A Few Super Bowl Thoughts

There’s not a whole lot going on in the Buccaneers’ universe today. Outside of Green Bay, there’s not much going on in any NFL city. The Titans are hiring a coach today, that will be announced at 4 PM, beyond that this is the first day in a long time that the NFL is basically taking the day off.

Still, it’s worth noting that the Super Bowl is more than a championship game. It’s a pop-cultural event heard around the world. To Americans it’s one of the biggest days of the year, other countries view at more as a massive display of our decadence and opulence. Regardless of your opinion, you can’t deny the fact that the Super Bowl transcends football and plants itself firmly in the realm of entertainment. After watching it all yesterday, I figured I’d share a few thoughts with you. Leave yours in our comments section.

Teams Wearing “Gold”

I know that at one point in their history both of those teams, the Packers and Steelers, did wear gold. Nowadays they wear yellow. There are some fairly distinct differences between the two colors, the least of which is a metallic sheen. Notre Dame, Army, Navy, USF, I’ll even toss Georgia Tech in there (though lately they are pushing the definition) all wear gold. What you find on the pants of the Steelers and Packers is YELLOW. Calling it gold is just insulting to all of our intelligence. This isn’t like naming your shade of red something like “Garnet” or “Crimson,” this is calling one color by another color’s name. That drove me nuts all night.

Commercials

I’ve made the decision to boycott any company that didn’t bother to make a new commercial for the Super Bowl. If you pay the three million (or whatever obscene amount it costs to buy a commercial spot) to have an ad during the Super Bowl, then make a new freaking commercial! Just replaying the same garbage I watched all the way through the playoffs is trite and lazy, and I’m not going to buy your product.

You see I hate commercials. I understand the need for them, but in a world where we come back from a three minute break, kick off and then go right back into more Fox promos and recycled beer ads, I don’t have much patience for them. Still, the Super Bowl is the one time a year when I am willing to pee during 4th downs so I don’t miss anything funny. If you’re re-using a commercial or not even trying to be funny (or poignant) then you’re wasting my time and doing me a disservice. I almost peed on myself so you could re-air a four month old commercial? No good.

An Interview with the President

I have a “NO POLITICS” policy on this site, so this isn’t a political statement. It’s more a matter of why one needed to be made at all. The Super Bowl is about as American as it gets. It’s one day that everybody, regardless of race, sex or political affiliations just want to sit down and watch a football game, some good commercials and be amongst friends and family. It’s a day that brings people together.

Now I know a presidential interview with the network carrying the game is a tradition, but trying to slip an episode of the O’Reilly Factor into the pre-game coverage is more divisive than it is a celebration of the country. Chances are you fell on one of two sides of the equation yesterday, you either dislike O’Reilly or you dislike Obama, either way you weren’t happy to see one of them come on TV just an hour before kick off and start playing politics. The interview wasn’t too bombastic, I just wonder if it was even necessary.

Pop Culture

I have nothing against the Black Eyed Peas or Fergie. But I feel like finding someone to sing “Sweet Child of Mine” better than Axel Rose did, wouldn’t have been that hard. I guess they wanted to find someone who looked AND sounded like Axel because while Fergie does bare a little resemblance to Axel, she really murdered that song. And not in the good way that metal-heads use it either. It was pretty awful. I think Slash was probably supposed to play alongside Usher too but just got pissy and decided to go back down into stage after being subjected to that.

And how do you mess up the national anthem? I mean, I feel bad for her because I’m pretty sure she DOES know the right way to sing it (at least I would hope that is a pre-requisite for getting the gig). I could just imagine on the final mic-check, the sound-board guy buzzing in, “hey Christina, you DO know the words to this, right?”

Elsewhere we had to see Cameron Diaz feeding A-Rod popcorn and all kinds of other celebrity garbage. I don’t get the celebrity worship thing. I think Entertainment Tonight is stupid and I think TMZ is a plight on humanity. But what really irritates me about all of the attention paid to celebrities and other notables at last night’s Super Bowl is that it really takes the focus on what to me, is the spirit of the game itself.

The Super Bowl is about the fans. It’s not about a field full of famous people, it’s not about a press box full of former presidents it’s about the culmination of the most popular sport in the country and all the passion and energy that the fans have put into the season. Without the fans the Super Bowl is pointless. Nobody cares, it’s only the place to be because it’s so popular. It’s so popular because of the fans.

And then when it comes on they film and produce it in such a way that it becomes pretty clear unless you’re famous and rich, this event is not for you. The people being filmed last night weren’t football fans. Nobody cares about Hugh Jackman’s opinion on football, he’s an Aussie. Sugar Ray Leonard is a boxer, not hall of fame corner. By making it about the celebrities they take the impetus away from football and the fans, and put it in the lap of the mainstream and all the celebrity-starved non-football fans that tune in once a year.

The Super Bowl is the one time of year that the NFL looks at its fans and says, “thanks for supporting us all season and helping us to grow into the phenom we now are, but today we’re catering to a different demographic. It’s the football equivalent of taking a girl to a concert and then watching her go back-stage and forget all about you.

I almost wish there were two Super Bowls. One produced for football fans, and one for people who will be flipping back and forth to the Puppy Bowl.