Superbawl.

Hey,

So then, Superbowl XLIV. Did you watch it? If so, did you know exactly what was going on, or did you just look in to see what the fuss was going on? I was a mixture of both; I had a fair grasp of the rules of American Football, courtesy of owing NFL Madden 2000 on the Playstation and that sleep had deserted me on Sunday night / Monday morning.

The Superbowl is like the finale of a television show which you have never seen before. You know that it is big in the US, and that from all reports is kind of a big deal so you should really watch it so you have a vague idea of what had happened, thus ensuring that you aren’t the idiot who doesn’t have a clue on what happened when you go to your lectures on Monday. In that regard it is a bit like Glee. However, like watching a TV show from cold, it takes a while to warm to the main characters. For instance, it is hard to feel any strong emotions towards Patton Manning, until you realise he is the latest in a family famous for quarter backs and is in search of his fourth Superbowl winner’s ring (let’s face it, a winner’s ring is far cooler than a medal; you can’t exactly wear a medal to work can you? Trust me, I’ve tried).

In some aspects, the Superbowl is the essence of “the American Dream”; it’s brash, loud, super-sized and commercialised (a thirty second advert during the game is estimated to cost $2.6 million). The half-time show is worth staying up to 1am on its own. This year, The Who played during the interval. The Who for crying out loud! Imagine if the Champions League final had a brief interlude with a set from The Rolling Stones? It’s unimaginable, and it just wouldn’t feel right. The mind wanders to the Twenty20 Cup final which had a half-time show performed by the Sugababes (old Sugababes, you know when at least one of the original members was there, I forgot who though). It was just a bit bizarre when you realise they are a warm-up act for the Surrey Brown Caps chasing 130 on a flat track.

Yet the Superbowl spectacle is possibly one which we sceptical British folk can relate to if only we can admit to it. For a start, unlike all the other major sports in the US, the Superbowl is a final and not a “best of” series such as the World Series in baseball or the Stanley Cup in Ice Hockey. This brings it in line with “our” (I use the term “our” loosely to describe rugby, football etc) sports, which focus on a grand finale of such.

Watching the national anthem at the beginning of the game instantly brought my mind back to rugby union, with the coincidental start of the Six Nations on the same weekend. The pride and patriotism from the fans in Miami was not too dissimilar to hearing a packed Millennium Stadium singing “Land of My Fathers” or hearing “Flower of Scotland” sung by 65, 000 Scots in unison. Superbowl brings the country together the way a big international football match brings a nation together, and this can’t be a bad thing, can it?

To joke about the blatant advertising in the Superbowl (which is brought to you by Bridgestone, by the way) seems to be a touch hypocritical when “our” sports appear to be just as bad; e.g the Heineken Cup or the Coca Cola League Championship. It is even subtle for goodness sake. What is interesting to note is that the player kits worn by both teams and all NFL franchises have no sponsorships on them, unlike football shirts which are now effectively mobile billboards.

Of course, the sport does itself no favours having “franchises” as opposed to teams. Those who simply do not like NFL can criticise its flexibility that the Colts simply picked up sticks one day and moved from Baltimore to Indianapolis. Apparently, this means a franchise is devoid of history, of roots to a city to the way a football club has. But really, who needs history? If the Premiership could be as flexible as the NFL it would be. The desire for a “39th Game” abroad was inspired by the NFL’s annual international game in London, and shot down by our ugly British scepticism. American Football, of course, is not restricted to America; as well as NFL Europe - a league which was graced by the presence of the Scottish Claymores until a few years ago – the international game at Wembley is a huge event. For the 2009 game between the Saints and the Chargers the first 45,000 tickets available sold out in just ninety minutes.

The game itself was actually very interesting, despite my increasing tiredness creeping in. Complicated, yes, but interesting nonetheless. It is a game of strategy, tactics and planning, just like football or rugby or cricket. Just because I did not know the technical terms and the ins and outs (I will probably never know what “unnecessary roughness” is) it didn’t fail to spoil my enjoyment.

So, at the end of a long night, it was the New Orleans Saints who were triumphant, winning 31-17. What the night proved for me though is that this game is a) immensely popular and b) far more entertaining than I thought it would be (though the performance by The Who helped a wee bit). It made me wonder, is it us who are the ignorant ones for not taking this game as seriously as we should?

DC x