My dictionary defines “hero” as “a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities.”  It says nothing about any “heroic goal-line defense.”  Heroes are not found on any football field, unless their name was Pat Tillman, who gave up an NFL contract to lose his life in Afghanistan.  He was a hero.  He was not just another rich athlete pretending to be a hero.

While I respect the commitment of professional athletes to maximize their physical potential, they are mere shills for the almighty advertising industry.  They are paid to bring eyeballs to advertisements to drink more beer, buy new cars or whatever.  They are not heroes.  They are just athletes.  They exist only to entertain us enough to watch commercials . . . including my beloved Cowboys.

My point is not to denigrate hardworking athletes, nor to illustrate the reach of the unregulated advertising industry, but to question our need to use superlatives.  Howard Cosell invariably referred to the not-overly-educated football players as “brilliant” simply for running a good play.    Maybe, “color commentary” means the language has to be colorful or superlative?

Just as printing too many dollars cheapens the currency, overuse of superlatives cheapens the meaning.  If everything is superlative, then nothing is.