US v. Germany, Grant Park, Chicago
nan turpin photographs
To be sure ’twas a day of slipped meanings. First chill and foggy then clear and broiling. All of us hemmed inside the chain link fence, wrapped with that “One nation one team” sign, wrapped in Old Glories, wrapped in the sudden sweating and all the water snatched by the coppers at the gates. Slipped meanings, Yanks lose 0-1 and “advance” in the World Cup. Germany actually wins and advances like the losers. None of this mattered.
They came to watch this game. And here’s what: they watched it, that’s all they did, just the one thing, watching the game. They were still looking at a screen but in that big crowd no texting, no scrolling, no photos, no selfies, and, it seemed, not a lot of tweeting. All eyes front, all bodies taut, straight, ramrod, how else can we say it the whole crowd looking like athletes. 
Which takes us back to one of this week’s events, a local Chicago college (Robert Morris University) is currently looking for “e-athletes”, video gamers of a certain persuasion, to compete in high-stake (video) game competitions. Right now it looks like athletic scholarships will be available for the e-thletes, dollars that until this week were reserved for people who literally, realistically, used their actual bodies against other people.
Right now it’s looking like a question for biochemists and philosophers to solve. What constitutes “reality?” Are the chemicals of metabolism (like those produced during video game competition) equal ($) to muscle and bone production in “traditional” athletics.
Back to Butler Field in Grant Park. The people watching that screen sure looked like past or present soccer/football players. Whatever their age they watched with an odd intensity of people whose bodies understood everything on the screen. They were spectators in a physical way in a field on a blazing day with the big screen up against the Chicago skyline.
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