There may not be a major collegiate football program in more dire straights than the one at the University of Minnesota. Last week the Golden Gophers lost to a mediocre team, Purdue, 45-17. They were behind at the end of the first quarter 28-0. The week before they lost to the nationally ranked Michigan Wolverines, 58 to zip. As horrible as these blow out losses are, the worst of it this season is probably the Gopher's loss to New Mexico State, perennially one of the worst football programs in the nation.So, what do the good fans of Minnesota do? According to a recent posting at The Daily Gopher website entitled, "Minnesota Gopher Football: Everybody just cool out," the blame game is on and some, maybe many fans, are laying that blame on the new coach, Jerry Kill. There's a website, apparently, dedicated to the firing of a coach who has been onboard for only six games. The posting argues that fans need to cool down, show some patience, and let Kill and his staff work through an admittedly difficult situation.
What makes all of this worthy of our attention is the way the posting begins. It observes that our society today is a "society of blame" and a society of quick fixes. When something goes wrong, we become reactive, looking for someone or something to blame—more often someone than some thing. Once we assign blame, we want that individual gone or that cause fixed right now. In other words, this is not just about football, the fans of one football team, or the state of the nation although. We're not the only people that play the blame game, and it isn't a recent invention. Finger pointing reflects something central, deeply embedded in who we are as human beings, and it draws on the uglier side of human nature that we can't deny exists. Blame kills. It is a form of violence.
A couple of points: first, the pages of our newspapers and the webpages of our news websites are filled with grist for theological reflection. Second, the church has been called into being to be a community of those who don't play the blame game, live in frustration and anger, or take things out on others. We're called to practice the peace we preach. Not easy, admittedly, but it why we exist. Now, it is true that bad situations have their causes, and it is important always to discover those causes. It is equally true, however, that blame game politics seldom gets to the bottom of matters, and by putting everything on a scapegoat usually serves to perpetuate the deeper causes—like why some schools, some programs produce winning teams year after year (think Ohio State) while others struggle for one now and again (think Minnesota). God is creating us to be better than all of this, and our job is to get beyond blame to the task of moving on with that divine program of ongoing creation. Amen.
