Super Bowl Recap

Super Bowl LI, between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons, was last Sunday, February 3rd. The entire Fay community, the entire country for that matter, was pumped up for the biggest sports event of the year. Here in New England, everyone is ecstatic about the Patriots’ epic comeback, the first ever overtime of a Super Bowl, and the final victory.

Until two years ago, when I explored Super Bowl commercials on YouTube, I had no idea what the Super Bowl even was. After all, football is barely a part of Korean culture, and because I went to a British school for 6 years back in Seoul, to me and my classmates, the term “football” meant soccer, unless we had specified it as “American football,” which we considered a younger and more violent copy of rugby. But I’m digressing: the point is that I did not know, nor was interested in, anything about American football.

Although I still don’t understand with the crazy excitement around the sport, I do know that it is the sport most rooted in American culture. Not only is football older than basketball and volleyball, the other two major sports invented in America (baseball and soccer originate in England), but it is also most representative of the country’s free, outgoing, and active spirit. After all, America is “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

The first official American football game occurred on November 6th, 1869, and was a match between the college teams of Rutgers and Princeton. Since then, rules have evolved, and the game has developed into the somewhat brutal yet incredibly entertaining sport that we know of today.

Today, practicalities continue to boost football’s popularity, especially for professional football. Since there are only sixteen games per team each season, it is generally easier to keep up with your favorite team. Moreover, due to its popularity, cultures and youthful traditions have also developed around watching the sport. Tailgating parties and barbecues are very popular ways to enjoy the broadcast.

With the combination of such factors, the Super Bowl is the most viewed television event of the year; this year, excluding out-of-home or mobile viewers, there were 111.3 million viewers. Due to this rare and incredibly large viewer base, the event has also been heavily commercialized, with companies ranging from Nintendo to Pepsi paying $5 million just for a 30-second ad to be televised during the game. That’s $166,666 for every second of the ad. Companies create longer, Super Bowl-exclusive ads, and the commercial breaks only add to the fun of the actual sport. Only adding more intrigue, this year, the infamous halftime show featured Lady Gaga jumping off the roof in a glistening bodysuit with colorful, illuminated drones displaying the American flag and “Pepsi” behind her.

At Fay, on Sunday night, boarders stayed in the dorms with pizza and snacks instead of going down to a sit-down dinner. Although I was off campus, I heard from my friends about the elation felt when the team you and your friends are all rooting for starts to win.

“Well, I started watching just for the ads, but my favorite part was when the Patriots started catching up at 20-28. Unlike other games, it seemed relatively sudden and amazing when the Patriots, who we thought were going to lose, beat the Falcons in overtime,” remarked Maddie ‘17.

To be honest, I still know almost nothing about football, and have never managed to sit through an entire football game other than yesterday. But using this opportunity, I may have even enjoyed the experience of witnessing the most popular sports event in the country with friends and family. Although honestly… I just sat through the physicality just for the exclusive ads. Whether you’re like me, curious about the level of violence, the appeal of the game, the ads, or genuinely want to watch the sport itself, the event was a great source of excitement for the weekend.

Image courtesy of:

'Tom Brady named Super Bowl MVP after leading historic Patriots rally' -- ESPN

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/18628127/tom-brady-earns-super-bowl-li-mvp-honors

Erin ‘18