Monday, February 06, 2006

Any reactions to the Super Bowl?

Because I sure don't have any.

Generally speaking, people don't watch the World Series if they don't care about either of the teams in it. I'm a pretty big Braves fan, and I follow some baseball outside of my home team, but if the Series features say the Astros against the Mariners, there's no way I'm going to watch it. It's interesting to know who ends up winning it, but besides that, I don't really care to watch all of it unless a team I have an interest in is competing. This follows with most everyone: people are interested in the World Series, but don't schedule massive events around it. The NBA championship, the Stanley Cup, etc. are the same way.

The Super Bowl has somehow diverged from that and distinguished itself. It's not merely a sporting event; it's a cultural event. My theory on this is its solitarity; where the World Series represents seven of the best baseball games of the year, the Super Bowl is supposed to be the single best football game of the year. That's its widespread appeal. So, watching it, one expects an exceedingly good football game.

We didn't get one this year.

The game was, in a word, sloppy. And in two words, it was sloppy and uninteresting. There were a few great plays (the Seahawks' interception in the second half was excellent) but I've seen more spectacular plays watching college games (viz. all four of the BCS games, every year). Heck, I've been more impressed watching the good old Yellow Jackets (when Reggie Ball Type A shows up). The two most exciting parts of the night were the hot wings that Woodruff Dining Hall served, and talking D&D with Andrew. This was a run-of-the-mill football game, nothing more. No hugely athletic plays, no down-to-the-wire suspense, and no tactical mastery that makes a great football game into a memorable one.

In short, the game was in no way deserving of the cultural gravity that's associated with it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The super bowl happened already? Hrm...I was practicing I guess.
Or watching star trek. Eh.
Hey Matt. You should review Star Trek. Maybe not on the whole since there were a bunch of different serieseses and 10 movies, but you know. I dunno. I guess I am secretly hoping someone can defend me being a trekkie. My own girlfriend told me that was almost a little too weird for her to handle....
"Heil myself, watch my show. I'm the German Ethel Merman don'tchya know"