Philosopher Marshall McLuhan once said that the media is the opium of the people…
Nothing could be more true. McLuhan, who died in 1980, was featured in Woody Allen’s best film, Annie Hall. McLuhan’s thoughts are now reality. The NFL and college football have taken over America above all else.
Even our Kansas City Star runs quarter page or better front page stories on our lowly Chiefs and other football related issues on nearly a daily basis. It’s that big. This in a city that has for the most part terrible football teams other than Kansas State.
That said, the football Messiah has arrived!
His name is Johnny Manziel, better known now as JOHNNY FOOTBALL.
He’s the quarterback of Texas A & M, and a FRESHMAN. His likes have never been seen before. He will win the Heisman beating out Notre Dame’s Manti Te’o. Why? In just one year he has passed former Heisman winner, Cam Newton‘s record setting career at Auburn. Johnny Football has 1,181 yards rushing, with 19 TD’s, 3,419 yards passing and 24 TD’s. He passed Newton in fewer games.
Cam won the Heisman by a landslide and Cam’s team won the national title. Johnny’s team lost two games and has won 10. They did lose to BCS teams – LSU 24-19 and Florida 20-17 – but defeated the soon to be national champ Alabama 29-24.
Texas A&M’s loses were a few weeks back. The Bama win was recent. Some feel they are today’s best team.
Why? Simple, JOHNNY FOOTBALL.
The nation has just begun it’s love affair with this kid from Texas.
Remember the movie ROLLER BALL with James Caan? Where Jonathan became god-like in the world’s most popular game, roller ball? Now it’s football and this guy is off the charts. His one year career is a You Tube video highlight film.
He’s not human!
They chant Manziel’s name. He went down last week against MU, who they buried, and the crowd started chanting…JOHNNY, JOHNNY…it was like the movie! He has his own band music – “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again.”
There was Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Cam Newton and many others, but this kid might be THE GUY. Too bad he’s a freshman or he would be our No. 1 pick next year for quarterback of the Chiefs.
Wow, would that change things around here!
Football is not for everyone, true.
But it’s bigger in the media today than anything else ever has been since World War II.
On Saturday and Sundays alone there are more than 40 games on TV. And that doesn’t include Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and college games during the week.
On Saturday CBS, NBC, ABC, ESPN ONE, ESPN TWO, ESPN THREE, KCTV AND another five or so cable channels carry game after game after game – including into the early morning hours sometimes with west coast games like Arizona and UCLA.
AND NONE OF THESE TEAMS are even near here!
One big reason football is huge is gambling.
Billions of dollars. Though only legal in Vegas and a few other cities, many men throw a few bucks at a game weekly somewhere – either online, or with a buddy, a bookie on and on. Even sports talk guys talk about how they won or lost.
Johnny Football is the final example of HOW BIG this sport is to America.
Remember the Godfather movie where the Meyer Lansky character tells Michael Corleone “We are bigger than US Steel.” In the film he was actually Hyman Roth but he was really a Lansky figure. Well so is Football today, not that US Steel is what it was.
So here come the bowl games and here comes Johnny Football…the new “Messiah” of America’s No. 1 Drug, Football.
“Cam won the Heisman by a landslide. Cam’s team didn’t win the national title.” JFC, Glazer! Auburn DID win the national title with Cam Newton at the helm. For the love of GOD, man! Do you do ANY RESEARCH????????????????
this is what i’m talking about….hearne this is a joke….writer making
huge mistakes constantly….where are the real journalists?
i mean this was not even close……where do youget these writers?
I mean where do you get these guys like this guy?
hahahaha…just kidding….glaze made a freaking mistake….
lighten up guy….he’s not writing for the washington post…this
is kcc for god’s sake.
and besides…i’m the only one who’s always right on this site (lol)!
Clearly a typo by the editor, of course I knew that, try reading the story hater, see what it is about…research got this great story up…I think you knew that that was a typo, you are just a hateful jerk after reading not to be one, so let me brake the truce, you are a just that…worthless.
not Harley the other guy…by the way he knew it was a typo…thats all haters can do, find any reason to be what they are.
Without the mob & gambling, the NFL would have never happened. Arguably, Al Capone was the founder of the National Football League.
I prefer this McLuhan quote, The media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered. The medium is the massage.
It will be interesting to see if the gray-backs who vote in the Heisman will vote in a freshman?
Yep.
Massage, is the original quote.
🙂
Actally, he said “The medium is the message.”
Glazer just initiated his latest column, with a nod to freakin Marshal McLuhan.
Not Lindsey Lohan, Marshal McLuhan.
The irony of the medium being the message in a post from Glaze is not lost on we plebes.
Nice.
Orphan is right, the only real reason to watch football is to gamble on it.
Thanks Al.
“Religion is the opiate of the people”.
Karl Marx
It isn’t necessary to have relatives in Kansas City in order to be unhappy.
Groucho Marx
Mustard’s no good without roast beef.
Chico Marx
“She’s a lovely person. She deserves a good husband. Marry her before she finds one.”
Harpo Marx
I’d rather have a bottle in front of than a frontal lobotomy.
Unknown
I’ve been a frequent critic of the amount of coverage the Chiefs get on the front page of The Star and will continue to be until the current editor, the paper’s former sports editor, comes to his senses (if he ever does). The Chiefs move to LA within the next three or four years? Front page. The Chiefs remain in KC and win the Super Bowl in 2026 (see earlier poem)? Front page. Other than that I really don’t want to read about them on the front page unless they’re visiting the sick in area hospitals, delivering groceries to the poor, thanking our soldiers at Fort Leavenworth for their service to our country, building new houses in Joplin or something like that. And no sports-related columns on the front page either! Is any of this too much to ask? Just some sanity and balance, that’s all I want from the McClatchy version of Mr. Nelson’s creation. Football on TV? Surely we’ve reached the saturation point.
Johnny on the Spot (as performed by the A & M cheerleaders)
“Johnny, Johnny, you’re so hot!
Take the ball and show us what you’ve got!
Find a receiver, there’s one in the slot,
Then go for a touchdown, just give it a shot!
Johnny Football, right on the dot,
He’s only a freshman but we love him a lot!
He don’t drink beer, he don’t smoke pot,
He’s gotta be the Savior A & M’s sought!
Johnny, Johnny, we’re hot to trot –
Put your backfield in motion, but don’t get caught!”
Fate Is Such a Cruel Thing!
Fleet of foot and with a “gun” for an arm, he’s clad in Aggie “red” wearing No. 2.
Just think, but for a few biological imperfections, hey, that could’ve been you!
Very nice.
🙂
Football needs christians being slaughtered by lions and more true deaths like Rollerball before I even begin to take it seriously. Until then it is just something you bet on.
Glazer of course, would “Tease” the Christians.
(Pun intended)
🙂