Why We Love Football

If you want to see why the American sports fan loves its professional football, all you need to do is look at what just happened at Super Bowl XLIX. It’s all there in the two weeks leading up to the big game, and it was definitely there during the actual playing of Number 49, which may have been the best Super Bowl ever.

To get a grasp at how big the Super bowl is, 114 million people watched the game on TV, making it the most watched television show in the history of the medium. This is in the era of 500 channels across the cable and satellite television spectrum and even the top rated shows that struggle to get 30 million viewers. The scope of the Super Bowl is unbelievable.

The NFL purposely stretches the time leading up to the game to two weeks, instead of one, just because it knows its extended lead up to the game helps build it up to the ratings monster that it is. And that gives it time to BUILD.

The controversy about Deflate-Gate leading up to the game was right up America’s alley for gossip, innuendo, investigative journalism and the Internet Age’s thirst to know exactly what is going on at all moments of all hours of the day.

Everybody wants to be part of the Super Bowl extravaganza. Corporate big shots have to be there. Fanatical fans of both teams do whatever it takes financially to be there. Celebrities HAVE to be there. Average sports fans just want to show up in the host city and somehow just be close to the flame (they don’t even have to go to the game, they just want to be part of the Super Bowl “Experience” that leads up to the game).

The media pumps everything up with their Super hype, their promotion of the game as being the great, grandiose, biggest sporting event of the year, their continued pushing the whole idea of Super Bowl as being not just a sporting event, but an experience that is even bigger than life. There are people who save up their extra money for years and years to one day to be able to go to a Super Bowl.

Everything that matters to the American sports fan is present during Super Bowl week. Puppy dogs. Rap singers. Movie stars. Super models. And sports stars. And talk about sports.

And then there is the game.

This last game of the season, the one that was for all the marbles, turned out to be a masterpiece. It had everything.

It had one player, who will one day be looked back at like a sporting legend, throw four touchdown passes against the best pass defense in football.

This Super Bowl had a game that the entire nation of American sports bettors would love. The odds were New England by only one point, with the Over/Unders at somewhere between about 47 1/2 to 48 1/2.

It was a game that, after one quarter, had a score of 0 to 0 and the Unders looked like a sure thing (In the worldwide audience, when it was 0 to 0, the soccer fans were thinking they were watching a high scoring shootout). Then, New England scored and seemed to be dominating the game. Then, Seattle turned the game around with a touchdown to tie it at 7, then New England scored again and Seattle came right back with their own score just before the end of the half to tie it again at 14. In other words, by halftime, the Overs were back in play, and this game had enough competitive back and forth scoring to keep EVERYONE excited, because no one knew who was going to win this game.

For all of the non-sports fans, there was the bigger than life halftime show, where the drama of the show was whether or not the star of the show would show cleavage. She DID.

Then, the game resumed.

This was a game where New England fans had their highs (early leads), and their lows (Tom Brady interceptions), as Seattle took control of the game in the third quarter, and went ahead 24 to 14.

It was a game where Seattle fans had their low moments, where it looked like they’d never score early in the game, and THEIR highs, as Russell Wilson started getting his act together as Seattle roared into the lead.

There was enough competitive drama in the game to entertain all true football fans, as the BEST thing a great football game has is the uncertainty as to what might happen next. This game HAD that, as we learned later.

When Seattle pulled ahead 24 to 14, they really did seem like they were going to win. They had been strong in the second half of most of their games during the last half of the season.

But, as great games tend to do, there was MORE to come. New England scored twice in the fourth quarter (as two more Tom Brady TD passes turned an Under game into an Over) and the Patriots were up by four points 28 to 24 with two minutes to play.

The only thing that seemed certain was that, in a game this great, Seattle would do SOMETHING to come back and make it interesting. And that they did. They moved the ball up to near mid field. Then, they kind of stalled. Seattle had a third and ten with just about a minute to play, and it was just at this moment that it seemed New England HAD the game. Seattle was almost down to a “Hail Mary prayer” as their last chance to stay in the game. Russell Wilson then unleashed a miraculous, once in a lifetime pass that was CAUGHT after the receiver juggled the ball and had it bounce off of his legs before catching it, and, suddenly, the game turned completely around again, and Seattle had the ball, first and goal at the New England five.

With the clock moving, Seattle had the ball with less than a minute to go and now it seemed that THEY would win the game. Back and forth action. Back and forth scoring. A GREAT game! And, with a half minute to go, Seattle had the ball on the New England ONE YARD LINE.

As was stated before, there is nothing anywhere like a live event where you do not know what is going to happen next. The odds of Seattle not winning would have had to have been about a hundred to one at that moment in time. This Super Bowl had that exact moment in time where, if the world stood still, you would just stare at the game in awe at the way amazing things can happen, the way that true human drama can unfold.

And this game had that one final twist and turn, of course, as Seattle, with a second and goal at the one, decided to pass the ball instead of run it, and we all know how that decision panned out. In a game where, for one moment, New England might have had a one in a hundred chance of winning, they made the amazing defensive play and WON the game.

If a person was a New England fan, it was the most thrilling, amazing win in their history. (The THRILL of Victory)

If a person was a Seattle fan, it was the most agonizing, gut wrenching defeat imaginable. (The AGONY of Defeat)

To a fan of the sport, it was a game that had it all. A game with the human drama of athletic competition. A game for the memory books. This Super Bowl was the reason why we love football.