Journal 1: So, what is the call?

Packers vs Seattle: The controversial call, image courtesy of http://touts.wordpress.com/category/nfl/

Winning actually isn’t the only thing is an article by David Maraniss about the Packer vs Seattle game on Monday September 24^th, 2012. Maraniss approaches the audience by describing how much of a football fan he is, especially a Packer fan. In his article, Maraniss describes how frustrated he was about the controversial call made on the final play. However, Maraniss does not go on to rant about the bad call like most fans of the Packers would, instead he allows himself time to cool down and think critically about the situation. He questions how the situation would be in different scenarios, like if the Packers were winning by more than one touchdown how would the audience react, would they even care? Maraniss also wonders how the reaction would be if the Packers had won that game the way Seattle had, would the Seattle fan base be outraged? He also brings into play the reactions of the Seattle coach Pete Carroll, and Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson. Carroll’s reaction reminded Maraniss of Carroll’s “past as a win-at-any-cost coach at Southern Cal, from where he escaped to the pros to get away from a looming NCAA crackdown on his program.” While Maraniss had once rooted for Wilson for being part of the Wisconsin Badgers, he was disappointed in his interview about the call. In the end of his article, Maraniss states that no matter what situation, the call would have been wrong, and that the winners of Monday night’s games should not have acted like they won it fair, but now they must live believing they did.

My initial reaction to this article was along the lines of, “oh no, not another angry Packers fan”, but quickly changed once I read into the article a bit more. Maraniss was able to talk about his frustration with the controversial call without going on a one-sided rant. He realizes how different fans of both the Packers and Seattle would have reacted if the game ended in another way and that the play would have either been ignored and not a major issue, or caused a huge upset. I do feel like the fans would not have cared about the call if the Packers were winning by more than one touchdown that night, maybe even overlooked it no matter how bad is was, so long as their team won. He also describes the reactions of Seattle, which was pretty effective in my opinion. They way he described the coach “thrusting his hands skyward to signal a touchdown himself and then running around with delirious happiness after the call Monday night, as if he had actually won something, as if his players had pulled off a gutsy miracle”, made me see him as a person who only cares about winning, no matter what has to be done. However, it also makes me think of Maraniss as being somewhat childish, since the tone I get from the description is very ignorant, especially the part where he says, “as if he had actually won something”. Though I feel that weak point in his argument, Maraniss closes it solidly by stating that no matter the situation, the call was bad, and the winning team should not act like they won something big.