Everyone in the country expected underdog New Orleans to win the Super Bowl. At least it seemed so. The only people not rooting for the Saints were people from Indiana (the Indianapolis Colts were the team they were playing) and serious gamblers (on paper, league MVP Payton Manning and his team had already won the game). But in sports, as in life, there is no such thing as a lead pipe girth.
When it comes to the Super Bowl, you don’t have to be a sports fan, understand the game, or even be from or be associated with the region or city where the teams play during the regular season. For the uninformed it’s another game of soccer, for sports fans it’s for supremacy in one of many sports, but for most people it’s a time to meet up with friends and have fun.
So we eat and drink too much on the big day. Participate in a pool to win some money by investing a couple of dollars. Shouting and shouting too much for a team we didn’t follow all season. Watch a halftime show put on by groups that are too old and tired to be entertaining. Watch a bunch of overproduced TV commercials whose sponsors overpaid for the time, hoping we’ll remember their names in the morning. Spectacular in every way, the event is a tribute to what happens when an idea excites the American public and we claim it as our own.
We’ve come a long way since the first Super Bowl (although it wasn’t officially called that yet), played in January 1967 at the Los Angeles Coliseum between the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and the AFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. Pre-boomers will remember that game as the start of a new sports era. Two networks covered the game and delivered a combined audience of 51 million viewers and advertisers paid $43,000 for a 30-second ad. The third inter-league championship game was dubbed the Super Bowl and the prediction of one Broadway Joe Namath came true when the New York Jet defeated the then-Baltimore Colts for football bragging rights. And the rivalry between the leagues that later merged propelled the event to its super status. This tipping point game alone generated an audience of 41 million viewers and cost $55,000 to advertise.
Fast forward to Super Bowl XLIV (44) with weeks of hype, hours of pregame analysis, and countless predictions. Television viewership exceeded 106 million (the highest-rated television show in history) with a cost per 30-second ad of more than $2.5 million. This is more than a game. This is an event of monumental proportions. His name says it all.
And this year’s event lived up to all the hype. Not long ago, the locals called the New Orleans team “Ain’ts.” They had to play in San Antonio, Texas after Hurricane Katrina devastated their stadium, along with most of the city. The team had never made a Super Bowl appearance. They had a good season, but how could they stop the Colts and superstar Manning? After falling behind, the Saints regained their footing and battled their way to an impressive victory. What could be more exciting? What could be more moving? What could be more American?