The NFL’s Shattering Collision With Climate Denial, With Some Swift Notes
In our video, we dissect quarterback Patrick Mahomes's helmet shattering in an NFL playoff game, one more sign of the impact of climate change despite the media's neglect of its broader implications.
Call it the elephant in the stadium. Inspired by the Super Bowl, watch our first Chatting the Pictures video on our new site as we riff on a shattering hit with zero impact:
In the video, we break down a photo taken by Emily Curiel of The Kansas City Star via Getty Images and Tribune News Service. It shows the helmet of Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes breaking from a hit in the third quarter of an NFL playoff game on January 13, 2024. At kickoff in Kansas City, the temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit, with a wind chill of -20 degrees, making it the fourth-coldest game in NFL history.
Our discussion focuses on the helmet cracking as a metaphor for the spiraling impact of climate change. The video also touches on public denial, the challenge of visually representing extreme cold, and the photo's ability to engage multiple senses while critiquing the media's failure to link the event to the broader climate emergency.
💡 If you're new to the site, we put a lot of TLC into these 3-4 minute guided tours of a single image, from the curation of "that one photo" to its accompanying versions and visual complements. Enjoy!
Some Swift Notes
This photo is worth revisiting because this year's Kansas City football club and the Super Bowl are now inextricably fused with Taylor Swift and her Chiefs boyfriend, just as the mania has brought us the GOP's Swift freak-out and intense speculation about an eventual Biden endorsement. Seen as the culmination of the pop icon coming out politically, Swift's 2020 tweet serves up a knowing glance and an inviting plate full of Biden/Harris cookies. However innocent, every move Swift makes between America's sacred rite in Vegas through November 5 has as much to do with canceling the Trump show for good.
But, back to the environment and an exemplary image that reflects the danger of the climate crisis to every brand and performance.
This photo was captured on the afternoon of November 18, depicting fans seeking refuge from the scorching sun outside Rio's Nilton Santos stadium. The previous night's concert at the Estádio Olímpico was blistering, with temperatures soaring to 39.1C (102.4F) and over 60,000 people packing the venue. Wheelchairs were used to transport those overwhelmed by the heat, and at least 1,000 individuals fainted, tragically resulting in the collapse and death of a 23-year-old woman due to heat exhaustion.
Dripping with irony, the photograph juxtaposes the poster of Swift enjoying an ice cream with her fans waiting in the sweltering heat. Despite Swifties already arriving, the Saturday show was postponed due to temperatures skyrocketing to 42.5C (108.5F) and a heat index of 59.7C (139.5F). Given Swift's sensitivity to her fans and the environment (note her reaction to the woman who lost her life at Nilton Santos Stadium), I can't help thinking that the photo--identifying Swift with wiles of summer that will never be seen again--is one more flashing red light (especially you, product marketers!) of a crisis ramping faster than anyone can belief and the general public cares to know.
And, One More Sports/Denial Photo of a Catastrophe in the Making
Don't miss the essential Dave Zirin's Super Bowl article on the ticking time bomb that is sports betting, as he ties together everything from brain chemistry to regressive taxes to the whole point of the big game landing in Vegas this year.
You can get disoriented quickly from today's sports betting images, just like the venues themselves. This photo from last Super Sunday is as good as any to illustrate the intoxication in a top-to-bottom read. From the pulse of the game scene hypnotically replicated on the ribbon of screens to the lower set of monitors spewing stats and odds to the shimmer of the bar, the alcohol beaming like gold, to the rope line with its connotations of privilege, luxury, and importance, the Ceasars Sports Book patrons are like moths to a flame.
Don't say we weren't warned when the betting scandals blow and gambling addiction hits opioid levels.