Tonight the NFL kicked off its season with a concert at the real Mall of America in Washington DC/ You know? The place where Forrest found Jenny in the pool in front of a thronging anti-war crowd?

Well it was decked out like a regular rock concert tonight and it included a nice family act of two guys helping Brit. strip down to the narrowest shorts I have ever seen. (in referee stripes)

Is this too commercial for the location or is that hawking goods on that mall as right as in any mall the Tiffany played in the 1980s.

It was a bit much for me. Any thoughts?

I'm still out on this one, Eeyore. I do have another example to add to the debate, however. At the beginning of tonight's game, President Bush came on and delivered a little 'welcome to the season' message. At the end, he said, "Are you ready for some football?" -Yes, the NFL's trademarked slogan.

I know watching it made me squirm, but as of right now, I can't state exactly why. It just struck me as inappropriate.

The start of the NFL season is a big deal, at least to football fans (like me...)

This concert was simply that, a concert.

I was surprised to see GW Bush saying "Are you ready for some football?" just prior to kickoff, but it was a good surprised. We all know that he is a big sports fan.

I don't really see a problem with the kickoff concert, to be honest.

(And those WERE the shortest shorts I have ever seen... )

We need to keep the minds of American peasantry occupied or distracted so they won't rise up and vote our righteously "elected" officials out of office should they somehow find that the majority of us have about as much representation in our government as a fruit fly in afghanastan.

Based on my opinion of the average American voter, as I just expressed it, I find it perfectly appropriate that the President should participate in such a thing.

Now, what would be nice is the same kind of "kick-off" aimed at voter registration, voter education, voter participation, etc.

Come ON! Can we not let these people have fun? How 'bout GW, oh God, he said...are, and then he said, you, and then he said, ready, and then he said, football. What a travesty! Let the man have some fun, he's got the hardest job in the world for God's sake.

CP

Totally agreed. It seemed a ridiculous attempt to justify the war through a football metaphor (ie. "teamwork" and "dedication"). It was just plain silly to me and I had to get up and leave during his whole shtick!

Maybe his celebration of the whole thing will drop some religious voters out of the mix.

I can see him using this as an attempt to play on Americans for being American, such as the joy or freedom of the circus a football game can be, i hope this to backfires on him.

I don’t think you can say he was just there to have some fun, if he has the hardest job in the world he should be doing his job, but in reality I don’t think he does much but sign things for other people to do the work.

FYI: The Mall of America is in Minneapolis, its the really big shopping mall that show up in a variety of movies, including, I believe, the Schwarzenegger comedy with Sinbad. You are referring to the National Mall


I'm curious... have any of you ranting about this ever raised any objections to the tradition of the President throwing out the first pitch? Or is this simply another opportunity to bash Bush?

(drat, I missed the return of the Daisy Dukes!)

When Hank Williams Jr. sang the "Are you ready for some football?" jingle was he justifying country music? I think some people will use ANY excuse to bash Bush.
This was no different than what any other president would do, I didn't see a problem with it.

You are right, most any chance to get a bush bash plug is usually taken. Maybe bush will go on the Howard Stern show so we can get some popular opinion on him, i imagine most of it would be positive don’t you?

What does country music have to do with our president, is he a pop cowboy icon or something, does that get your vote honestly?

We are getting closer to elections so i think that stuff like pr appearance and bashing of all people will rise like shopping around Christmas.

Well, i really doubt that Bush supporting football will drop his rating in the slightest, or even lower his votes, but i might be wrong on that.
regardless, football is simply a game, and the fact that it is a very popular game in america (heck, even the president likes it) makes it hard to believe that he was doing anything other than showing up and letting america know he is human, just like the rest of us, and he enjoys a good football game.
if you dont like football, oh well, like bikerdad said, the presidents used to do this sort of thing for baseball, and i dont remember them getting bashed for it.


I think he was doing his job, he was representing a very large amount of the populance that elected him, and though many of them have jobs too, they take out time to watch football. let the man be with his people, even if you dont consider yourself one of them.


Quane

Of course, being we are at a war he started, he should take time off to enjoy ritual gladiator sports, nothing wrong with that, war is else ware!

Honestly now, this is nothing more then a pr stunt and I hope it fails, i hope more people with honesty leave his cabinet too, that shows that they are human.

Sorry if my play on words confused you enough to think that I thought we called the Mall in DC the Mall of America. Oh well.

Also the Daisy Dukes had too much skin coverage by 300% to be considered kin to those shorts.

I think I misled people about my concern for the post.

I was wondering not if it is ok to have a big football kickoff party with scantily clad women, but whether our National Mall was an appropriate place for this activity.

Football is a tremendously popular sport and I love the 49ers more than I ever should. It needs to be kicked off with a big gaudy bang. It's football.

However the National Mall needs no such sendoff and I do think it is a point of concern about what activities should be sanctioned there and how commercial those activities should be.

On Jaime's tangent, I have no problems with the president starting off the football season, it is a mutually beneficial relationship that is largely all in good fun. But I think using a corporate catch phrase in doing so sets another dangerous precedent.

Anybody interested in debating my intended point of the thread.

Is this an acceptable activity in this particular place. I don't think that ground is sacred, but I don't think it should be run like the Mall of America. (I hope I don't mislead another ADer with this reference)