Tasteless NFL set to roll into a cesspit

GEORGE KIMBALL/America at large: The first anniversary of the September 11th tragedies is nearly upon us. So is the 2002 football season. We're cringing already.

This convergence is at once appropriate and terrifying. Even in ordinary circumstances, a military mentality unmatched in any other sport permeates American football. The National Football League, which suspended play for an entire weekend following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, presumably availed itself of the time off to re-tool its marketing strategy, with the result that the balance of the season was played out in a patriotic fervour culminating in Super Bowl XXXVI, when the NFL pulled out every stop short of blowing up the Louisiana Superdome to commemorate the tragic occasion.

The first hint of what might be in store for us over the next month came a few weeks ago when the champion New England Patriots convened in Smithfield, Rhode Island, to open their pre-season training camp. Among the first orders of business was the distribution of several dozen extra-extra large T-shirts emblazoned with the message "Targeting September."

Defenders of the slogan are quick to point out that the concentric circles forming a target on the back of the shirts have as their bulls-eye the logos of the four teams the Super Bowl winners will face in their first month of the season, but if that is supposed to persuade cynics that "Targeting September" is not meant to evoke last September's targets, well, it hasn't. The Patriots have been blasted for their insensitivity in attempting to capitalise on what the rest of the world more properly considers pathos.

Having been targeted for their "targeting" message, the Patriots can take some comfort in the realisation that they aren't alone in their stupidity.

With an imminent Major League Baseball job action on the horizon, Jim Bowden, the general manager of the Cincinnati Reds, took it upon himself last week to draw comparisons between a players' strike and suicide hijackings.

Then, a few days later, when the Florida State Seminoles reported for their pre-season practice, coach Bobby Bowden (no relation to Jim, but clearly a kindred spirit) announced that the Seminoles' mantra this season would be "Let's Roll". "Let's Roll" was the terse order, picked up via a mobile phone call, given by Todd Beamer aboard United Airlines flight 93, just before he and other doomed civilian passengers apparently overpowered the hijackers. Their actions caused the airplane to crash in a Pennsylvania field rather than into its intended target, presumably the US Capitol building.

When the Canadian singer Neil Young subsequently incorporated the words into an anthem commemorating the bravery of the passengers, it was regarded as a tribute. We have no idea how Todd Beamer might feel about having his dying words serve as the inspiration for an outlaw college football program, but we can guess.

Bowden has his own none-too- satisfying explanation for why he opted to turn "Let's Roll" into a mantra which will presumably be accompanied by the university's famed "Tomahawk Chop". "We are going to go with 'Let's Roll,' based on the airplane guy making that remark," said Bowden, "not only for that but the season is here, the challenges are here, 'let's roll'."

By thus acknowledging Beamer as the author of the phrase and simultaneously dismissing him as "the airplane guy", Bowden may have established a new benchmark for insensitivity.

To be sure, "Let's Roll" has been widely co-opted over the past 11 months, and not just by Neil Young. The President of the United States used it in his State of the Union speech.

The Todd W Beamer Foundation was established by his widow, Lisa, who was pregnant with their child last September. The foundation, which raises money which it distributes to the children of the 9/11 victims, recognises that it doesn't own the rights to the phrase "Let's Roll", but it has attempted to prevail on sensitivity by requesting that certain businesses refrain from trying to capitalise on the phrase by using it "inappropriately".

The NASCAR driver Bobby Labonte has already announced plans to paint his traditionally green Pontiac car red, white and blue for a race next month, and will have the phrase "Let's Roll" conspicuously emblazoned on the bonnet. The difference here is that Labonte sought and received the blessing of the Beamer Foundation, which will share in the proceeds from any merchandising forthcoming from the tribute.

By his admission, Bobby Bowden never contacted the foundation, nor is there any evidence that the sales of the Let's Roll T-shirts, beer mugs, pins, and buttons which will inevitably be sold to Seminoles' supporters will in any way benefit the victims of the tragedy upon which Florida State is capitalising.

Perhaps Bowden will rethink his strategy in the wake of the furore the revelation has spawned. We sort of doubt it, but that's a matter for his conscience. But let's not pretend that this is something it's not. When Todd Beamer said "Let's roll!" just before he and his fellow heroes rushed the cockpit, he didn't mean "Come on, boy's, let's beat Georgia Tech!" And for that matter, don't try to tell us that the Patriots' "Targeting September" is intended to evoke images of beating the Pittsburgh Steelers, either.

The people who think these things up might be insensitive nitwits, but that doesn't mean the rest of us are, too.