CULTURE: Pope Francis’ Super Bowl Message and Our Elite-Populist Wars.

This is, unfortunately, something lost on all too many in elite circles, particularly in Washington, D.C. Anyone who has spent two minutes in policy circles has met the kind of person who flaunts their ignorance of and disdain for football, or “sportball” in general, as a badge of honor. Bragging about your disdain for something in which the great majority of your fellow men find deep meaning in is a sign of spiritual impoverishment.

Pope Francis and Prof. Mandelbaum are but two of a legion of intellectuals, stretching back to time immemorial, who have gotten the vital symbolic and emotional needs sports play in society. If you need to be convinced academically, you can get this from Aristotle, or Dante, or C.S. Lewis. But it might be more fun to turn on the TV, grab a beer, and get into the spirit of the day.

Sounds dreadfully proletarian. Can you imagine Niles and Frasier Crane doing that?