Questioning Flu Game (FOB)’s song length while half asleep

https://open.spotify.com/track/1ZLb41HjOna9bQ3s6laUAZ?si=XP-ZKxCjRuWT-owM7fFXug

My favorite thing to do in the whole world is to make up ridiculous, far-fetched theories about this song whenever I think too hard. I will never be normal about Flu Game, it means the world to me. Anyways:

The title is a direct reference to Game 5 of the 1997 basketball finals, in which Michael Jordan was able to carry the Chicago Bulls to victory while showcasing flu-like symptoms (later revealed to have been from food poisoning). Over the course of the game, Jordan was able to score a whopping 38 points. However, the song titled after it clocks in at 3 minutes and 37 seconds. One number off. Come on Patrick and Pete you two had one job /j. Was this just a coincidence, or was it something intentional? 

With bassist Pete Wentz himself even describing it as “chaotic and all over the place”, on the surface level, Flu Game (song) is about masking the pain through a difficult scenario (in the case of the song, losing/drifting away from someone) and continuing to push forward with a sense of self-awareness in regards to yourself and those around you, as well as your fates, despite attempting to mentally convince yourself things are fully functional. (Long ass sentence damn). 

The song constantly stresses the perfectionistic urge through its verses, containing lyrics such as, “all this effort to make it look effortless” and “I grind in the sunshine, grind in the rain, so real that I feel fake” when confronted. There’s absolutely no room for any type of faltering. 38 is the pinnacle of success, the accomplishment. The set goal from the actual game, the role model to look up to. Flu Game is a song about being unable to accept failure and loss. 37 is one point off, symbolizing falling flat on your face with what you so desperately want in front of you, encapsulating the song’s biggest fear: falling apart and losing that facade after everything. 

Flu Game is the pinnacle of failure. Always pushing yourself so close and never being able to achieve a goal because inevitably, it’s a pointless one in the grand scheme of things due to fate’s uncontrollable interference. This is also combined with the aching  sensation that as long as you’re alone after you’ve loved, there’s a part of you that constantly feels as if it’s missing, whether it be big or small. To make matters worse, it remains one of the only songs left to be played live from Fall Out Boy’s entire discography, having been left in the dust when it was originally supposed to be a single with an MV. “One day no one will remember me when they look back.” Ouch!!!