by brenton crozier bdcrozier@gmail.com
Commercials with Peyton Manning are an inescapable part of television enjoyment, and it appears that his acting activities have become so prevalent that his football talents are suffering.
The golden quarterback of our age has put his charisma behind endorsing credit cards, hawking cell phones, and making Gatorade the preferred beverage of impressionable fans across the land. This huge amount of continued exposure is definitely good for his bank account, but is it good for the Indianapolis faithful?
Jaguar devotees Julie and Allen Moore are not losing any sleep over Manning’s distractions. Julie adamantly agreed with me that when juxtaposed with 3 losses out of his last 4 games, his acting career has been detrimental to his game. In fact, the Moores are just sick and tired of seeing his face all over their television screen.
Our conversation naturally progressed from the commercial mayhem to the consumerism of Christmas. Forced segue? You be the judge. I asked Julie and Allen what their Christmas wish list this year was. They thoughtfully expressed that they simply wanted to spend the holiday with their family in Colorado. Nothing makes you fonder of family than good geography.
This heartwarming wish reminded me of the most important aspects of the holiday season. However, when asked if they would trade in their Colorado trip for a Jaguars Super Bowl appearance this year, they answered “Hell yeah” without an ounce hesitation. I guess we all have our price.
While Maurice Jones-Drew and Fred Taylor were running a track meet around Alltel field, the Colts were probably putting a good run defense on the top of their Christmas list. The utter lack of competition caused my mind to wander further into the concepts of football being merely a vehicle by which commercials reach the multitudes and the Christmas season that cannot be separated from capitalistic endeavors. Have we all lost our way like Peyton?
I waded through the fans and bumped into my good friends Donnie and Jamie Dusinberre right outside of the Bud Zone. We discussed these various issues while quenching our thirst with ice-cold Pepsis. The conversation turned to the competing number 18 Reebok jerseys; that of Matt Jones and Peyton Manning respectively. We were distracted by the Winn-Dixie check mascot on the scoreboard, but quickly snapped back to the conversation at hand.
After reminiscing about old times and chatting about the types of things that friends chat about, we parted ways to go back to our seats. It was from the comfort of my press box seat that I witnessed the Colts get flattened and realized that commercial entities aren’t always so bad. Let’s get down to brass tacks, without the Budweiser and Reebok paraphernalia adorning the stadium, we wouldn’t have a cool place to meet with friends, enjoy great weather, pay an arm and a leg if you’re thirsty enough and raise our hands for fantastic football.
So let us raise our pricey Budweiser to Peyton Manning and his affinity for being in front of the camera. And of course, raise them to the Jaguars, who make the football fellowship so much sweeter when they win so big.
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