T GAMBLE: Hyped up for America’s big ‘religious’ event

Well, the biggest religious event in America will again occur this Sunday. Yes, with my apologies to Billy Graham, Americans everywhere will worship the Super Bowl. Over half of all adults will watch the Super Bowl, and a few will actually even be sober while doing so.

I’m not sure how this became such a grand spectacular event. I mean, I understand the importance to die-hard football fans and those who actually have a team in the Super Bowl. I, unfortunately, root for the Atlanta Falcons if any team at all, which pretty much excludes me from having a team participate in the big game. The Falcons did go one time and promptly got blown out before halftime. And then there was that super collapse of two years ago.

I’d venture to guess at least half the people watching the game Sunday will not know a thing about the actual game. Some will watch because of the commercials. Some because they bet next month’s paycheck on who will score the most points or who will win the coin toss. Yes, you can even bet on who will win the coin toss, on who will score first, who will score last, and whether or not most of America will throw up if Tom Brady wins another Super Bowl.

I happen to like Tom Brady and hope he wins another one. He is 41 years old and still playing quarterback. I had to quit playing pool at age 40 because it was too vigorous. And he’s out there getting creamed by 300-pound linemen. Forty-one years old is 102 in football years, by the way. Now I suspect he will not know his name by age 50, but so what? I’m not a retired pro football player, and it’s 50-50 whether I can find my way to work these days.

But still, why do all these non- interested-in-football folks all year long decide to watch this game? Folks who never watch baseball don’t decide to watch the World Series. They don’t watch the Stanley Cup or NBA finals. But everybody has to watch the Super Bowl. And they watch it on Sunday night so they can feel terrible for work Monday morning. I still don’t know why they insist on playing it on Sunday and in February. Before long they can play it and the Masters back to back. It used to be the first weekend in January.

But here we are, on a Sunday night in February, watching a game most of us really don’t care that much about so we can feel bad on Monday, skip night church on Sunday, and complain about how bad the commercials really were and who would pay millions per 30 seconds to air such drivel. Yep, I can hardly wait for the big game.

Email T Gamble at [email protected].