Familial Relations Phenomenon

The Superbowl falls on my birthday (Feburary 1), and it would be a treat to see Peyton and the Colts match up against Eli and the Giants. ((Peyton and Eli descend from the Manning family. Their father, Archie Manning, is a storied former NFL quarterback.)) ((The Colts were defeated by the Chargers in the wild card round. I won’t be seeing a Manning vs. Manning Superbowl.)) Like many NFL fans, that match up would be hyped and very interesting. However, I don’t think the Mannings would think much of the “showdown”.

Two brothers that start in the NFL. Both have Superbowl victories. The hoi polloi and media gush over these types of story lines. The Mannings and the demographic they represent, however, probably couldn’t care less. ((It’s couldn’t, not could, care less. And don’t give me the, “I’m trying to be ironic,” argument, because you weren’t/aren’t trying.)) I would venture to say that the Mannings see football as their job. Sure they would play each other, but that’s probably nothing more than what they used to do in their backyard. If one of the two weren’t named Manning, this would be like any regular match up. The familial relations phenomenon stems from the obnoxious hype of the media.

To cite another example of this phenomenon, I was able to graduate with a talented musician and composer. His name is Alex Kreger, and he composes music, from what I understand loves jazz and is a growing jazz musician, and played viola to be nice. In my senior year, my high school’s orchestra was given the opportunity to play in the Band and Orchestra festival in New York City at illustrious Carnegie Hall. We had guest conductors, and one of our guest conductors was Alex’s dad, Scott Kreger.

Scott is an established bassist. And so you might see the phenomenon beginning to take shape: Alex, music phenomenon and son, and Scott, music phenomenon and father. Furthermore, Scott would be conducting the piece that Alex composed whilst Alex would be playing the piano.

I was able to interview Scott (because I was filming a documentary documenting our trip), and I was eager to ask him how he felt about conducting his son’s piece. The answer was lame. I was expecting something dramatic, and I wanted him to tear up, cry, and sing praises about his son. He did praise his son, but what he said was along the lines of what I described earlier: It’s no big deal.

Scott saw the opportunity to conduct his son’s piece as just that. He would be conducting a piece of music. Sure his son wrote it, but Scott didn’t change anything about his approach to it. Perhaps he had more input in the music than he usually does, but he still attacked the challenge like he would any piece.

Familial relations phenomenon is all hype, and I absolutely dislike the San Diego Chargers.

• Manning