Super Bowl-Uniting a People

The Super Bowl is the perfect storm of American culture—a winner-take-all football game, a frenzy of media coverage, and an excuse to eat junk food for hours on end. Whether you are an avid football fan who has actually watched the absurd number of hours of pre-game analysis, a casual fan of the game, or simply interested in the chips, dip, and commercials, the Super Bowl holds a certain fascination for a large majority of the people in this country. Baseball may, in fact, be America’s pastime, but football defines American culture in a unique way. For many sports fans, the Super Bowl is one of the greatest days of the year. It has become a holiday of sorts. For example, Super Bowl Sunday is the only week of the year in which Mass in my dorm is moved from 10 pm to earlier in the day. Since freshman year, I have been annually amazed that the dorm moves Mass once a year—for a sporting event. Not that I think this is necessarily a bad move. It is practical—many people who would otherwise skip Mass in order to watch the Super Bowl can now do both. But I think it’s pretty funny to see what importance our culture places on the Super Bowl.
The Super Bowl has evolved into much more than just a football game—it is a multi-million dollar industry in and of itself. According to an article on espn.com, this year’s Super Bowl has a projected value of $420 million. As if that figure is not phenomenal in its own right, compare it to the fact that the entire 2008 Summer Olympic Games were valued at $230 million. The one day, 5 hour long Super Bowl is valued at almost twice as much as the entirety of the Olympic Games. The value of the advertisement time alone is ridiculous due to the fact that more people watch the Super Bowl every year than watch any other television event.
The hype leading up to and surrounding the Super Bowl has reached incredible levels. I am not necessarily complaining. I am a self-proclaimed ESPN addict, so I spend unfortunate amount of hours watching Sportscenter. However, not even I can believe how much every possible angle of the game is analyzed and dissected, and how many different experts are brought in to make their predictions. At some point, I feel like enough is really enough. How many different times can Dwight Freeney’s ankle injury really be discussed? But all the hype does its job—every year a huge percentage of the population watches the Super Bowl. The media coverage may seem excessive at times, but by the time Super Bowl Sunday finally rolls around, everyone can’t wait for the game to start.
The Super Bowl is unique in American sports—it is the only one of the 4 mainstream, professional sports where a single game decides a championship. The outcome is decided right here, right now. All in all, the Super Bowl achieves something that politics, religion, or even other sports can’t do—it brings the American people together in a united desire to watch grown men practically kill each other. We may not all agree on which team to root for, but for a period of about 5 hours once a year, a lot of issues in the world fall away, and we can just watch the game.
Sara Romano, ND 2011
Social Foundations of Coaching Course