The Super Bowl is as much of a holiday as any other; you just don’t get paid double for working it (those of you in the service industry can appreciate that). The Super Bowl is the celebration of everything wonderful about being American. At its epicenter, is a sport unquestionably dominated by the country of its origin that involves the arguably most athletic people in the world. A sport that combines the in-depth strategy of a chess match with impacts that rival car accidents; a truly American sport. Super Bowl Sunday is America’s way to celebrate football but in reality, the football played has taken a back seat to America’s –and therefore the world’s- need to celebrate America. To state the obvious, I got this notion this Super Bowl Sunday and as a Canadian who’s not really that keen on American football, I believe I provide a decently omniscient view of the holiday. Saying that, I’m not implying that I have not participated in its celebration for years.
To begin, from a media standpoint, Super Bowl Sunday is the moneymaker. As it is hyped up almost above and beyond people’s excitement by America’s superlative media system, viewership is going to directly cause the exchange of millions if not billions of dollars and consequently becomes the American media’s time to shine. The way the Super Bowl is experienced through an American television feed can arguably rival being at the event itself. Although attending would be an incredible experience, the media presentation of the Super Bowl offers everything the game delivers with the angles and perspectives that simply can’t be seen or heard without a television. Presenters make sure they have done everything in their power to keep their viewers entertained, even going the extra mile by employing some of the best performers in the world to keep onlookers amused while they wait for the players to rest; hell, they even make the commercials funny. So right off the bat, we have a holiday that celebrates American Capitalism and its unparalleled media… sounds like we’re on the right track. The entire celebration is not relegated to a media presentation however; how one is generally supposed to enjoy that presentation is just as important.
Traditionally, the celebration of Super Bowl Sunday involves being a sports-nut for a day and connoisseur of the finest American cuisine. No matter how small or large the celebration, these two dynamics are ever apparent throughout the day. The Super Bowl is another celebration of a successful American athletic system that has a presence in almost every sport imaginable and a fan-base to match.
This Super Bowl Sunday, throughout the venues I attended, supporters were dawning their finest athletic attire, mostly made up of the NFL jerseys of the two teams vying for championship. Mostly. As the Super Bowl has become more of a celebration of American sport in general, NFL jerseys ranging from a variety of teams could be seen and I even encountered jerseys from sports not even being highlighted this day (I can’t begin to explain how much of a faux pas it is to wear a jersey unrelated to the sport event one is celebrating, but it had to be mentioned). The Super Bowl celebration can bring out the sports fan in even the least of sport-savvy people because it is a general social consensus that this particular Sunday is dedicated to enjoying the American ideology of sport. With the majority of people gathering to view the Super Bowl Sunday television extravaganza in their best athletic attire and mindset, we can go on to discuss a characteristic of the celebration that highlights the American culture at its best; the food.
The food consumed on Super Bowl Sunday is just as important as dinner on Thanksgiving or Christmas. Super Bowl Sunday is the second largest food-consumption day of the year (following Thanksgiving). Furthermore, it is undoubtedly American in nature. Just as eating turkey is synonymous with celebrating the aforementioned holidays, the general food choices during Super Bowl Sunday are similarly constant. A quick internet search reveals some of the daunting food consumption facts for the United States:
Pounds of potato chips consumed on Super Bowl Sunday = 11 million
Pounds of tortilla chips = 8.2 million
Pounds of popcorn = 3.8 million
Percentage increase in sales of frozen shrimp = 29 percent
Amount of money spent on soft drinks at grocery stores during the entire Super Bowl week = $237.2 million
Calories consumed by the average Super Bowl watcher = 1,200
Increase in sales of flavored snack crackers = 68 percent
Number of pizzas Pizza Hut expects to prepare on Super Bowl Sunday= 2 million
Pounds of snack food Americans gobble down on Super Bowl Sunday = 30.4 million (2x the average daily amount)
(Source: http://www.nubella.com/content/view/1530/)
One must be sure to note that these statistics are based on American figures alone and do not include additional audiences around the world.
If the overwhelming consumption of unhealthy food is not profoundly an American celebration concept in itself, the specific foods that are so massively consumed make it so. As snack and fast foods are the most prominent in America, no celebration of the American culture could be complete without them. Super Bowl Sunday becomes a day where viewers around the world can indulge in American food culture without having their conscious’s feel guilty about it. Further attention could also be drawn to beer/alcohol consumption during Super Bowl Sunday -additional sales of beer goes into the tens of millions- however, binge drinking to celebrate something is essentially a global concept.
Super Bowl Sunday, a spectacle that generates an unprecedented amount of capital, is presented by the greatest media conglomerate in the world, and globally celebrates American sport and culture. As per usual, I take a full political stance on the matter. This entry is not looking to come down on American culture or how it celebrates itself as a nation; but simply a way to call attention to how Super Bowl Sunday has become more than just a day highlighting the championship of one of the toughest sports in the world. “World America Day Featuring Football” is well on its way to becoming an official holiday. Although the majority of the working world has Sunday to themselves, all you Super Bowl viewers out there can agree that having “Super Monday” off would work wonders for your American-style hangover. Football! America! F*** ya.
Dreaming of one day celebrating a “World Canada Day Featuring Hockey”,
Matias M. Barchman
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