How did I never know before now how awesome rugby is? Because of the internet, the world really is flat, as Thomas Friedman commented on how technology has brought the globe closer together. Years ago I was a Dallas Cowboys fan and staunchly sacrificed my Sundays, Mondays, and sometimes Thursdays every football season rooting for a team that was never again going to be the team of the 90s (thanks to Jerry Jones, in part). I got tired of giving so much for something that wasn't in any way enriching or gratifying after awhile, and even more tired of all the arrogance, drama, and toxic masculinity surrounding American football as a whole.
Fast-forward a decade and I discover the Maori haka on YouTube. Hours of haka videos later, I run into All or Nothing on Amazon and decide to see what the All Blacks are all about besides their traditional starting ritual. First of all, can we celebrate the way New Zealand honors its indigenous traditions by incorporating haka in schools, at weddings, funerals, ball games, and all occasions with EVERYONE of all races participating in solidarity together. If that happened here, anyone that wasn't Maori would get lambasted for "cultural appropriation."
I'm so glad I watched this series. Rugby is a gritty, fascinating, exciting sport; so much more fun to watch than the endless, tedious "advance-down-the-field" American football that lost its running game somewhere back in the 80s in favor of the overly glorified "west coast offense" and passing game. All in all, the only sport I favor over rugby is the one known everywhere but the US as the actual football.
But that's not the only thing I loved about this season. American men's sports rarely ever features the sort of humility, maturity, and soft-spoken-ness of the men on the All Blacks team, including their coach. Are New Zealand men just generally more well-adjusted? It surely seems so. In any event, listening to them was so refreshing compared to the typical macho jarhead-speak we get stuck hearing after the games of any male-dominated American sport. I loved seeing how much love all these guys have at home as well. Not only do they feel humbly blessed to be part of the All Blacks team, but they seem to be genuinely committed to their partners and families. Just seeing the exchange in episode 5 with Kieran Read at home with his wife was something I could rewind and watch over and over for how wholesome it is. You just can tell that guy genuinely adores his family. Where is that sentiment in American football with all the partying, cheating, strip club-going, scandal-steeped ways of U.S. men's sports? It just goes to show you there is a big world outside the USA, and I'm glad Amazon brought us a little glimpse of it.