Quote of the Day | February 2, 2008: The Distance Factor

More from Hunter S. Thompson's early 70s Rolling Stone Super Bowl coverage via The Great Shark Hunt:

I waited until the last moment to make my bets---despite the fact that I knew the Vikings were doomed after watching them perform for the press at their star-crossed practice field on Monday afternoon before the game. It was clear, even then, that they were spooked and very uncertain about what they were getting into---but it was not until I drove about 20 miles around the beltway to the other side of town for a look at the Dolphins that I knew, for sure, how to bet.

There are a lot of factors intrinsic to the nature of the Super Bowl that make it far more predictable than regular season games, or even playoffs---but they are not the kind of factors that can be sensed or understood at a distance of 2,000 or even 20 miles, on the basis of any wisdom or information that filters out from the site through the rose-colored, booze-bent media-filter that passes for "world-wide coverage" at these spectacles.

There is a progression of understanding vis-a-vis pro football that varies drastically with the factor of distance---physical, emotional, intellectual and every other way. . . . Which is exactly the way it should be, in the eyes of the amazingly small number of people who own and control the game, because it is this finely managed distance factor that accounts for the high-profit mystique that blew the sacred institution of baseball off its "national pastime" pedestal in less than 15 years.


Tags: Hunter S. Thompson