Super Bowl XLII

The ratings are in. A record 148.3 million Americans watched at least part of Sunday's Super Bowl, making it the second most watched TV show ever, with the finale of MASH still being #1.

I was among the record 148.3 million. Why I do not know. I don't like football. Have never liked it. Have never been able to understand what it is that people find so compelling. To me it's like endless variations of the same thing, over and over again. Grown men dressed in ridiculous looking uniforms, unmatched anywhere else in sports world, except maybe American Gladiator. And other grown men commentating on what is going on on the field, as if they are narrating some great moment in history, like an ongoing battle that will determine if civilization survives, when all they are doing is watching a bunch of grown men paid to play a game, dressed in tights with giant shoulder pads and car crash helmets throwing and kicking an oblong object that is not even shaped like a ball.

And even a game like Sunday's, a close game with a close finish, I still don't get why this is so thrilling to watch. Even as I watch it. Not that I watched the entire game. But I did catch the final few minutes. So the team led by Eli Manning beat the team beat by Tom Brady. This is important and affects the bulk of humanity how? And why?

I usually watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and the half time show.

But neither much interests me anymore. The commercials, if any get a buzz, you can watch on YouTube. Or they will be repeated ad nauseum for months on network TV. As for the half time show. This anymore consists of some somewhat over the hill band staging a mini-concert with hundreds of swooning pseudo fans who have been told to act as if they are having the thrill of lifetime.

Sunday's Halftime Show was Tom Petty and the Pacemakers singing their 4 hit songs. The stadium was darkened and a lit up arrow slowly made its way to a heart. Then the stage lit up and the aforementioned kids swarmed towards Tom Petty, emoting great excitement while waving their arms overhead.

A few impotent fireworks lit up when the Halftime Show was over. I guess there are limits to what you can do with fireworks when you are in a stadium with a roof.

I'm thinking they need to go back in time and do a modern day glitzed up old-fashioned halftime show with an overly produced overly choreographed legion of young people putting on a show. With a marching band. With a lot of tubas and drums.

And another thing. Why the pomposity of using Roman Numerals to denote a Super Bowl. Why XLII rather than simply Super Bowl 42? Isn't this just a tad pompous? And I can't help but wonder how many of the football fanatics could decipher a Roman Numeral without a coach? Is the Super Bowl more important than the U.S. President? Apparently so. We are content to number our Presidents using the plain simple normal number method, as in George W. is U.S. President 43, not U.S. President XLIII. Lincoln was President 16, not President XVI. It would look ridiculous and a bit imperial if we used Roman Numerals in reference to our Presidents. And to me it looks even more ridiculous to use Roman Numerals (indicipherable to 89% of football fans according to Durango Research) to number a football game. Even if it is the most watched football game on the planet.

Okay, that is enough sports talk for the day. Soon I must vent what I think of soccer being the most popular sport in the world.