15 Yards For Unintentional Satire

This week, the National Building Museum in Washington will confer a major award for urban design on… the National Football League. Seriously. A collection of billionaires, who specialize in extorting money from cash-strapped cities which they then use to erect concrete bowls full of seats that no one but the economic elite can afford to rent for a few hours, is receiving an award for responsible and forward-thinking urban planning. And did we mention that many of these stadia are not in urban areas at all, but in suburban sprawlville? And did you see that tacky monstrosity of a kickoff show they mounted on the National Mall a couple of weeks back? Linda Hales did, and she’s not pleased with the NBM’s decision.