御輿の上のあれなんだろう. Is this an idiom, perhaps?

Question

there is a line from a soccer manga that I don't understand. I get what it means, literally, but it's so randomly placed that I wonder if this is an idiom or if I might be missing some context or something because I don't get it at all. This is a guy (Suzuki), the team captain, thinking to himself and reflecting after giving a very sloppy speech. He first says "伝えたいことは いつも言葉にならない, 真実はずっと心の中にばかりある, 俺は "

These I get. But then he says the following and I've been trying to understand but to no avail. As I said, I understand it word by word, but I was wondering, is this an idiom or something? Am I missing something?

(Line 1) 御輿の上のあれなんだろう

For context, the following lines say this: (Line 2) キャプテンにしてもらっていたのだ,この学校の鈴木にしてもらったのだ

Would you please help me understand this sentence? I'd really appreciate any help!

Answer 1

The word 神輿 ("portable shrine") has a connotation of "just for show", "superficial boss", "incapable leader", etc., and there are a handful of set phrases and idioms related to this.

• 神輿は軽くてパーがいい, 担ぐ神輿は軽い方がいい
  A good boss is an easily-influenced, incapable boss (because we can control him/her).
• ～を神輿にかつぐ, 神輿をかつぐ
  to flatter someone into becoming a leader (e.g., because he/she is useful as a scapegoat; because no one else wants to be a leader; because he/she is bad at practical work and only good at giving orders).

So 俺は御輿の上のあれなんだろう refers to this. He was chosen as the captain, but he thinks it was not because he was capable and popular. The actual reason depends on the context.

This usage of アレ ("that") is related to this, this and this, and I think it's used as a replacement of 人. But usually a person doesn't ride on a 神輿, so I guess this person have mixed up 神輿 and 山車. Something like 俺は神輿として担がれていたに過ぎないのだろう or 俺は担がれた神輿だったのだろう should be more "correct".