Advertisement

For Some, Super Bowl Cheer Raises Conflict

18:23
Download Audio
Resume

This Sunday, the New England Patriots will take on the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX. If past Super Bowls are any guide, the event will be among the most hyped and the most watched TV event ever.

But for some people — even for some football fans — it's become complicated to root for any football team.

Thursday, we heard about the latest study on concussions and traumatic brain injury. We have heard stories about domestic abuse by players, even a murder case involving a former Patriot and a league that's slow to acknowledge or respond to these ills.

That's the context of an unusual Super Bowl viewing party in Cambridge Sunday called the "Super Bowl/I Hate Football Party," hosted by the Humanist Hub at Harvard University. The party is a chance for people to come together to watch the game, debate it's merits and sort through some of its moral complexities.

Guests

Dan Lebowitz, director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University.

Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain at Harvard University and author of "Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe." He tweets @gregmepstein.

More

Boston Magazine: There’s A ‘Super Bowl/I Hate Football Party’ This Sunday

  • "Harvard’s Humanist Hub is hosting the event, and they want people on both sides of the argument to come down and discuss the merits of the sport."

This article was originally published on January 30, 2015.

This segment aired on January 30, 2015.

Advertisement

More from Radio Boston

Listen Live
Close