The Well-Tempered Ear

Is it pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals for the Super Bowl?

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By Jacob Stockinger

Today — Sunday, Feb. 12, 2023 — is Super Bowl LVII.

Or as we say in ordinary English — “57.”

(It airs at 5:30 p.m. Central Standard Time on Fox.)

The Ear thinks it is pretentious for the NFL to use Roman numerals, which are esoteric and incomprehensible to many members of the public.

Does anyone else think so?

Using the Roman numerals in sports also seems unpractical.

Imagine the NBA using the same antiquated number system to record LeBron James’ new record for a lifetime basketball score —  33,388 points. According to Google, it would be XXXIIICCCLXXXVIII.

How convenient! And silly, no?

It seems the same kind of pretentious authenticity The Ear hears too often in Classical music where authentic foreign pronunciations often seem a sort of status symbol that says “Look at what I know and you don’t, but should.”

Not exactly the kind of effort at reaching out that classical music needs to draw bigger and younger audiences.

It’s like when non-Hungarian, American speakers say “Budapesht” when in English it is simply Budapest. And this often comes from the same people don’t usually say München for Munich, or Roma for Rome, or Paree for Paris. 

Can American speakers just speak plain American English for the sake of clarity and simplicity?

And can the NFL just use either English numbers or, like the Olympics, the year to show which competition it is?

Anyway, despite such preciousness and pretentiousness, we can enjoy today’s 57th or 2023 Super Bowl championship game in Phoenix between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Here’s another easier equivalency: a beautiful long pass and a beautiful javelin throw.

Which why The Eater is offering the classical music piece “Javelin” in the YouTube video at the bottom, played by Yoel Levi conducting the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

Written on commission for the Atlanta Olympics by the Wisconsin-born composer Michael Torke, it soars with a grace and an energy that is made all the more understandable and moving for its lack of words and numbers.

Whatever quarterback does it, winner or loser, here’s to the thrower of the most beautiful pass today.

What do you think of the music? And of the comparison between passing a football and throwing a javelin?

And what do you think about using Roman numerals is sports and foreign pronunciations in classical music  

The Ear wants to hear.