Dunkirk NY – I’ve been alive for every Super Bowl, and I believe the only two I missed were the first and the second (I did see the Ice Bowl, so I know at least I was watching football at that age). I’ve seen all the others, although the memories for each SB are a bit spotty. But last night, I think I watched my last one. The Super Bowl has become an over-the-top disaster, and at this point there is so much overblown and over-hyped content that watching the game has become more of an effort to avoid the hype rather than enjoy a game.
The game itself was actually pretty good. I thought the teams were evenly matched, with two young and talented QBs at the helm. Kansas City staged a great comeback to win the game in the 4th quarter, and as games go, you couldn’t ask for much more. I found myself enjoying the game as it was being played. I had no particular favorite going in, and as each team grabbed the lead, I became a “fan” of that team. The final really hinged on the interceptions made by both teams that led to points. If all I had to focus on was the game, I would have said I had a good time.
Try as I might, though, I could not avoid the continual bombardment of hype and hypocrisy that are the TV commercial and so-called public service announcements. I watched none of the pre-game, none of the half-time show (choosing to gorge on some local take-out BBQ ribs and shrimp), and little of the post-game show. My attempt was to try and concentrate on the game itself. Were there not commercials between action breaks, I might have succeeded. But even with all that avoidance, the sheer weight of they hype became too much.
We are a country that, right now, is sorely divided, and the entire political, economic and social climate is divisive in the extreme. But if you knew nothing of America but what you watched on the Super Bowl, you would think that everything is absolutely fine in this country. You would think that President Trump is doing everything he can to make sure that people – especially black people – are receiving justice. You would think that Google is a company that cares about senior citizens with dementia. You would think that eating a Snickers solves all serious problems. You would think that Michelob was really serious about helping American farmers become organic. You would think that the police in this country were anything but racist, and that the shooting of unarmed young black men is an aberration rather than a too-often occurrence. You would think that Amazon is an amazing company interested only in your convenience. You would think that the NFL is out in front and ahead of the various injury-related illnesses that their former players contract, providing them with the best of care and protection both while they are players and after they retire. You would think that nobody who plays for the NFL has ever committed a violent act outside of the game. And finally, you would think that our military is a powerful force for global good around the world, fighting evil-doers wherever they are, and that we take incredible care of all our veterans both psychologically and physically.
All this, of course, is nonsense. Yet on this particular Sunday, we are sold this bill of goods in relentless fashion, as if it were real. Every possible positive spin is put on to hoodwink the American consumer and citizen into believing all these lies. And why not? Somewhere I read that the Super Bowl is the last American event that most Americans watch together at the same time from the same place. It consistently receives the highest Nielsen ratings and thus is the most-watched TV/entertainment event of the year. It should come as absolutely no surprise to anyone that the surveillance- and crony-capitalist oligarchy, the industrial/military/entertainment complex, and our corrupt political structure, should descend on this event like flies on shit so as to spin their web of mesmerizing lies to a US public that, due to the complete failure of the education system to produce citizens with high critical thinking skills, is so incredibly susceptible to these lies.
This is what I cannot watch. Football is nothing but a game. It really should be accorded no more importance than that. We, as a society, have much bigger problems to solve, and while any sport can be an entertaining way to pass the time, no sport should become so full of itself as to think it should occupy a place in society larger that just that. President Trump is a racist who is out to divide this country’s citizens against each other so the white establishment can continue to control power. Google is a corporation out to destroy every shred of privacy you have and monetize every piece of data it can glean about you. Snickers is a candy bar with little nutritional value that can rot your teeth. Michelob is a nasty-tasting beer that contains alcohol, which is poison to your body. Most police departments in this country contain within them a strong streak of racism, and young black males are a particular target. Amazon intends to dominate completely the sales market, abuses its workers, and its Amazon Web Services are in the business of gathering as much data about you as it can, as well as becoming the one and only source of cloud web service in this country. The NFL has a terrible history of mistreating its players, taking no responsibility for the health and welfare of its retirees, and tolerating and covering up the violence committed by its players. The US military is engaged in wars it cannot win, offers as little information about those wars as it can to the American public, and offers middling to poor care for its veterans once they leave the service.
The point for me is that I find it more and more difficult to participate in this event. When I watch the game, I feel as if I am complicit in the hype, as if somehow I believe the Super Bowl is the ultimate national event of the year. It isn’t. It’s just another football game, significant because it will determine the winner of a particular sport, but no more than that. At one time, that was all it was. After 54 of them, the bloat is too much. The Super Bowl has become the Mr. Creosote of American life, and I think it’s time for me to get out of the restaurant before it explodes all over me. -twl