For all of you cynics out there who claim to be tired of the annual over-hyped rituals and media overkill connected to the Super Bowl, I sympathize. It is true there is no more over-promoted, over-corporatized spectacle on the planet than the lead-up to the Big Game. It is annoying, tiresome, and sometimes nauseating.
It would be impossible for any game, any sporting event — save, perhaps, the 1980 Olympic hockey game between the U.S. and Soviet Union — to live up to this kind of buildup. And, as a rule, this has proved to be the case. In the 46 games played to date, only a handful have been close, and even fewer were nail-biters. Twenty games have been decided by 15 points or more, with 29 games decided by more than a touchdown. The quality of play, too, is usually less than stellar.
Controversies are created out of nothing. This year’s hysteria came about because of a San Francisco player, Chris Culliver, whose remarks about gays in professional football let loose a firestorm of criticism:
Speaking with shock jock Artie Lange, cornerback Chris Culliver said he’s not OK with gay players in the NFL or on his team.
“I don’t do the gay guys man,” Culliver said, according to Yahoo. “I don’t do that. No, we don’t got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do.”
Culliver went on to say that gays would not be welcomed in the locker room, but if they remained closeted, he might be all right with them playing.
“Yeah, come out 10 years later,” he said.
To believe that Culliver’s thoughts aren’t almost universally shared by the rest of the players in the NFL is to live a sheltered life, indeed. As a yardstick to determine how far society must yet travel for gay acceptance, his comments were also quite revealing.
If he had uttered those words during the season, they would have been a 24-hour story on ESPN and perhaps a local scandal. But since they were given during Super Bowl week, the avalanche of national criticism that fell on Culliver was astounding. It was front-page news in some markets, and all the usual suspects in the media felt compelled to offer their opinion.
But despite manufactured controversies, boring games, and the relentless media coverage, there is no other day throughout the year that so thoroughly and completely unites Americans in a shared experience. The only other time such a phenomenon occurs is some national tragedy or emergency. Even people who wouldn’t know a blitz from broom handle will sit down with their families, friends, and total strangers to watch the spectacle unfold. There is no other event in American history that has so thoroughly permeated the national consciousness.
In this respect, the importance of the game can hardly be overstated. Last year’s audience may have been the largest in American history, with 111 million viewers tuning in. The broadcast garnered nearly a 48 share — 48% of households in America were tuned in. And even that number doesn’t do justice to the size of the audience, as many of us help make Super Bowl Sunday one of the biggest paydays of the year for bars and restaurants, while many more attend Super Bowl parties.
Peoples enjoyment of the Superbowl is real, despite any commercial excess.
It is truly an American thing.
It’s true Americans are at the forefront of marketing. We don’t stand in front of a wooden cart full of apples and stare at the passing traffic and hope.
Those same apples are worth a hell of a lot more if you invest in advertising, scantily clad women, clever slogans and get bloggers to arguing. Anticipation has been proven to work via the lingerie industry.
However the aftertaste is still that of apples. But they’re delish.
What’s that you say? It’s possible to invest in scantily-clad women? How long has this been going on and why wasn’t I told??
(tee hee)
Of course it is.
Support your local stripper!
I must respectfully disagree. The Puppy Bowl is not over hyped. What, there’s something else going on today?
They’re adorable this year, aren’t they?
What If Money Didn’t Matter?
What If Money Didn’t Matter is an inspirational video narrated by Allan Watts that should make you think about what you really want to do with your life. If money were no object how would you choose to live your life and how would you spend your time? I am a firm believer that if you are really passionate about something you can make a life doing whatever it is you are passionate about. I admire those that have taken the road less traveled to do what they enjoy like Richard of London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siu6JYqOZ0g&feature=player_embedded
I don’t even think the Super Bowl is America’s best sporting event, much less do I buy into the hysteria. We’ve turned into party, I’ll grant that.
Guaranteed there’s more pools for the NCAA Men’s basketball tournament the first weekend and more national interest than the Super Bowl.
However, the Super Bowl is a media circus – of the most superficial type. And Americans demand their entertainment.
I am old enough to remember when a marching band sufficed as half-time entertainment and commercials were inoffensive messages that simply told you about the desirable features of a product or service.
Now both the half-time show and the commercials resemble debauched strip club shows set to the “tune” of shrieking and howling.
I watch the Super Bowl for FOOTBALL. I ignore the other stuff as best I can.
The usual suspects in the media can offer their opinions, but usually they can’t offer arguments why you should change your mind. Of course, when folks are used to destroying people at whim in order to “win”, why bother to learn how to do anything but destroy and slant narratives?
Nope, if you want a reasoned discourse, youse gots to go somewhere else.
Rick, you never disappoint. More twaddle. What you don’t understand is that the Super Bowl hasn’t always been this cheesy. There was a time when it was watchable. There was once a time when the action on the field took up far more time than the commercials on the boob. Long ago. In an exceptional nation far far away. Way back there, when your average NFL fan was wringing his hands about the “gay rights” of the “400-pounders” out there on the grid-iron. I’m talking WAY pre-Beyonce (sp?).
So, no, I won’t be watching the Super Bowl this year. Couldn’t care less. The game has lost its purity. I remember back in the day of Gale Sayers and Joe Namath when we were actually allowed to take a break at half time and enjoy maneuverings of marching bands, with little interference from the sportscasters. Ah, things were so different in THOSE days of American Exceptionalism.
If you like football, then by all means watch football.
But don’t turn the unveiling of Superbowl TV commercials into a kind of national pastime comparable to the football game itself.
It’s been reported that many Americans who don’t even care for football will tune in to the Superbowl just to see the newest commercials. That’s just grotesque.
And as long as we’re talking about culture: Is there ANY reason at all why we still number Super Bowls with Roman numerals? Why can’t we just call it Superbowl 47 instead of Superbowl XLVII?
Roman numerals are the mathematical equivalent of Obama’s faux-Greek faux-marble columns: Phony classicism.
– Sin Francisco, you still have the Giants before the Big Quake wipes you out.
I know not what course others may take, but as for me, I’m in it for the munchies.
Now I know why Beyonce didn’t sing the National Anthem at the inauguration. It is because she can’t sing. That wasn’t “singing” last night. It was certainly a spectacle, but it was less entertaining than the majority of the commercials.
The only whiff of America’s past greatness, and hope for the future, was found in the “God Made a Farmer” commercial.
Is America great or what? Zillions watched huge violent men run up and down the field with a rubber ball. But no one understands the electric circuits that kept tens of thousands alive inside a dark stadium: no lights, elevators, communication, or toilets. The official report is that it was an “abnormality”. My cat knew that.
The most valuable person in that Super Bowl was the guy who fixed the outage. Does anybody know what his salary is?
That structure was renovated after the hurricane, at a cost of $340,000,000. Who, in the Big Easy, got the dough, and what did they do for it?
We should consider these cultural events as a foreshadowing of the future.
Your cat is certainly smarter than most of our voters, too!
I said this elsewhere but it seems more appropriate here.
The Sandy Hook Choir in the opening ceremonies was a “jump the shark” moment for the NFL as far as I’m concerned. It was entirely political and crass in my opinion. Had a mentally challenged young man not gone on a shooting spree at that school they wouldn’t have been there. I’m suprised they didn’t trot out Gabby Giffords to sing a song with Beyonce during half time.
I’m sure they worked hard when they found out they’d be making the appearence, but who did those kids bump out? A choir that worked hard all the prior year to win a contest to sing at the Super Bowl? Maybe nobody, but still rewarding these kids because others died at their school is just wrong.
i have lost all interest in watching millionaires run up and down the field.
Oh, and by the way, I heartily agree with Chris Culliver. He doesn’t want to feel violated in his own workplace.
I’m a married woman and I would hate to have to be in a locker room with aggressive dykes staring at me, making remarks about me, or hitting on me. If they keep their proclivities to themselves, I won’t know about it and won’t feel as uncomfortable.
I’m fed up with the way that anybody who opposes the gay agenda is immediately demonized.
“But despite manufactured controversies, boring games, and the relentless media coverage, there is no other day throughout the year that so thoroughly and completely unites Americans in a shared experience.” I take umbrage with this assertion. The Daytona 500 is less than 20 days away, you know.