Quick. Name the last five winners of the Super Bowl before this last Sunday without whipping out your phone to look it up.
If you answered the New Orleans Saints, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the New York Giants, The Indianapolis Colts, and the Steelers again, you are correct.
While I’m sure there are a lot of guys out there who thought that was easy, there are probably a lot more who can’t answer that. Why does it matter? Because most Americans watch the Super Bowl.
The game has more entertainment than just a football game. Between commercials, the halftime show, and the post-Super Bowl TV episodes, the game has quickly turned into an all-day event. If you visit yahoo.com, three of their four feature stories are about the Super Bowl. The first is a story about the top 10 funniest Super Bowl commercials. The next is a collection of recipes for a Super Bowl party, and the last one is about the “Glee” episode after the Super Bowl. There isn’t one story about the two teams facing off, or any interesting stories about the players.
The Super Bowl may even be the only TV program where commercials are the most interesting part. I remember my freshman year in the dorm when we had the Super Bowl on, and during the game, we would talk and do homework, but once the commercials came on, it was time to shut up and watch them. I can’t think of another instance when I’ve wanted to watch the commercials. Last year, actress Betty White starred in an ad for Snickers, and it almost re-launched her career as a comedian. She followed up the ad with a gig hosting Saturday Night Live, a few comedies, and ultimately more Snickers ads, which continue to run through this year.
The ultimate sign that the Super Bowl is no longer about football is that television networks use Super Bowl Sunday to air episodes of their top rated TV shows to try and draw more viewers in. In 2009, The Office ran a post Super Bowl episode that may have been one of the best episodes of that show. After the Super Bowl this year, one of the most anticipated episodes of Glee was run.
No other sporting event is such a spectacle. It may have to do with the fact that football is the only sport where one game determines the champion, or that it falls on a weekend. The Super Bowl has become one of the biggest traditions of the country, and its appeal isn’t which team will turn out to be the champion.
Regardless of which teams play in the big game, or how exciting the last quarter is, the buzz following the Super Bowl will be about the commercials, or the Glee episode, or who hosted the best party. And for this one game, once a year, it doesn’t matter that that’s what the Super Bowl has come to be.
hrutt@mesastate.edu