The Real Winner of Super Bowl 50

The fiftieth Super Bowl ended on Sunday night with a final score of Panthers, 10 and Broncos, 24. But while many fans are taking this moment to congratulate their Bronco allies and scornfully ignore anyone who even thinks about mentioning affection for the Panthers, a small circle is celebrating the real victor of the match: the Football.

Long underappreciated by the public, the Football is now making a touchdown onto the scene. As grimelords mentioned on their Tumblr feed, “Wrapping up the Superbowl this year it seems the clear winner was The Football, having scored every point in the game. Congratulations Football”. Congratulations, indeed, Football. Yet again you have won a game with outstanding performance and yet again, you have been overlooked by experts and the media and made practically invisible.

One anonymous NFL player commented on the topic, “Where would we be without the football?” He could not be closer to the truth. Review the aspects of any football: it is brown and white and therefore celebrates diversity in its simple color scheme. Like all people, it has soft and hard edges, yet there are many sides to it, as there are multiple sides to the personality of any person. The football is neutral and can be used by both teams. It is the focal point that simultaneously unites and fosters adversity.

But conflict is not the football’s intent. Like any fought over object, land, person, or belief system, it has no beliefs of its own, but is only subject to those projected onto it. In this way, the football can be seen as representing the source of all human conflict. From the Football’s point of view, Super Bowl 50 was not about the race to a trophy, a raise on an already obscenely high salary, or a game at all. For the Football, commercialized sports may be about bringing people together despite their differences, melting hatred into sweat, and transforming fear into free throws.