Super Sunday - With or Without the Game
By Kathy Harlan
130 million Americans and 1.5 billion people worldwide will watch the extravaganza known as Super Bowl Sunday. How many of those millions could tell you what teams played in the game and who won is questionable. But almost all those viewers wedge in front of their television sets to see the half-time show and the high-profile commercials. At $2.5 million for a 30 second spot it is deal or no-deal time for the advertisers.
Now tell the truth. When you hear "Super Bowl" what thought first pops into your mind? A random sampling of the "man on the street," (my friends and family) ranged from "football" (imagine that!) to "wardrobe malfunction," to "frogs," to "commercials," to "I'm sick of hearing about it." For sure, the Super Bowl brings out some emotion in everyone, be it excitement, boredom, anticipation, or disgust. It has become more than a football game, more than the championship of the highest performing teams of the year. It is a cash cow for the host city. It is a cultural phenomenon, where the commercials are more anticipated than the contest, and hardly anyone remembers the game itself.
Super Bowl XXXVIII (whenever that was) was held in Houston. Anyone remember the teams that fought it out for the championship? (New England Patriots vs. Carolina Panthers.) Anyone care who won? But the halftime event continues as fodder for the talk shows. Do Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson ring a bell? Of course - that halftime fiasco made "wardrobe malfunction" part of the American lexicon.
This year's show features rock star Prince, who made the list of "25 Greatest Short Dudes" selected by Housequakes.Com (along with Napoleon, Jon Stewart and the shortest of all, Yoda). Prince once wore a see-through outfit at an awards show on MTV, but then he got religion and MTV got banned from Super Bowl halftime shows, so expect his costume to be flashy but decent.
The first few years the half-time shows were presented by All-American groups like "Up With People" and college bands. They transitioned to the world of Rock and Roll with Chubby Checker, the Rockettes and 88 grand pianos performing in SB XXII (whenever that was). Great stars have performed, but the Super Bowl atmosphere doesn't bring out the best in rock and roll stars (see Paul McCartney in SB XXXIX) (whenever that was).
Way back in 1974, five years after shocking the world by leading the New York Jets to the Super Bowl III championship, Joe Namath became the world's most famous pantyhose wearer, languidly donning fancy fishnet stockings in a Hanes commercial.
Ah yes, commercials. Now those have been memorable. The most innovative has to be the spot created by Apple Computer in 1984 based on the novel 1984. It featured a female runner in red running shoes, orange shorts, a white tank top with a picture of the brand new Macintosh, carrying a sledgehammer. Chasing her are guards in paramilitary uniforms and helmets with visors to cover their faces. She races to a meeting hall filled with skinheads and throws the hammer at an image of Big Brother, obviously representing IBM. If you missed the 60-second commercial you were out of luck. It was shown only one time. It was years later that the commercial was made available for public viewing. That commercial, which was launched with trepidation by Apple executives, has won every major award for television commercials.
Personally, I prefer feel-good offerings like the little Budweiser frogs croaking to each other, EDS cowboys herding cats, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan playing "horse" for McDonald's hamburgers and Mean Joe Green sharing a Coke with a young fan. This year the National Football League actually invited fans to submit concepts for ads and the top twelve were shown on-line where viewers chose the winner.
Purists who are actually interested in the football game probably know these Super Bowl facts:
- The Super Bowl is actually the championship game of the National Football League. It was first played in January 1967 in which the established NFL championship team played against the champion of the upstart rival American Football League. The two leagues merged in 1970 and the championship game became known as The Super Bowl.
- The prize is a 22-inch, seven-pound, handmade Tiffany and Co. trophy, renamed for Vince Lombardi in 1971.
- Super Bowl III (whenever that was) featured one of the biggest upsets in sports history. A brash young quarterback named Joe Namath (yes, children, the handsome guy who modeled pantyhose is now the old guy who got mouthy with a pretty television interviewer a year or so ago) "guaranteed" a win by the underdog AFL team - the NY Jets - and then had the chutzpah to actually deliver. That win gave legitimacy to the contest.
- The hype is grandiloquent but the game is usually boring. The playoff games leading to the Super Bowl are generally more competitive than the championship. It seems to be enough just to get there.
- Each team member receives a championship ring and a few extras are awarded, making the rings highly desirable to collectors. The 2005 ring, which went to the Patriots, boasted 124 diamonds. Lester Hayes, formerly of the Oakland Raiders, once pawned his Super Bowl XVIII (whenever that was) ring for $800, planning to get it back within the allotted time. The pawnshop keeper sold it for auction on ebay for $18,500.
- This year's game is LXI. They are given Roman numerals because the football season spans two years (2006-2007) and it was thought the numerals would be more understandable. That belief lasted about III years and now no one has a clue what number this is (convince me that LXI is more understandable than 41).
The deadline for this article came before the championship game at Dolphin Stadium in Miami on February 4, 2007 was played. You can be sure that, along with millions of other sports fans, I will judge every expensive second of each commercial. Maybe a new term will be coined at Prince's halftime show. And just maybe there will be a humdinger of a football game.
