The one spectator sport that I am still really interested in is the NFL on television and I have to admit that this may not be for the best of reasons.

For starters, I like the pre-game shows. The ex-jocks and look-alike hosts laugh and joke and occasionally look serious for the camera. The manly kibitzing is a stage play for a receptive audience. The actors are Neanderthals and want everybody to know it. The subtext is that football and its participants are as near to gladiators-and-lions as we’re likely to get in these enlightened times.

I’m not sure that most people understand that the NFL on Sunday afternoon (and bleeding into evening) is the biggest show on earth, made so by the TV coverage. It’s also my sanctuary after a long work week and a usually hectic Saturday. The kids know that, starting at noon, daddy is to be left undisturbed to watch his football.

The NFL is all about emotion. It’s winners and losers and good guys versus bad guys. It’s spectacle and colour; passion and pain; sorrow, joy and triumph, all wrapped up in a single shiny package. Who can resist?

Now it’s time to reveal a secret. Against a background of big gestures, instant replays, overhead blimps and a cast of thousands, including the fans in the stands, the NFL is really a soap opera.

This week’s instalment will reveal which quarterback is still on a roll and which defensive end had to overcome the most difficult of beginnings. Who’s on the comeback trail and whose career has hit the skids? Will there be some bench warmer, normally dear only to his family, who will be inserted into a game somewhere to perform a miracle play that leads his team to victory?

The personal stories are what keep most people tuning in from week to week. It’s a tale filled with failures – after all, there can be only one winner at the end of the season – but there is also enduring hope for redemption. The commentators know this and are rarely shy when it comes to speaking about the “stuff of legend.”

Alex Carrick

Find Canadian construction-related economic articles in Canadian Construction Market News and in the Economic Outlook section of Daily Commercial News.

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