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Carl:<BR>
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Football is a metaphor for the struggles in life that we have limited or no control over, for the real hopes and dreams that we wish we could manage as simply as moving a ball around a field with arms and legs. We project these hopes and dreams into this game, which is a fantasy escape as powerful as those induced by opium. But when the dreams are dashed, when the fantasy does not provide us our vicarious fulfillment (oxymoron?), we respond as though real dreams in the real world were shattered. But if the football fantasy is realized, though nothing of any real importance has changed, it is as though utopian dreams were realized. Of course they are not really realized in this fashion, thus the need for the next victory and the next and so forth, just like an addict who needs another fix to keep his dream world going...<BR>
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Football as a fantasy fulfilling (or not) psychological addiction fueled by projection of unfulfilled dreams and hopes into the game's drama...<BR>
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Does this make any sense?<BR>
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Ted Moffett</FONT></HTML>