![]() ![]() “It brings communities together in a really artificial way,” he said. Putting on his academic cap, Sarma wonders why sports - and the Super Bowl, in particular - has such an effect on American society. People act like the streets are empty during the Super Bowl, but that doesn't really happen here." ![]() There's a lot of people who watch the game, but a lot of people who don't. You could count on it being pretty empty. “Super Bowl Sunday was a great day to go to the movies. He and his husband don't have any special plans for Super Bowl Sunday, and they're hardly alone in Southern California. Neither will Alonso Duralde, a Los Angeles-based film critic. “These kids will not be watching the game,” Sarma said. When he assigned two papers that are due on Monday - again, before he even realized what was happening the day before - no one in the class objected. Many of Sarma's students apparently feel the same way. ![]() I had no clue because it's not interesting to me." They kept on going and I said, ‘When is it?’ And they were like, ‘Dude, it’s this weekend.' It was really funny. “So I said to them, ‘Who’s in it?' And they said the Kansas City Chiefs and, uhh, the Philadelphia Eagles, I believe. I look at them like, ‘Ohhh, did someone say the Chiefs? Hey, are you talking about the Super Bowl?' And they're like, ‘Yeah, you big dummy.’ “Now, I don't know the names of any of these things. “I go to my locker and two guys I know are sitting around talking about some players and quarterbacks,” Sarma said, chuckling. Until he went to the gym the other day, he didn't even realize Super Bowl Sunday was this Sunday. People like Deepak Sarma, a professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland who also serves as a cultural consultant for television shows and streaming networks. ![]() The official viewing audience - which came in at more than 112 million a year ago - dwarfs anything else in our increasingly fragmented media landscape.Ī survey commissioned in part by the NFL claims 208 million-plus tuned in for at least some portion of last season's extravaganza, perhaps just to watch the halftime show and/or commercials.īut even if you take the NFL's word for it, that means more than 100 million Americans didn't watch at all. The Super Bowl is essentially the last major event that can unite so many Americans in a common purpose: sitting in front of a TV all day, washing down wings and nachos with plenty of ice cold beer, lamenting how they just lost 50 bucks because the coin toss was tails instead of heads. Try telling that to all those folks who will be throwing elaborate parties and wagering billions of dollars on the outcome of a game that has become our unofficial national holiday. I think football is past its prime, quite honestly.” “Then they started doing studies on CTE and the brain damage that can be done. “I never connected with football," she said. Get this: There are tens of millions of Americans who couldn’t care less about the Super Bowl.Ĭount Ferrara, a freelance writer and school board member, among them. When I go to Wegmans, there will be no one there.” “Which means when I got to Trader Joe's, there will be no one there. “I'm sure it will be a very, very well-watched game where I live,” said Ferrara, whose home in Princeton, New Jersey is pretty much the dividing line between those who root for the Eagles and those who back the New York Giants. For years, Sue Ferrara has followed the same routine on Super Bowl Sunday.Īnd, no, it has nothing to do with the big game.Ībout the time the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs kick it off for the NFL championship, Ferrara will head to her two favorite grocery stores, reveling in aisles and checkout lines that are more wide open than a wide receiver after busted coverage. ![]()
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