Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

So I just finished watching the Chiefs come out victorious over the Bills — arguably as exciting a sporting event as you would ever watch. I mention this not because I am looking to start a sports blog, although I was raised on sports and am still an avid fan.

I mention the game because it is nice to have the distraction from all the surrounding challenges and acrimony that we face in our world these days. It is nice to expend some emotion on something that is not life and death, not a horrible injustice that presents an existential threat, not something that subjects others to inhumane treatment. It is, when all is said and done, just a game.

There are aspects of this game, though, that I do question. Would it be that hard to change the name of the team? (I think it was Victor Wishna who had the great suggestion to call the team the Fire Chiefs as an ongoing tribute to first responders. Could even keep the same color scheme … not my favorite.) The “chop” makes me uncomfortable and meshuge. I also think the damage from concussions is a problem without a solution and causes players lasting harm.

Yet it is fun to watch. I also appreciate the way the success of the Chiefs — and, in 2014 and 2015, the Royals — brought the city together. Contentious politics were left by the wayside, if only briefly.

We can and we must re-engage in attacking all of the injustices facing our community and our world. We know that at Kol Ami as well as anyone. But it is OK to afford ourselves a needed break every now and again. With that in mind, Go, Chiefs!