Lessons about culture and connection from my first NFL game
When I was 10 years old, my dad took me on a trip that I have never forgotten. So when my best friend of 35 years—the one with the infectious enthusiasm for the Kansas City Chiefs—invited my brother and me to travel his way for the once-every-four-years matchup between the Commanders and the Chiefs, I was all in. I wanted to take my son Samuel on a trip that might be as meaningful for him at 10 as mine was with my dad. The fact that he told me on Monday afternoon, “This has been so much fun already and we haven’t even made it to the game yet!” was a good sign of a mission accomplished.
What surprised us both about the Monday Night Football experience in Kansas City was not the game as much as the culture around the game. At 47, this was as new to me as it was to Sam at 10. I’ve been to my fair share of Major League Baseball games and high school football games, but I have never been to a game where 73,569 people travel from all over the country not merely for 60 minutes of professional football but for an entire experience. And nowhere was this more evident than in the tailgating.
Tailgating is amazing. What makes it amazing is not only the fact that people wait in line for seven hours to get the best parking spots; or that people bring tents, sound systems, camping furniture, tables, and grills; or even that the population of the parking lot pre-game is larger than half of the counties in the state. What makes tailgating amazing is that you can walk up to complete strangers and, based on the team colors they’re wearing, start talking like you are three year olds making new best friends on the playground. Within 30 seconds of getting out of the car, we were enveloped into a friend group who were reuniting for the game. Five minutes later my brother spied some more Commanders fans 30 yards away and said, “I’m going to go talk to those guys.” While this was most concentrated around the grills in the parking lot, this shortcut to conversation with strangers spilled over into restaurants, airport terminals, and baggage claims.
I didn’t take Sam on a trip to learn life lessons, but I did take away a few that inform the kind of culture I want him to experience, not only on any given Sunday but also in our family and church.
1. Community is not dead
On the trip I saw a refrigerator magnet that read, “I’m having people over to stare at their phones later if you want to come by.” It’s a humorous but sad reflection on the negative effects of our screens. But what I saw in the Arrowhead Stadium parking lot was anything but a gathering of screen zombies. People were alive with conversation, throwing the football, playing cornhole, preparing food, and prognosticating about their team’s chances. There may have been occasional looks at a phone to remember who the Lions’ new kicker is, but people were present with one another. For all the wonders our screens can afford, we long for face-to-face connection. A shared love of sports is an excuse to know that we are not alone.
2. Shared allegiances create shortcuts for connection
As we made our rounds to different tailgating groups, it would have felt out of place to ask our new friends what kind of music they listen to or who they voted for or their perspective on immigration in America. We were there because of a shared love of football, so we primarily talked about football.
Why doesn’t this translate to the church? What brings our church members together from different nations and cultures is Jesus. So why do we tend to talk so little to one another about the reason we all showed up?
I don’t mean this to be censorious, and I certainly don’t mean that you can’t chat about football or politics at church. I simply bring a “Why not?” to how we think about our interactions on Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, and at Home Groups. If I can fly to Kansas City and back and, throughout the entire trip, talk to complete strangers about a football game because of the team name on their clothing, why can’t we be more proactive about talking to one another at church about the Savior who brings us together? These are doubtless much more personal conversations, but they are worth it! Next time you are mingling after the service, ask someone what they learned from God’s word that week or how they became a Christian or who some of their spiritual heroes are. Let’s take advantage of our shared allegiance to Jesus and enjoy the deeper connection we have in him.
3. Imagination flows from immersion
Samuel and I did not find ourselves amongst a sea of football fans by accident. My brother, best friend, and I planned this five months ago. And it made sense to plan this trip because for 17 weeks every fall and winter, we are immersed in the NFL season. Since we watch the games on our sofas we can imagine attending the game in person. Had my friend asked me to fly to Kansas City to watch a NASCAR race or a golf tournament or attend a heavy metal concert I would have told him he was crazy. But the immersion gave us the imagination to make this trip a reality.
What might we immerse ourselves in more to enhance our kingdom imagination? We could learn stories of heroes of the faith who have sacrificed greatly to show Christ’s love to those who need to experience it. We can pray daily for one of the 5,000 frontier people groups in the world who have virtually no followers of Jesus and no one currently taking the gospel there. We can ask friends at other churches what they are doing to show and share the saving power of Jesus. When we read the Bible we can remember that these are real and fallible people that God’s Spirit empowered to magnify God’s reputation in extraordinary ways. Imagine the kingdom ventures such immersion could produce when radical deeds of love and gospel witness are normalized!
We have more to offer and more to experience in Christ’s gospel than the National Football League could dream of. May God empower and mobilize us to share it well.
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