The NFL season has begun. It’s been hard for me to take football seriously after realizing a few years ago that the players are wearing shorts. Take a look: Their pants end above their knees. In the old days, pants came down to above the calf, so that pads could protect the knees. I have no idea when or why that changed.
I was in Chicago on Sunday and the place I ate lunch had numerous TVs tuned to the Bears game. I looked up and saw a man in shorts tackle another man in shorts very close to the line of scrimmage. The man who made the tackle jumped up and, with puffed out chest, ran a few yards into the other team’s backfield, celebrating his accomplishment. And I thought: You just made a tackle, the thing that you are paid to do; why are you demonstrably gloating about it? I don’t get up and run a victory lap around my office every time I write a sentence.
