Superbowl, A National (NFL) Holiday

I asked one of my sons about the Superbowl this last week. What is involved in it, especially with two teams which are hardly "household names," and it will be prohibitively extensive, held in Dallas, etc. What is it, what is the basic dynamic of it? The answer, "the Superbowl has become a national holiday," and thus the details are fairly unimportant (?). Because corporate America has taken over more and more segments of our national life, why shouldn't the NFL have a national holiday, especially one that is so media dependent because fairly few people are wealthy enough or sufficiently motivated to attend the actual game?

If you look at the postgame media coverage the description of my son is quickly proven correct. What I found was that the ads aired during the game on television were more described than the game itself. And the statistics, not even close. The amount spent at bars, and for the food and drink for home viewing far outweighed the amounts spent in Dallas. I know this is a superfical description, but I think it tells the tale The actual football played was secondary to a host of factors, and you would be hard pressed to find out who the MVP was in the game in the media footage; I looked hard and finally found out who it was.

Perhaps our other national holidays have been taken over by the media & corporations as well, probably so. But most of them have little version celebrations in the schools, churches and such. And they can have basic templates which can go back in history for decades, eons in some cases. Some have been moved around, like Christmas, others have been transformed by appetites, such as Thanksgiving. We shall see how the Superbowl will transform itself in the future. I'm please to say I won't be around to participate.