Pretending to Be
08-30-2006
by Johann Snyder

A massive wall of menace faces me. They're eyes alight with hunger and determination; they're determined to annihilate me. Their breath comes in great huffs of steam that slowly hovers into the air. Like restless livestock, they stamp their feat and tense their muscles for the attack. The ball is placed into my hands, and time slows. Mud and turf fly into the air as massive bodies collide. Huge meaty arms stretch out for me. I dodge left and follow my blocker. He goes low and takes out the feet of a massive linebacker while deftly leap over. Covering the ball, I put down my shoulder and brush another hulking brute that falls at me feet. Now I see daylight. I increase my speed, the wind rushing by ears in a roar. Touchdown, baby! Oh, yeah! Madden 2007 is here, and I'm the superstar football player I always knew I could be.

Okay, so maybe the experience isn't quite that visceral, but for millions of football fans, the annual August release of the Madden football game is the true beginning of the football season. It's the Madden-oliday, and this year it's bigger than ever. The Xbox 360 is finally getting a next-gen version of Madden that actually has some next-gen features, and current-gen console owners are getting another full-featured, in-depth football game to help make all their football fantasies come true; and therein lay the appeal of one the top selling video game franchises of all time.

When you have midnight parties, millions of pre-orders - many by guys in the 30s and 40s - and a made-up holiday all for one videogame, one has to wonder exactly what the big deal is. Well I think it's very simple; people like football. More than that, they like to pretend that they can play football on a professional level. Video games like Madden 2007 gives a chance for all the side-line coaches and arm-chair quarterbacks to actually make things right they way they know they can, to make the big decisions on what plays to run, to scramble around, avoid the sack, and get the big play, to plow through the defensive and make a run for the goal line, to shut down the offensive with an interception or a devastating sack on the quarterback. It's as close as many of us will get to running our favorite football teams the way we know they should be run, and it's as close to playing the game of professional football as any of us are likely to come. Besides, it's fun.

We grow up pretending to be something that we're not in the hopes that perhaps we might actually become that which we're pretending to be, and video games like Madden are just one more way, a much more visual and interactive way, we have of pretending. Now bear in mind that I'm just as excited about Madden as the next guy, in fact I can't wait to get home to play it, so what I'm about to say applies just as much to me as anyone else. I've been wondering how my life might be different if I was as fixated on pretending to be Jesus as I was on pretending to play football with Madden '07. In Mere Christianity, C.S. points out that part of being a Christian is pretending; it's dressing up as Christ in order to pretend to be Christ. It may sound a bit strange to phrase that way, but when you think about it, isn't that what being an imitator is? When child imitates a policeman or fireman, the dress up and pretend to be that person. When a gamer turns on Madden and plays as Jake Plummer, Sean Alexander or as themselves as a new star wide receiver, they're pretending. When we become a Christian, we're called to imitate, or pretend to be Jesus. Why? Because any time you pretend to be something, it draws you that much closer to actually becoming that which you pretend. The more we pretend to be Jesus, the more we will become like Jesus. Unlike with Madden, which not matter how much you play you really won't become more like Peyton Manning, but at least you'll have the illusion that you are.

So my exhortation is simply this: as we pick up our controllers to imitate football, let's not forget to also daily pick up our cross to imitate Christ. The more we do that, the more we can show the world that the most exciting moments in life and eternity are more than just winning a virtual Super Bowl…although that is pretty cool.

Johann "Yo" Snyder is the host of the Mid-day show at M88 radio, 88.3FM in Albuquerque, NM. He writes a monthly blog that takes some elements of current events and pop culture to illustrate spiritual points. The archives for these articles can be found at: http://www.m88.org/yo-duh.asp