Be Good, Do Good, God Bless, and Go Bills!!!
What is a good role model?
(taking a brief detour from my normal detours here)
As we all barricade ourselves from the onslaught of fatalistic news media and addictive algorithms vying for our attention, I thought I would just briefly write about a great example of Western and American values, that somehow still exist today. (I promise they exist…on all sides) We often forget that this world has always been chaotic and there has always been beauty and decay, triumph and defeat, oppression and revolution. Unfortunately, we are living in an era with the largest saturation of information, than ever before. It can create an illusion that everyday is the brink of end times. With that I present a little levity, if only a fleeting moment.
Growing up I always rooted against the Buffalo Bills. Even though they were a blue collar time representing a blue collar city, I always liked the slick Miami Dolphins led by Dan Marino. A good ole Italian with a perfect tan and a great cameo in Ace Ventura’s Pet Detective. I remember even wearing a Dolphins toque at a Buffalo Bills game, even when Miami wasn’t playing. I stuck out like a fat wart. My blasphemy did not go unnoticed. I remember the scruffy lady that ripped it off my head. She looked like a welder, coming home from six months on the oil sands in the Albertan tundra. Grizzled and reeking of Coors Light, her meaty paw swiped at my head and with a huge, friendly grin, told me to go and “fuck a porpoise”. Touché. A core memory.
It wasn’t until a few years ago, that my best friend and longest friend, had me over for a key playoff match between a resurgent Buffalo Bills team and the Kansas City Chiefs. There was something about this team that struck a different chord. I could feel the weight of this blue collar town on the shoulders of this team, more specifically on the shoulders of their quarterback Josh Allen. 6’5, 240 pounds, part Captain America, part golden retriever and part Mr. Rogers…Fred Rogers, of the friendly neighbourhood variety. This hard working, aw shucks, nuclear family offspring kid, played his heart out and was 13 seconds away from victory, when fate intervened. The well oiled, Globo gym led by White Goodman (Patrick Mahomes), snuffed out the hopes of this team of underdogs and the industrial town of Buffalo. My friend and I went from utter elation, to heartbroken within minutes. It was a punch in the gut, and unfortunately, since that fateful day, sucked me into the vortex of future pain and the history of pain, that comes along with cheering for this team. I instantly became a fan. It was as if ‘hope’ itself, was represented by this team and QB. Hope, historically is not a good thing. Ever since Pandora opened that jar, all the hellish aspects of human nature was unleashed, and all that remained was hope. A glimmer of a chance that we will somehow collectively overcome our egoic tendencies one day. I felt like Neo in the Matrix plugging into the system, and instead of downloading Kung Fu, I downloaded over 30 years of sports sadness. Becoming a Bills fan, meant living in perpetual turmoil and suffering. And here we are four seasons later, and another year gone, ended in the most brutal fashion, and yet Buffalo and its fandom rise up again, for more punishment….not to be outdone by their close cousins in Detroit! Go Lions.
Last night, a few days away from the Super Bowl, the league had its award show for the best players of the year, and this young man from Firebaugh, California, this young man who grew up on a farm and was a member of the National FFA (Future Farmer’s of America), where he received multiple accolades, for his agricultural work and proficiency (including a top four national ranking in diversified crop production of cantaloupe, cotton, and wheat in 2014)1 won the NFL’s Most Valuable Player. It was an honour2 well deserved, but it was his speech that stuck with me.
A speech full of grace, he thanked all his teammates and his parents and even thanked the mail staff from the Buffalo Bills organization and the cafeteria staff. Basically acknowledging that every part, no matter how small, had a hand in giving him this opportunity to win. And more importantly, I believed him. Where honesty, authenticity and goodness, seems to come at a premium, I felt the genuine nature of his words. When you speak the truth, when you wear your heart on your sleeve, living in a truthful way, comes easy. You don’t need to search for the right things to say or do. He ended his speech in the best possible way. His last line was “Be good, Do good, God bless and Go Bills”. It was a simple sentence that will be the mantra of all things Buffalo here on out.
We can look down on America, point our fingers and spew all the vitriol we can at the powers at be, and while being justified in our scorching assessments, we will overlook or take for granted, the millions of families that live across the United States, who live by that simple standard of living. They try to be good, they try and do good, and live by a personal faith, that underwrites their moral compass. Millions of people, who have no hand in government, with no political currency, but live to enrich their families, their friends and their community and subsequently their country. These values seem to be at the cornerstone of what the Constitution of America proposes to represent. Those principles, are what attracts people from all over the world. It is these principles, that uniquely allow for the incredible resiliency of historically marginalized peoples. There is a malleability within the tenants of the constitution, that ebbs and flows with the consciousness of the people. It’s not from without, but from within the nation. As messy as that can be, it is also uniquely one of the only places in the world, where those principles are not exclusively homogenized to any one particular group. All roads do not end in the same place, and variables abound, but there is undeniably an intrinsic foundation of possibility that permeates.
From a philosophical standpoint, how can we be good and do good? We can look back at the legacy of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. Living a life towards eudaemonia. A pursuit of the “good life”. It consists of living within a balanced practice of virtues, built from good character and reason, and having strong friendships where both parties want the best for one another. The character often comes from our environments early on in our development. In Allen’s case, he had two loving parents that guided him and instilled these good values in him, which radiated to those nearby. I think of other male athlete’s at that level that are cut from that same cloth: Giannis Antetonkounmpo, Stephen Curry, Ken Griffey Jr., Freddie Freeman and Sidney Crosby. Although Allen’s Christian faith, is not a prerequisite to living well, perhaps their is a required humility to knowing that, at the very least, there is something greater than our own ego, in the universe.
In a culture that overvalues celebrity and fame, I think Josh Allen is one of those that young kids can look up to and idealize. Not everyone has the making of a varsity athlete or NFL quarterback, but I think Josh Allen’s trajectory, even if he never made the NFL would have consisted of the same values, and that’s what I love about the guy. Regardless of the cards someone with that kind of character is dealt, you get the feeling the world won’t break them and they will still be able to be well respected individuals in their community.
We are not all die hard sports fan, but again, as inundated as we are with data, I think it is great to see a story like Josh Allen’s. As flawed of a human as I am, perhaps I can also be better, do better and a have some grace and gratitude for this cosmic gift. And also Go Bills!!!
honour with a ‘u’. Yes I’m Canadian writing about America. But you know we’re the future 51st state, so I might as well weigh in now. Kidding. Leave us alone!