By Reid Collins on 1.24.03 @ 12:02AM
Are you in any shape for Sunday? Even those who don't like football will be compelled to watch the Super Bowl.
That's not too hard. It's when they get into the "MC's" and the
"L's" that we gotta find something else to watch on a Sunday late
in January. There's so little time, and especially this year --
only a week between the playoff finals and the Super Bowl. Just one
week in which to be assaulted by analyses into the night,
encyclopedic statistics, the point-spread, and why it is a
secretary always wins the office pool when grown men have spent
lifetimes calculating the odds.
It occurs there are those who don't even like football but who
will be compelled to watch on Sunday either by a bullying spouse or
a nagging sense of patriotic duty, heightened by the hype of this
short week.
There are other collateral things to watch. The commercials in
between the play on the field, and at half-time and a long-time
before the kickoff. Super Bowl commercials are a study in
themselves. This year ABC is getting more than $2 million for each
30 seconds, sponsors realizing that their efforts are an art work
that will be remarked long after the lights go down low.
Some to watch for. Anheuser-Busch is again the biggest spender.
For teetotalers there'll be Pepsico, with nearly 3 minutes of ad
time. And Gatorade, the very first time a Super Bowl advertiser,
with Michael Jordan going one-on-one with a younger version of
himself. You'll notice the ball they use is round. And Jordan has
another routine with actor Jackie Chan in a spot for Sara Lee.
For the irony set, there is the H & R Block tax-preparer ad
starring a guy who knows more about the Internal Revenue Service
than the current commissioner -- Willie Nelson, the country singer
whose tax liens once rivaled a small country's budget.
Someone will sing the national anthem; prayerfully not the
melismatic version so often perpetrated in these experimental
times. And there will be musical entertainment at half-time.
Fans in the Washington, D.C. area will have a little mnemonic
tug when the quarterbacks (they sort of run the team) are
introduced. Like most grown men in America, they have played for
the Washington Redskins at one time. Rich Gannon, of Oakland, and
Brad Johnson, of Tampa Bay, each had the Wounded Knee experience in
our nation's capital.
Gannon is old for the game: 37. And he has produced for sports
writer Leonard Shapiro the gem of quotes. Reflecting on his
peregrinated career, Gannon says, "I took the road less traveled,
if you will..." Now, this is not the talk of a cutpurse, is it, for
the leader of the "Raiders," as Oakland's team is named? For sheer
lawlessness, the other team yields nothing by its name,
"Buccaneers." Though in many cases, buccaneers did have the
blessing of some government.
The highlights of the game will of course extend into crocus
time on television. But the one to watch for, to record if you have
the equipment, is that moment near the expiration of the game, when
the winner is assured, and its sideline is exulting. Then the
larger players are permitted to sneak up behind the about-to-win
coach, and douse him with the entire team's drug test. You will not
see this anyplace in any other sport.
It is in fact a Super Bowl.
topics:
Television, Sports, Law
