Sunday's upcoming pilgrimage

A teacher about the relationship between sports and religion, Professor Joseph Price from Whittier College spoke last night comparing the Super Bowl to a religious pilgrimage.

Price first taught a course on sports and religion in 1984 and began his study of the Super Bowl as a religious event. After watching Super Bowl '84, Price wrote an essay that was later published and became the basis for his books, teachings and public lectures.

His theory was further realized when Price compared photographs he had taken of numerous Super Bowl games with those taken by a colleague who had spent time in India photographing religious shrines.

Both were surprised to see various correlations between the photographs.

About 150 million Americans watch the Super Bowl, Price said, and almost one billion people watch in almost 200 countries worldwide. This portrays the universality of the Super Bowl and people's eagerness to congregate at or in the presence of the game.

"Television functions as an electronic qiblah," Price said.

Qiblah is the direction Muslims face when they pray, and Price compared this to how viewers face a television when the game is on.

Price listed several dominant American symbol systems that converge with the Super Bowl, including American sports, entertainment and media.

"The Lombardi Trophy is portrayed in ice with an encompassing angelic glow," Price said. "There is a quest for the trophy. The numerous symbols intertwined with the Super Bowl signify it as a dominant presence in American culture, engulfing various other aspects of life, similar to religion."

A religious pilgrimage is more than just a journey to a place, Price said. It involves interior exploration, quests for a transcendent goal, overcoming barriers and physical or spiritual healing.

He compared these directly to the Super Bowl, such as trying to buy a ticket, competing with the opposing team, training to be in the best physical condition and taking part in a journey toward victory.

A pilgrimage also involves ritual characteristics such as space, time, performers, actions and objects.

Price compared ritual space to the field, stadium, adjacent spaces and secondary sites.

"Separated and consecrated, the field for play is the core of the ritual space," he said.

The scoreboard, on the other hand, indicates a separate way to measure time in an almost timeless period.

The fans are ritual performers, even though they are the audience, as they are expressing their acts of devotion.

Ritual actions are the officials consecrating the space, the teams playing and the fans (pilgrims) expressing devotion.

Ritual objects are broad, ranging from the football to the traditional game-time snacks.

Mediated, presidential participation and attendance by other officials such as the police, the Marines and the Air Force sanctifies the political space, Price said.

Reach reporter Andrea Roark at news@thedaily.washington.edu.