Super Bowl XLIII

As you all know I'm a pretty huge football fan. The Super Bowl is the climax of the season from a playing standpoint, but clearly the game is about a lot more than just football. There are commercials, parties, hours and hours of coverage, picking a team to root for (assuming that your team did not make it), and general festive attitude everyone one goes.

This Super Bowl was very different.

Obviously, I'm in Australia or else no one would be reading this. Because I am here in Perth, I just finished watching the "live" coverage of the game (it is 2:40 pm on Monday February second). Sporting events during the daytime just do not hold the same excitement factor as those in the evening or at night. As a result of the 10:30 am game time in Perth, I watched the big game alone, with minimal excitement, or even snacks, but this was the least of my worries.

A factor I had failed to consider when being reminded that I would be able to watch the Super Bowl in Australia was Australian announcers. As the pre-game hype began JUST half an hour before the game kicked off, I became terrified as I listened to the "commentators" talk about football. First of all, I never noticed just how different of an atmosphere is created when broadcasters and commentators dress professionally. The four guys that were in the studio for the Super Bowl discussion were indistinguishable from blokes taken off the street. This is surely not some laxity in Australia because over the past two weeks I have been watching quite a bit of the Australian Open and the broadcasters in the booth and studio dress as one might expect, but this is really a trivial issue because, thankfully, these fellows did not attempt to handle the play by play duties and left that to the American legends John Madden and Al Michaels who handled the game for NBC. But seriously, have you ever watched a sporting event spanning over several hours with someone who does not really grasp the essence of the action and therefore asks inane questions until s/he finally realizes that their behavior is getting annoying and just sits quietly and enjoys the game for what it's worth? These guys were like that, except, ostensibly, they were getting paid to keep talking and since none of them really knew what they were talking about, they just kept on making ridiculous comments laced with hyperbole about America and American football.

ANYway.

I'm not going to talk about the game because I'm sure most of you saw it, but I will offer my candid commentary on some of the other elements of Super Bowl Monday Mid-Morning/ Afternoon for me.

1) It's cute that some NFL players are apparently more proud of what high school they went to than what university; perhaps a good many of them did not graduate from said universities and thus it makes sense that they might use their high school in place of their college when introducing themselves in the traditional NFL broadcast style. However, Ike Taylor, cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, took his game to a new level. When introducing himself, he said, "Ike Taylor........... Swaggin." In case anyone in the billion person viewing audience missed that, Al Michaels cleared it up by quipping, " No, 'Swaggin' is not the name of an institution of higher learning; but Taylor is referencing his, 'swagger.' And he'll have to play with a lot of it tonight because he's covering Larry Fitzgerald." Priceless. Even though I was banking on Fitzgerald having a big game, Ike Taylor increased that desire and thankfully I was rewarded as Fitzgerald absolutely punked Taylor, catching a touchdown right above his opponent's head. Gotta love it.

2) Brenda Warner got a new hair-do. Good for her!

3) I did not get to watch many of the famed commercials during the broadcast because these commercials are just tailored for the American audience, so I was forced to watch the local commercials that would have normally been running at 11 am on a Monday morning. A couple gems:

a) The other day Cate and I walked by a Subway and I asked her what the deal was with five- dollar- foot- long- sandwiches in Australia because they use the metric system here and, surely the price must be different. I imagined something along the lines of, "Six. Six dollar. Six dollar 30 centimeterrrrrrrrr." However, the reality of the situation was SO much better, and by better, I mean the most awkwardly worded commercial jingle ever. It had the exact same tune and melody but with these words, "Seven. Seven Dollar. Seven Dollar Subway Foot Long Subbbbbbbbbbbbbs." Perfect!

b) Everyone in America is quite familiar with President Barack Obama's (speaking of which; as I typed that spell check informed me that both of his names were spelling errors. Will the next edition of Microsoft Word include 'Barack' and 'Obama' as words? Just throwing that out there...) campaign rallying cry of, "Yes We Can." Apparently, the rest of the world is quite familiar as well. A commercial for the local GM dealership used a font that was nearly identical to that used throughout Obama's iconic campaign posters and advertisements. They also played a voice replicating Obama's in tone and cadence in the background as cars drove into the shot that said something along the lines of, "Can we get you a 2009 Jeep Cherokee for under $38,000 off the lot? Yes we can." At the conclusion of the commercial, the screen read, A Price CHANGE You Can Believe In.

Outside of my disappointment that the Arizona Cardinals could not secure a victory, that pretty much sums up my 2009 Super Bowl experience. Now, I'm back to reading, training for rugby, and looking for a job.