Heh, just read that. Always nice to see a shout out to the verse :)

Paul_Rocks | February 08, 17:40 CET

"Who do we not like?"

I love that. Very nicely done. I have to send this link to a friend of mine who plays these games at work constantly. (I don't bother. I guess that's why he has the reputation of being such a nice regular guy and I have the reputation of being...odd...in an indefinable sort of way. ;-) )

newcj | February 08, 18:18 CET

That's great. Glad to know I'm not the only American who doesn't care about the Superbowl.

Seriously, I actually had people telling me I was un-American. It probably doesn't help that I also hate peanut butter and apple pie.

UnpluggedCrazy | February 08, 21:16 CET

If you hate peanut butter you can just leave right now, you, you...! (joke, that should be obvious :))

zeitgeist | February 08, 21:26 CET

I watch sports socially, therefore intermittently. Though being female helps relieve the pressure, the men in my family have never been even close to being obsessive sports fans.

Back in the70's one of my Dad's students was on the Dallas Cowboys. My Dad ended up watching a lot of football. I watched with him and we had a good time. I have not watched football since my Dad died because there just is no reason to.

This year my son started talking about liking the Steelers so I asked him if he wanted us to watch the Superbowl. His response was a perplexed "Why?" When I repeated that to my brother his immediate response was "For the commercials." (He was being ironic.) On Monday I was talking to the guys at work and after hearing that the game was not very good, told them my brother's comment. They said, "Even the commercials weren't very good this year." and added that the national anthem was awful and the half-time show was "eh."

It just seems to be getting harder and harder work to be a true American. ;-)

newcj | February 08, 21:56 CET

It's pretty common where I live to not care about sports. Yet another reason to love Portland. What did the PDX Browncoats do on Superbowl Sunday? We went bowling and talked to Rick Blyeu about his Flanvention trip. I don't think the subject of the Superbowl came up once.

electricspacegirl | February 08, 22:25 CET

I don't actually care about the Superbowl, but I love the spirit of the event. The spirit is very American. Thus, I watched the game (and the commercials!) while trying (successfully enough) to study for a midterm.

And how about the post-superbowl episode of Grey's Anatomy? Best damn episode of the series, if you ask me.

Invisible Green | February 08, 23:13 CET

I am actually a guy who doesn't care for any of the popular sports like football at all (football as in soccer, the type David Beckham plays). I definitely think it can help you make friends with other guys quite easily, but I just don't find it interesting at all. I've had to play it in PE before and thought it was okay, buy pretty dull, and I am better at other things.

I do enjoy other sports such as tennis, basketball, badminton and stuff like archery seems really cool. I guess I'm just a little weird. I just find it odd that people expect guys to enjoy a particular sport involving people kicking around a leather ball, as if it should hold a very special place in your heart, when they tend to be so dismissive of so many other hobbies and interests. Shakespeare for instance.

And, remember the season two episode of Alias that followed the Superbowl a few years ago- "Phase One"? It was fantastic and I think it was a great idea to try and exploit the massive audience the show was going to receive that night. It also accelerated so many important plot points that probably wouldn't have happened until the end of the season, either. A risky move but a thoroughly entertaining episode.

Razor | February 09, 01:59 CET

"Phase One" did indeed rock. ABC's had great luck with post-Superbowl episodes.

Last year was FOX with American Dad, right? *Yawn* What was the year before that?

Invisible Green | February 09, 02:34 CET

I tried to describe the American infatuation with Super Bowl Sunday to a few Australians the other day.

It wen't over about as well as trying to explain the origins of Thanksgiving and why we keep celebrating it.

Epona | February 09, 03:24 CET

Superbowl Sunday is a national holiday as far as I am concerned. I don't think I have ever missed one. I watch every second of it including the 3 hour pregame show.

TamaraC | February 09, 04:11 CET

Hi-larious.

Mates used to rave about 'Superbowl Sunday' so I watched it one year ('93 or '94, Dallas was one of the teams). The actual game was OK (i'm not really a big American football fan which probably didn't help) but the adverts completely ruined it for me. 1st down, hey advert break, 2nd down, another break, penalty, wow, look a commercial. I particularly remember one for Budweiser with this guy on a train. After 2 hours (maybe an hour of actual play ?) I was plotting ways to derail the train, track the guy, his friends and their respective families down and get positively medieval on all their asses. Haven't drunk Bud since (not that I needed much further incentive in that regard - seriously, how can you guys stomach it ? ;).

Not really a big club football (soccer) fan either tho' I enjoy a bit of a kick around. I'll usually watch the FA Cup final (probably the UK's closest equivalent to the Superbowl), national games and maybe old firm matches (Glasgow Rangers vs Celtic, which are usually more like fights where the occasional football match breaks out ;) - if you think Yankees/Mets games border on the religious, you should see what happens when the rivalry actually is religious) but most club games just seem arbitrary, never could get worked up about city X vs city Y because how can you really be loyal to a city anyway ?

Totally with you Razor, BTW, always seemed daft to me that you're seen as somehow less worthwhile if you don't like watching 22 grown men chase an inflated leather bladder around a field tho' you're right that it's usually something you can strike up a conversation about with more or less any bloke and it can be a great unifying force (I think something like a billion people around the world watch the World Cup final).

Saje | February 09, 06:38 CET

Well I avoid the hype-i-ness of such events as Superbowl Sunday, but I unapologetically love love sport. And I don't care for the reductiveness of saying football (soccer) is just men chasing around a field - any worthwhile human pursuit can be stripped down in that way. It's the passion and beauty and symbolism underneath that's important - for some, it's football, for others opera, for others an espresso and the morning paper. It's all good. No need to criticise footie - which is, IMO, The Beautiful Game, - to boost your own preferred pastime.

SoddingNancyTribe | February 10, 09:48 CET

SNT, not sure if you're responding to my post but if so you'll notice there's no 'just' in there. I have in the past defended football in similar terms to yours (at its peak it's a sport of strength, balance, selfless teamwork and sublime grace, anyone who's watched Thierry Henry or Gazza scoring his wonder goal in the England/Scotland game of Euro '96 - bastard ;) - couldn't disagree) but I do still sympathise with Razor's point that certain guys will think less of you once you tell them you 'don't really follow a team' and the arbitrariness of elevating football to this rank rather than say (in his example) Shakespeare.

Indeed, my only criticism of footie is the exclusionary effect it sometimes has and the over the top tribalism (where i'm from people have been killed over which team they support and a few years ago a referee's home was attacked because he gave a 'wrong' decision in an old firm game) which was partly the point of my reminder that it is 'only' a game where 22 men chase a ball around a field (technically I guess it's 20 since the goalies shouldn't be chasing anything ;). As you say, all sports can be stripped down to this level and if people were being attacked or even just thought less of over their disinterest in, for example, Rugby (which I also follow at the national but not club level) then i'd point out that that's 30 men running around a field playing with odd shaped balls ;).

Saje | February 10, 13:42 CET

Ah, Saje, I wasn't trying to pick apart what you or Razor said, just letting off steam. We can agree that while the "fans" (so-called) can be obnoxious, the game can be sublime . . .

As for the reductiveness of which I spoke, I wasn't referring only to sport - Tolstoy famously stripped down opera to its constituent elements (painted scenery, unreal air, rotund singers) by depicting it through a young Natasha's eyes in War and Peace. What the medium involves (men and balls; ink and pulp - in the case of literature; wood, wires, and haircuts - in the case of the Beatles) is fairly irrelevant; it's what you with it that makes it beauty. :)

SoddingNancyTribe | February 11, 03:37 CET