On Nov. 6, 1869 the first American football game was betweenRutgers and Princeton.
Almost a hundred years later the first Super Bowl game betweenthe Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs was played on Jan. 15,1967.
This Sunday the 38th Super Bowl will be between the CarolinaPanthers and the New England Patriots in Houston.
After approximately 140 years of American football, the sport ismore about money than the game itself. To play the game for theutter joy of feeling your feet on the turf and hearing the fans inthe stands is beginning to diminish more and more each year.
This holds especially true for the Super Bowl.
Yes, there are many avid football fans that will watch the gameon Sunday for the glory of sportsmanship. Many of those fans willalso have money riding on the game. Then the highest portion ofSuper Bowl watchers will most likely be focused on the commercialsrather than touchdowns.
Television and commercials in particular, have made the greatestimpression on this football tradition. Corporations are spendingmillions of dollars for a 30-second advertisements to be playedonly once on Sunday. It’s somewhat pathetic that corporationswill throw away their entire advertising budget for the year on anad that will only be seen again in a television special oradvertising class.
It may be special for advertisers to concentrate all theirattention on the media for that one-time 30-second spot, butit’s a sad indication of what American sportsmanship hasbecome.
Betting football fans don’t have to book a round-tripticket to Las Vegas — all 50 states have their share ofbookies. This is not to say that Sunday evening in Vegas casinoswon’t be packed. When so much money is riding not only on whowill win, but also by how much, the initial meaning of any sport islost.
Celebrity involvement during Super Bowl festivities seems toincrease each year. Up until Super Bowl XIV in 1980, college bandsdid half-time shows and the anthem proceedings. For the past 24years major bands and singers such as U2, Britney Spears and theDixie Chicks have made their mark on Super Bowl Sunday.
The game should be about celebrating friends, family and fellowsports enthusiasts, about drinking beer and grilling burgers, abouttaking pride in the athletic achievements of our national sportsicons. It should not be about who will make the most money, be itoff of a good bet or a good ad.
