Super Bowl Sunday means a lot to a lot of people. Especially the American people.
We can opine on why football has managed to supplant baseball as our national pastime or discuss how one single game of the sport has become a cultural and television phenomenon across the country, often far outdistancing the single day viewership of anything else on television – or anywhere.
But the result will be the same.
It is and it does.
And I say this as a boy who was weaned on and obsessed with a different sporting event that, at the time, was THE other big, dependable cultural and ratings touchstone – the Oscars.
Yeah, if you’re over 50 and, um, artistic, you’ll know what I mean.
And if you’re Gen X or under you are now rolling your eyes.
Or continuing to roll them even faster because you don’t watch anything on “TV” anymore.
Nevertheless, just know the 9-year-old inside me still distinctly remembers the thrill of Julie Andrews’ 1965 best actress Oscar win for Mary Poppins and totally missed Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay Packers’ 23-12 Super Bowl victory over the Cleveland Browns that year (Note: I googled it) AS WELL AS Cleveland running back Jim Brown being awarded NFL’s MVP award for his performance in that game (Note: Googled that one, too).
I could even tell you who presented Julie with her Academy Award and what she wore that evening WITHOUT googling it but that would be overkill.
Such is the case with the details of yearly cultural phenomenons so many of us look forward to and become obsessed with over our lifetimes.
The Oscars grew from honoring mere movie excellence to watching the unfolding of a series of American success stories that also encompassed fashion, fame, glamour and lots and lots of money.
The Super Bowl began as a way to determine the top dog in football and also grew to symbolize American excellence, as well as its own kind of fame, glamour and, yes, fashion, as well as many, many, MANY bucket loads of money for the lucky few who emerged as the victors.
I mean even me, an absolute non-football watcher, has turned into a person that almost every year manages to catch some small portion of the… show.
Notice I didn’t say game because for some of us fans it’s not about the game at all.
It’s about the spectacle of people falling over themselves in obsession over that year’s player de jour (Note: GO, TRAVIS! WHERE’S TAYLOR? IF YOU WIN, ARE YOU PROPOSING??)
It’s about the reveal of the potentially kick-ass or ass-wipe half time show (Note: Usher? Well, that one can go either way, though I’ve already placed MY bet).
And perhaps most importantly, it’s about…THE COMMERCIALS.
No, not about how commercial the winning movie or team is or will be, but the actual COMMERCIALS.
Who doesn’t remember football’s beer-promoting Clydesdale horses, Betty White getting energized by a Snickers bar or, even if you weren’t there and had to google it (or did so after you were told about it), Apple’s famous, as well as ominous, 1984 tease of its very FIRST Macintosh computer?
When you think about it, this is both fascinating and strange. Strange because if you put the 32 franchises of the NFL together, their monetary worth has been estimated in excess of $10 Billion dollars. For that amount of money, you’d think the actual game, or its result, would be THE single THING.
But nothing is that simple anymore. Not the Oscars. And most certainly not the Super Bowl. Which is what makes it fascinating.
This is not to take anything away from the millions of fans who primarily only care about whether the Kansas City Chiefs or the San Francisco 49ers will emerge victorious by the end of Super Bowl 2024. (Note: I actually didn’t HAVE to google who was playing, which shows just how much I and football have evolved).
It is only to proclaim that like most everything else in the pop culture landscape, it is not only the elite talent on display in our little version of contemporary Roman Coliseum-esque competition and competitors.
It is about how much else we look forward to consuming (Note: And will eventually devour) on this particular day, in addition to the fantasy of fame, fortune, money and a ring.
It is about who or what can tempt us with the best ads for insurance (Note: This year it’s hands down State Farm and Arnold Schwarzenegger), take-out food (Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer are the big winners for Uber Eats) or mobile phone providers (Note: A celebrity packed group of pitch people led by Bradley Cooper and his Mom, the two lead guys from Suits, Laura Dern and Common take the prize for T Mobile).
Of course, none of them will be working as hard as the players on the field but they sure will be paid well, and in some cases, better.
But only because a ton of sophisticated research has shown WE are tuning in for A LOT more than the results of this one game.
Which is to say, in many ways, our fantasies have been granted. WE have BECOME the game.
And VERY big game we are.
(Note: Okay, if you are among the handful of folks left who MUST see the commercials before, or without, watching the game, here are a few links:
Taylor Swift – “…Ready for It?”
notes from a chair 