Another Super Bowl in the books

Tom and I were just home from our honeymoon when the first Super Bowl was played. It wasn’t called the Super Bowl then, but it was the playoff between the NFC and AFC for the World Championship in football. 

In all the years since, the show has grown, more stars show up, and in most of those 59 years, the football games have been disappointing. For many years, gathering with friends to watch the game was the best part of the day. Chili and wings, dips and beer were standard fare. After about 40 years of that, we were worn out with making a big deal of the whole thing. 

Everybody gathered would critique the commercials and the halftime show. The Budweiser Clydesdales were always a hit. New products were introduced. A lot of creativity and money went into production of the ads and all the entertainment. As the games got worse, the length of the parties got shorter, many left after halftime. 

I really hoped for a better game this year. The conference championships were exciting, and on paper the Chiefs and the Eagles looked like equally yoked competitors. As soon as the teams got on the field, I thought to myself that the Eagles had height and size over the Chiefs. One of the announcers said the “tush push” by the Eagles had over 1700 pounds pushing for inches. 

Maybe it’s my ignorance, but it appears these teams acquire the heaviest, burliest men to make these workhorse plays. Some guys have hands, others speed, others agility. These big guys are built for the “tush push.” Piling on takes new meaning 

The Chiefs seemed to go off the rails in the first few minutes. Running yards and blocking for the quarterback just didn’t happen. The Chiefs looked in disarray. And I was pulling for them. Glad I didn’t have money on them.

The star power and entertainment for Super Bowl 59 was stellar. The whole show had overtones of the Paris Olympics. Jon Batiste with the National Anthem. Lady Gaga played and sang in her big hat, smack dab in the middle of Bourbon Street. Halftime with Kendrick Lamar was energetic and poignant. Closed captioning helped with understanding the words. Hip Hop and Rap are a genre of music I know very little about. But I know how important it is to a whole generation of young people. It is incumbent upon me to educate myself about it, at least beyond Hamilton.

The criticism I have read in social media about halftime points to the fact that there are many of us who don’t understand Hip Hop and Rap. I remember people criticizing Folk Music in the 60s. It was too political, speaking into the culture and reflecting on the Viet Nam War. The relevance of music to place and time eludes us because it’s hard to keep up. I associate Rap and Hip Hop to Compton. Folk Music to Woodstock. Jazz to New Orleans. Motown to Detroit. Place and time influence all kinds of trends, especially music. We need to get over ourselves on the criticism of Kendrick Lamar. He gave a stunning performance. 

I like sports on television. When the news is so upsetting sports are a good distraction. I don’t understand why Mr. Trump went to the game. Not sure he got the attention he wanted. He likes to dominate the news cycle. It’s pathetic that he named the reason for the Chief’s loss as DEI. He sounds like a broken record. He did not stay long, but neither did I. 

The best part of the end of football season is that MLB pitchers and catchers begin reporting in mid-February. Spring Training begins around the time March Madness begins. And if you want sports 24/7 you can find it in the NBA season that lasts until April 23 and the NHL season which lasts through April 17th. And of course, there is always the PGA Tour. 

Interest in sports is a self-defense tactic. I started watching in earnest when I got married and had kids. I always felt I connected to Tom and our son by having some knowledge of play in each of these sports. 

I am resigned to four years of disheartening news as I see the antics of an incompetent administration take our Republic apart step by step. Project 2025 is playing out before our eyes!

Talk about paying attention; we should have done that last fall when there was opportunity to make a different choice. There’s not much I can do about any of that now, so the television will be set on sports and movies. 

The Eagles destroyed the Chiefs play-by-play. But there will be a new year, beginning in August, for football teams but we have four years to live with the chaos of the Trump era. Let’s hope that’s all.  Hopefully, that’s all.

Lib Campbell is a retired Methodist pastor, retreat leader, columnist and host of the blogsite www.avirtualchurch.com. She can be contacted at libcam05@gmail.com