Super Bowled

Football is a uniquely American sport, something we take great pride in as a nation. Many folks are die-hard fans of particular teams, no matter where they live or how the team performs. The devotion to certain players and knowledge of statistics by some people I know is impressive and, frankly, a little unsettling. I don't follow the game schedules or pay much attention during the regular season, but I like to see the Pittsburgh Steelers make the big one. (Carnegie Mellon University is my alma mater.)

The Super Bowl is one of the United States' top draws in terms of television viewing, gambling, socializing and topics of conversation. I tuned in last Sunday, along with over 108 million other viewers, according to International Business Times. Considering that those numbers absolutely blew away the viewing statistics for last fall's presidential election, I'm quite sure we take our football championship very seriously indeed. It is an event we can count on, having never been cancelled, an annual match held on our soil, by the top two teams in a sport dominated by American-born players (over 96% in 2011, see chart.)

This year's Super Bowl brought a ton of highlights: numerous game and NFL records were tied or set; a first-time ever Super Bowl blackout occurred; the opposing team coaches are brothers Jim (for the 49ers) and John (for the Ravens) Harbaugh; wagers in Las Vegas hit record highs. Even the half-time show featured a reunion of Destiny's Child, who haven't performed together since 2006.

Of course, there's a wide audience who turn the game on partly to see the latest crop of commercials, and at $3.8 million per 30-second slot, (sportsbusinessdaily.com) advertisers certainly count on converting viewers into consumers. My personal favorite this year was the Budweiser "Brotherhood" spot. What can I say? I'm a sucker for baby animals, even when they grow to over six feet tall and average 2,000 + lbs, as that little one will. The Budweiser Clydesdales are even more impressive in person, by the way; I have had the pleasure of seeing some of them at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, one of the places they are kept.

Interestingly, most of this year's viewers did not change the channel during the 34-minute blackout. According to huffingtonpost.com, a vast majority of the audience stayed put. I attribute that loyalty to the fact that the length of the break was unpredictable, and most people would not want to miss any of the action once the game resumed. And there's no denying that there's something compelling about not knowing what was going on.

On site, the feeling was quite different for a certain segment of the fans, as Randall Lane, calling it the "Surreal Bowl," posits on forbes.com. (I have to admit that when referee Jerome Bolger said "Let's go!" to resume the game, I had a momentary mental flash on those now-legendary words of Todd Beamer on 9/11, "Let's roll.") The first time the Superdome in New Orleans hosted a Super Bowl since repairs made after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, this event was a trial of sorts for the city and the facility, with unfortunate mixed results. In uncertain times, imaginations can run wild with terror when bad things happen. A faulty electrical relay has been blamed for the problem, and replacement parts are coming.

Whatever your reasons for watching this iconic American sporting event, this year's game delivered in every way. It truly could have gone either way; to me the 49ers seemed a completely different team out there when the game resumed in the third quarter, post-blackout. Maybe they saw the lights going out on their efforts, metaphorically, and dug deeper for the resolve they needed to launch a comeback.

It was not enough in the end, sadly for anyone with money riding on them. I didn't place any bets, but I had chosen the Ravens...selection process: Baltimore is closer to the east coast than San Francisco. No, I'm not kidding about that. When the Steelers fail me, random selection is just as good as any other method. Here's hoping the black and gold make it next year.