was watching a CNN panel discussion on the attempt by
Republicans to reach an agreement on repealing and replacing Obamacare. Before
a vote on this issue was scheduled to occur, one analyst stated that “going
into the locker room at half-time the Republicans realized that they had placed
no points on the board.” After the vote to repeal was cancelled due to the lack
of support for the motion another commentator said, “they{the Republicans}
punted.” And if you don’t agree with the political opinions being offered by
someone, it’s best to call them an “armchair quarterback.” This can be defined
as someone whose opinions can be discounted because of their lack of expertise
or experience to defend their position. I espied one online headline that
stated that “In Political Discourse, Social Media Has No Shortage of Armchair
Quarterbacks.”
This is but Exhibit A proving that politics is merely
a slightly less concussed version of football. For example, a “Hail Mary” pass
in football is one with low probability of success and is therefore only
attempted in dire circumstances, such as the last play of the game. So when Al
Gore selected Joe Lieberman as his running mate in 2000, language columnist
William Safire quipped “Only in America can you turn to a Jew for your Hail
Mary pass” because Lieberman had been one of the few Democrats to castigate
Bill Clinton for his sexual peccadilloes. Another football term oft used in
politics is “ground game” and years ago I heard several commentators attribute Obama’s
two electoral victories to a strong “ground game,” which refers to strong local organizations and systematic
grass roots activity with direct contact with voters. Still another football
term that has reached the political arena is “blindsided.” Since the 17th century “blind side”
has referred to the obscured part of one’s field of vision but by the 1970s in
football it came to mean to tackle or block an opponent from the blind side. If
the block has come from behind it will result in a major penalty against the
blocker’s team. Here again the use of the term has expanded. You will find many
references on how investors were “blindsided” by the recession that began in
December 2007 and ended in June 2009.
Also, I entered “blindside + Trump” into Google and received 374,000
hits! For example, one headline declared “Trump’s Tweets Often Blindside Advisers
in High Level Policy Discussions.”
Some years ago I attended a lecture in Montreal by
Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua in which he explained that national literatures
exhibit particular motifs and that the crux of American literature is the
pursuit of the American Dream — success. So
while football terms may be the preferred sports vehicle to describe events in the
political arena, baseball metaphors reign supreme in describing the American
obsession with perceived success. Many
baseball phrases are metaphors for success, and when we “step up to plate”
hopefully we’ll be successful we’re and “have a lot on
the ball,” “a lot of clout,” “perform in the clutch,” “cover all the bases” and
“make a hit.” Those with the greatest influence in society are called “heavy
hitters,” and ultimate success is dubbed “batting one thousand.” In some ways
this association of successful baseball hitting with success is ironic because
as former baseball great Ted Williams said: “Baseball is the only field of
endeavour where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a
good performer.”
There is even a subset of baseball terms to measure
success in the sexual arena. A man who
is trying to seduce a woman runs the
risk of “striking out” and that it’s worse if you strike out “swinging” rather than “looking” (not swinging) because
the former implies you gave it your best effort and still failed. And as is
well-known, the base a man reaches highlights his level of success. First base=
kissing, second base= moderate fondling,
third base=extreme fondling with the ultimate goal being of hitting a home run,
i.e. scoring. Still other baseball terms
relate to sexual preference rather than success. In baseball, a switch hitter is one who can bat
from either side of the plat;, in sexual terms this person is bisexual. Someone
who “plays for the other team” is gay.
Historian Jacques Barzun said that “whoever wants to
know the heart and mind of America had better know baseball. Agreed, however, some knowledge of football is
probably necessary to understand the bizarre world of American politics.
Richler’s latest book is Wordplay: Arranged and Deranged Wit.
