If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you know that I do an annual Super Bowl blog, dedicated to this one day a year when America, at its finest, exhibits socially acceptable tribalism while gorging itself on obscene amounts of salty, processed, and frequently deep-fried foods. God bless America.
I’m not one to pooh-pooh how anyone makes an honest living, but I really think there has got to be a better way than jumping on each other until you’ve got traumatic brain injury.
I’ve been schooled by fans of the sport that there is, in fact, strategy involved. Teamwork. Camaraderie. Some form of ingenuity.
My question is, with all that strategy and ingenuity, is there any play that doesn’t end up with men piled on top of each other? No? I rest my case.
This year, I’m a little sentimental about the event, largely because Joe Namath, the one name in football that I unequivocally know, has been doing commercials for Medicare. Medicare. Is that what it’s come to?
I saw the Manning brothers on TV recently. I’m not really sure if my knowledge of them is because of their past football prowess or because they have a good agent.
You’ll be pleased to know that I actually googled who is playing in the Super Bowl today. Yes, I’ve managed to circumvent that information for an entire football season, but now I know - Rams and Bengals.
More important than the teams and who is playing in the halftime show, I would like to talk about the one lasting, greatest legacy that the Super Bowl has ever given us, and that is Whitney Houston’s version of the The Star Spangled Banner.
For those of you old enough to remember it, you know that her rendition has outlasted our memory of who actually played that year. And for those of you whippersnappers who are not old enough to know, Whitney is the only artist in history to make The Star Spangled Banner a top ten single in Billboard’s Hot 100. Yes, people, myself included, bought a cassette tape single of our national anthem and actually rode around listening to it.
I mention this trivia, because two days ago marked the 10-year anniversary of Whitney’s death, and I thought it only appropriate. Also, I hate football.
So what will I be doing while most of America is watching the game tonight? I plan on trying to catch up on a few of the Winter Olympic events I’ve missed. I love all the winter sports, but figure skating has been my favorite thing to watch since early childhood.
Oooh, speaking of which, there’s a great documentary out on Public Television about Randy Gardner. It’s called Go Figure and it is chock full of stunning skating. If you are a fan of the sport at all, you must see it.
See that - I can talk about sports…or at least figure skating.
Meanwhile, I’ll be listening to Whitney today, hoping she found the peace she never knew while she was here.
Whatever your Super Bowl Sunday activities might be, I hope you stay safe, healthy, and enjoy them.
Until next year…Happy Super Bowl!
Whitney Houston Star Spangled Banner
