Pope Francis

The Super Bowl is such a massive sporting event that even Pope Francis commented on it.

And while Pope Francis isn’t going to give you advice on whether to take the Pats and lay the three points, he does talk about the important cultural and social context that sports, and more specifically, events like the Super Bowl, provide. He says that football builds a culture of inclusiveness and peace and that playing sports of any sort shows how people can put their self-interests aside in the quest for a greater, team goal.

Whatever you think of the message, it’s not often the Pope comments on a sporting event, maybe outside of the Olympics or the World Cup, though he is an avid sports fan himself. He’s a massive supporter of Argentinian soccer club San Lorenzo, he’s an honorary Harlem Globetrotter, and he’s also played host to Kentucky coach John Calipari when he visited Congress 18 months ago.

On his big American tour last year, he asked the Philadelphia Eagles to avoid scheduling a home game when he visited the city in September, which lead Mark Wahlberg to end a speech he gave with the Pope’s audience with a quick “Go Eagles” quip, and was presented with a signed Steelers football by an archbishop from Western Pennsylvania when he was in Rome.

So while he’s not quite a football fan per se, he certainly has a relationship with the sport, regardless of how big Super Sunday is.

He ended his video with a message that transcends sport:

“May this year’s Super Bowl be a sign of peace, friendship, and solidarity to the world.”

Doesn’t seem that difficult to comprehend or all that controversial, now does it?

[SB Nation]

About Matt Lichtenstadter

Recent Maryland graduate. I've written for many sites including World Soccer Talk, GianlucaDiMarzio.com, Testudo Times, Yahoo's Puck Daddy Blog and more. Houndstooth is still cool, at least to me. Follow me @MattsMusings1 on Twitter, e-mail me about life and potential jobs at matthewaaron9 at Yahoo dot com.