By Steve Otto
It was Super Bowl Sunday again. That happens every year. There is little to nothing political about football. But Super Bowl has been turned into a tradition and its own holiday. It is a little like Black Friday. There is the game, and there is a half time extravaganza. Unlike such holidays as Thanksgiving, the Super Bowl is only as old as foot ball and I'm not sure it is even that old.
For this year we had Super Bowl LV.
According to Wikipedia:
"Since 2004, the game has been played on the first Sunday in February. It is the culmination of a regular season that begins in the late summer of the previous year.
The game was created as part of a 1966 merger agreement between the NFL and its rival the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two champion teams would begin playing in an annual AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was completed in 1970. The first game was played on January 15, 1967, after both leagues had completed their respective 1966 seasons. After the merger, each league was re-designated as a "conference", and the game has since been played between the conference champions to determine the NFL's league champion. The NFL restricts the use of its "Super Bowl" trademark, and it is frequently referred to as the "big game" or other generic terms by non-sponsoring corporations."
So it is no where as old as Thanksgiving. It is not as old as Christmas or New Year. However it is a big deal. This year Tampa Bay 31 beat Kansas City 9.
There are some plugs for our imperialist military, such as USAA (military insurance) has a special lounge at every Super Bowl for the military. Then there are Discount NFL Tickets for Military.
There are shows such as Air Force Bombers from Dakotas Will Do Super Bowl Flyover.
Of course I am not happy with that. It is a celebration of imperialism which I oppose. However that is a small part of the Super Bowl. The biggest pro-capitalist part of this holiday are all the Super Bowl ads. The are mostly at half time and they are so built up that they make news every year. I have written several times how much I hate commercials and their deceptive nature.
There was no commercials when I visited Cuba two years ago. They were not on TV and I rarely saw ads everywhere like they have here. They do advertize a beer, Bucanero, that is everywhere. Ironically the beer is hard to find in bars and stores.
I didn't watch the game. I probably would have enjoyed the half time-show, but I didn't watch that either. If you watched it, that is fine, it's sports and entertainment. I have nothing against foot ball, I just don't find it interesting.
If you like football, watch it and have fun. And you can hate the military ties and commercials like I do, and enjoy at least most of the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment