Tag Archives: Football

“East of Eden” and the Harbaugh Bowl

By Robin Bates | Published: February 9, 2013

The Harbaughs’ Super Bowl Rivalry brings to mind the sibling rivalry in Steinbeck’s “East of Eden.”

Posted in Steinbeck (John) | Also tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

The 49ers’ Rush for Super Bowl Gold

By Robin Bates | Published: February 2, 2013

The 49ers rush for the Super Bowl is like the 49ers rush in 1849.

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Belichick and Saban: Infernal Machines

By Robin Bates | Published: January 19, 2013

Belichick and Saban resemble Jean Cocteau’s “Infernal Machine” and Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit.

Posted in Cocteau (Jean), O'Connor (Flannery) | Also tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ravens Say “Nevermore” to Opponents

By Robin Bates | Published: January 12, 2013

The Baltimore Ravens may be the only professional team named after a poem. The words fit the team.

Posted in Poe (Edgar Allan) | Also tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

If They Lose, Irish Can Turn to Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: January 5, 2013

Even if they lose the national championship game, the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame have Ireland’s poetic legacy to fall back on.

Posted in Joyce (James), Swift (Jonathan), Yeats (William Butler) | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Roll On, Thou Alabama Crimson Tide, Roll

By Robin Bates | Published: December 22, 2012

Byron’s “deep and dark blue ocean” rolls on and so does the Alabama Crimson Tide.

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NFL Rookie QBs and Mac the Knife

By Robin Bates | Published: December 8, 2012

RGIII, Russell Wilson, and Andrew Luck are escape artists in the mode of Mac the Knife.

Posted in Gay (John), Harris (Joel Chandler), Homer, St. Vincent Millay (Edna) | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Peyton Manning and the Maltese Falcon

By Robin Bates | Published: December 1, 2012

“The Maltese Falcon” captures the existential absurdity of Peyton Manning in a Broncos’ uniform.

Posted in Hammett (Dashiell) | Also tagged , , | 3 Comments

Be of Stout Heart, Gridiron Greats

By Robin Bates | Published: November 24, 2012

Notre Dame’s return to football prominence brings to mind ther great programs from the past.

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Packers Screwed in Update of “The Jungle”

By Robin Bates | Published: September 26, 2012

The locked-out NFL refs bring to mind the exploited workers in Upton Sinclair’s “Jungle.”

Posted in Sinclair (Upton) | Also tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Joe Paterno, a Modern Day Oedipus

By Robin Bates | Published: July 14, 2012

The lessons of the Sophocles play “Oedipus” can be applied to disgraced Penn State coach Joe Paterno.

Posted in Sophocles | Also tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Eli, the Unpromising Youth of Fairy Tales

By Robin Bates | Published: February 7, 2012

Eli Manning is like the unpromising younger brother in fairy tales who surprises his elders and takes home the gold.

Posted in Ruskin (John) | Also tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

No Man Is an Island (Not Even Revis)

By Robin Bates | Published: October 19, 2011

New York Jet Darrelle Revis may be single man island who can shut down any receiver who comes near, but ultimately he must acknowledge, like John Donne, that no man is an island.

Posted in Donne (John) | Also tagged , , | 1 Comment

Obama’s Locker Room Speech

By Robin Bates | Published: September 9, 2011

President Obama’s jobs speech last night resembled a coach’s half time speech to a team that feels on the ropes. The Al Pacino speech in Oliver Stone’s “Any Given Sunday” comes to mind.

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Après Peyton, le Déluge

By Robin Bates | Published: September 8, 2011

News that Peyton Manning may be out for part or all of the upcoming football season puts me in mind of the future of the Geats after Beowulf’s death.

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Memories of My Son, the Baseball Player

By Robin Bates | Published: April 30, 2011

I hope I may be excused for revisiting a poem I have posted on before, along with some of my previous observations about it. It is a sports poem that brings to mind my oldest son, who died 11 years ago on this day. Dabney Stuart’s “Ties” is out of season—it’s about football—and Justin’s sport was baseball. Nevertheless I feel awash in sadness and sweet memory when I read it.

Posted in Dabney (Stuart) | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

Judge Doty in the Role of Deus ex Machina

By Robin Bates | Published: March 5, 2011

Sports Saturday Negotiations between the National Football League owners and the Players Association were at an impasse. The owners locking out the players seemed all but inevitable, along with suspension of the 2011 season.  Then the goddess Athena stepped in.  Taking the form of U.S. District Judge David Doty, she ordered the two sides to [...]

Posted in Beowulf Poet, Homer | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments closed

Post Football Season Blues

By Robin Bates | Published: February 19, 2011

  Sports Saturday For American football fans, February is the cruelest month. Suddenly there are no Sundays to look forward to anymore. Suddenly there are no players or coaches or owners to excoriate. Suddenly there is, well, emptiness. It may be pushing it, but for me, the feeling is captured by a 1960’s Flannery O’Connor [...]

Posted in O'Connor (Flannery) | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

A Champ on the Field, a Thug Elsewhere

By Robin Bates | Published: February 5, 2011

Sports Saturday Although it is a downer on the eve of Super Bowl Sunday, I can’t help but think of Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger through the lens of Joyce Carol Oates’ terrifying short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” This is one reason I will be not be rooting for the [...]

Posted in Oates (Joyce Carol) | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Rex Ryan, a Modern Day Falstaff

By Robin Bates | Published: January 22, 2011

Sports Saturday As we move towards the NFL’s conference championships, one of the most interesting stories continues to be loud-mouthed Rex Ryan, the 350-pound coach of the New York Jets. If his team were to win its third straight road game tomorrow, it would be, in the words of Sport Illustrated’s Rick Reilly, the “greatest [...]

Posted in Shakespeare (William) | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

A Poem for Every Playoff Team

By Robin Bates | Published: January 15, 2011

Sports Saturday For the football games this weekend, I found a passage from a poem or passage from a poem that pertains to the name of each team. Enjoy. Atlanta Falcons vs. Green Bay Packers The high-flying Atlanta Falcons boast, among other things, the incomparable receiver Roddy White, who soars skyward to pull down passes. [...]

Posted in Browning (Robert), Hopkins (Gerard Manley), Jarrell (Randall), Poe (Edgar Allan), Ryan (Kay), Schwartz (Delmore), Sinclair (Upton), Wright (James) | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

Peyton Manning as Moby Dick?!

By Robin Bates | Published: January 7, 2011

Sports Saturday In anticipation of football’s “Wild Card Weekend,” which begins today, I see that a sports writer has invoked Herman Melville’s masterpiece. Dan Graziano believes that Indianapolis Colt quarterback Peyton Manning has become Rex Ryan’s Moby Dick. He has beaten the New York Jets coach so many times that Ryan has become obsessed with [...]

Posted in Kipling (Rudyard), Melville (Herman), Steinbeck (John), Tennyson (Alfred Lord) | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

2010 Sports, Seen through Literature

By Robin Bates | Published: January 1, 2011

Sports Saturday – 2010 in Review Since New Year’s Day falls on a “Sports Saturday” this year, I’ll take the occasion to review the year in sports through the vantage point of renewal. The first year of the new decade had a number of joyous firsts. It was a year when the city of New [...]

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Bill Belichick as Professor Moriarty

By Robin Bates | Published: December 18, 2010

Sports Saturday The New England Patriots are dominating the National Football League once again, and as an Indianapolis Colts fan I find this development depressing.  Over the past decade the Colts and Patriots have had the game’s fiercest rivalry, and fans of each team routinely root against whichever team is playing the other.  I am [...]

Posted in Doyle (Arthur Conan) | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

What to Make of a Diminished Peyton

By Robin Bates | Published: December 11, 2010

Sports Saturday “The question that he frames in all but words,” Robert Frost writes in his “Ovenbird” sonnet, “is what to make of a diminished thing.”  This poem has always had a special place in my heart. The ovenbird is not a bird that sings when June is bustin’ out all over. Rather, it is [...]

Posted in Frost (Robert) | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Michael Vick and the Scarlet Letter

By Robin Bates | Published: November 27, 2010

Sports Saturday Quarterback Michael Vick of the Philadelphia Eagles continues to be the most interesting story in American sports. After spending two years in jail for participating in dog fighting, against all predictions he has emerged to become one of the most dynamic players in the National Football League. In the last three weeks he [...]

Posted in Hawthorne (Nathaniel) | Also tagged , , , , , , | Comments closed

Manning vs. Brady, Hector vs. Achilles

By Robin Bates | Published: November 20, 2010

Sports Saturday Tomorrow will witness the fiercest rivalry in American football—and maybe in American sports—as Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts travels to Boston to play against Tom Brady of the New England Patriots. Many are beginning to believe that football has never seen a quarterback rivalry that matches this one. Which of the two [...]

Posted in Homer | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

The Suicidal Beauty of Football

By Robin Bates | Published: November 6, 2010

Sports Saturday I’ve always been haunted by James Wright’s poem about high school football in working class Ohio. Wright’s fathers, living ruptured lives, hope for some kind of escape, some kind of renewed virility, through the football prowess of their teenage sons. Perhaps picking up on their parents’ desperation, their sons “gallop terribly” against each [...]

Posted in Wright (James) | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Football’s Culture of Violence – A Response

By Robin Bates | Published: October 23, 2010

Sports Saturday Discussion of violent football hits has dominated the sports airwaves ever since the nation witnessed a series of frightening high-impact collisions last weekend.  In apparent panic, the National Football League has been handing out large fines and threats of suspension to players, including a $75,000 fine to James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers [...]

Posted in Atwood (Margaret) | Also tagged , , , | Comments closed

Real Men Play Football AND Read Poetry

By Robin Bates | Published: October 16, 2010

Sports Saturday Professional football is a super violent sport and its 16-game season is a war of attrition. One never knows, from one week to the next, what team will have its Super Bowl hopes derailed by critical injuries. For a while this year, everyone was certain that the NFC would send either the New [...]

Posted in Browning (Robert), Cather (Willa), Homer, Tennyson (Alfred Lord) | Also tagged , | Comments closed

Washing Away Michael Vick’s Sins

By Robin Bates | Published: October 3, 2010

Spiritual Sunday In a follow-up to yesterday’s post on football quarterback Michael Vick, I want to elaborate further on Coleridge’s argument for penance. Penance is not only the right thing to do. It also can make you feel very, very good. Coleridge gives us images in Rime of the Ancient Mariner that drive this point [...]

Posted in Coleridge (Samuel Taylor), Eliot (T.S.) | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments closed

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