It is that special time of year once again. Sportscenter is being shot on a city street corner, NFL Live is airing 15times a day and the Pro Bowl was just played in Hawaii, (but who really cares about that last one?). Super Bowl media week is coming to an end and as sports fans we have now had the pleasure of listening to Mike Tomlin talk about the abilities of Green Bay’s All-Pro linebacker Clay Matthews 25 times.
The power of the Super Bowl always amazes me, it takes hold of the media in America and for an entire week nothing else in the world seems as important as who is performing during the Super Bowl half time show.
How many times do we have to hear Ben Roethlisberger deflect questions about how being in the Super Bowl changes his pre-season discretions? Here is a hint, it changes absolutely nothing. Roethlisberger is an excellent quarterback, but winning a Super Bowl doesn’t prove or disprove whether or not he has any sense of morality when it comes to taking advantage of young girls. The fact of the matter is, the moral dilemmas of society cannot be solved or determined by who wins a football game.
When analyzing the weeklong media frenzy that is the Super Bowl, it is easy to understand why it seems to take over every media outlet from Wooster, Ohio to London, England. It is the largest annual sporting event on the face of the planet. But despite acknowledging the significance of this game, I can’t help but wonder why so much time and energy is devoted to any singular sporting event. After all, it is just a football game, right?
Obviously millions of people are going to watch it and obviously millions of dollars are at stake in terms of merchandise and advertising, but in a world with so many problems is it really that important? In a world that is filled with riots and violence, hunger and disease how can so much time and effort be spent on something as trivial as a football game? Perhaps the answer lies in the simple understanding that the Super Bowl is a distraction. That is a glaring display of Americana that pleases so many individuals with the athletic displays of some of the world’s best athletes.
For only a few hours, the problems of the world that so many of us read and write about everyday are pushed aside by the joy of athletics. Although many avid sports fans take time out of evryday to keep up with their favorite team no sporting event gets as much attention as the Super Bowl. It seems to me that those few hours of distraction, those moments of entertainment, of joy and yes even sorrow are what make the Super Bowl such a special event. For those few hours on a Sunday night everybody is watching.
It is not everyday that millions of people are able to forget about the stresses of their lives. And if the Super Bowl does anything, it provides individuals with the opportunity to put their feet up, have a Coors Light and enjoy their evening. After all, quality sports is something that is always worth celebrating, no matter how trivial†it may seem when compared to the problems of the world..