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How Jewish Fans of the Super Bowl are Planning to Watch the Eagles, Chiefs Matchup
Edited by: TJVNews.com
For Jewish fans of the National Football League and especially of the annual Super Bowl game, there are a number of angles of Jewish interest to the game that attracts millions from around the world each year.
While there aren’t any Jewish players who will be throwing, catching or kicking the pig skin this year in Arizona as the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs square off in the biggest game of the year, the JTA has reported that the general manager of the Eagles is Howie Roseman and the owner of the team is Jeffrey Lurie, both of whom are Jewish.
The JTA reported that New Jersey native Roseman has worked for the Eagles since 2000. Having bought the Eagles in 1994, Lurie is a film producer from Boston.
During the DeSean Jackson antisemitism controversy in 2020, during which the then-Eagles star posted (and then deleted) antisemitic quotes online, Jackson apologized personally to Roseman and Lurie, the JTA reported.
For those who want a unique souvenir from Super Bowl 57, the JTA reported that Jewish fans of the two teams squaring off, (the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs) can now purchase team mezuzahs from the Philadelphia based Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.
The JTA also reported that some Jewish fans are feeling conflicted about the big game — with longstanding concerns renewed after 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest after an onfield hit last month.
In a JTA essay, Rabbi Yaffa Epstein, a scholar and educator with the Jewish Education Project, writes: “Although Hamlin’s medical crisis was a rare on-field occurrence, the trauma surrounding his collapse stirred up age-old questions for me, and for many of us, about the toll football takes on the bodies of its players. What are we allowing to happen to these young men, in the name of sportsmanship, entertainment and national identity? When the Super Bowl airs on Sunday, what is our responsibility as spectators?”
In her essay, Rabbi Epstein explores what Jewish tradition has to say about this dilemma — and offers a path forward for Jewish fans who still want to enjoy the game, the JTA has reported.
And if you do plan to watch the game, Super Bowl snacks such as Buffalo Wings, spare ribs, extra long hero sandwiches, burgers, franks, French fries and of course beer to wash it all down are available from a variety of Kosher restaurants and caterers.
