Vince Lombardi Trophy
Sports Saturday
Two weeks ago I reflected on the Baltimore Ravens and celebrated the fact that they owe their name to a poem. Their foe in the Super Bowl, the San Franciso 49ers, owe their name to something less elevated: the insane 1849 Gold Rush.
During that time period, Thomas Hood’s poem about gold, written earlier, became popular. It expresses the obsession with gold that many experienced in 1849, and it is akin to the obsession that football teams have with winning the Super Bowl. In its tangible form, the desire is for the Vince Lombardi trophy which, if we want to be strictly accurate, is sterling silver, not gold.
I particularly like the obsessive beat of Hood’s first line: “Gold, gold, gold, gold.” Meanwhile, “heavy to get and light to hold” describes the trophy perfectly.
“Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold”? Well, the NFL is definitely a billion dollar business with gambles made on men’s health and prospects, the players treated as financial assets and “what have you done for me lately?” the only guiding rule. (Witness Peyton Manning being cut from the Colts.)
How about “price of many a crime untold”? Well, there’s the seamy side of the NFL, whether it be Belichick’s spygate, Payton’s bountygate, injuries covered over, owners squeezing taxpayers and the players union.
Sometimes the grip leads to a thousandfold good: the tremendous pleasure we get from the game. Sometimes it leads to a thousandfold bad: players’ lives destroyed.
Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl, Super Bowl.
The Grip of Gold
By Thomas Hood
Gold, gold, gold, gold!
Bright and yellow, hard and cold,
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled,
Heavy to get and light to hold;
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold,
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled;
Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old
To the very verge of the churchyard mold,
Price of many a crime untold.
Gold, gold, gold, gold!
Good or bad a thousandfold!
How widely its agencies vary,
To save – to ruin – to curse – to bless -
As even its minted coins express:
Now stamped with the image of Good Queen Bess,
And now of Bloody Mary.
Another Super Bowl note: My friend John Morrow reminds me that a conundrum facing families all over the country last year will confront them again this year. Here’s my previous post on how novelist Tom Robbins handles the dilemma:
Downton Abbey vs. the Super Bowl
Other Previous Posts on Super Bowls
Eli, The Unpromising Youth of Fairy Tales
Rogers No Longer in Odysseus’ Shadow
A Champ on the Field, a Thug Elsewhere
Bread (Pretzels) and (Super Bowl) Circuses
Quarterback Poems for Inspiration
Beowulf and Rifts within the NFL
