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Even with its greatly increased coverage down under, it is probably still safe to assume that for many Australians the only game of NFL they will watch each year is the Super Bowl. And this is a terrible, terrible thing.
Like a lot of Australian NFL fans, I look forward to the Super Bowl every year with a mixture of unbridled glee and mild concern.
On the one hand it is the championship game of a sport I love, and if the football gods smile on you it can result in a four hour orgy of awesomeness, full of intense on-field action, extreme eating and hilarious trash talking.
Sometimes your team might even win.
But, on the other, less attractive hand, the magnitude of the event drags the match into the ‘mainstream’ (dons ironic glasses and Hipster moustache).
Depending on your level of sensitivity, this can cause a bit of grief, from the nightly news’ moronic infatuation with Super Bowl ads to the pain in the arse at work who thinks watching ‘Any Given Sunday’ the night before the match makes him an expert on the skills required of an NFL ‘quarter-pounder’.
Sometimes it sucks when you have to share your pastime with the world.
Really though these are only minor quibbles, and are probably barely a patch on the irritation that say your average Association football or pole vault fan goes through every four years.
A much bigger problem is that compared to many of the other NFL games played throughout the course of the season there are actually a few bummers about the Super Bowl.
Granted, not all Super Bowls are as lopsided as yesterday’s and start with an error that would make Martin Bella blush, but even still the biggest show in sport does have its downsides.
Take the crowd for starters.
While you might get to see Michael Douglas chatting up the peanut girl at the Super Bowl, this is generally at the expense of your hard-core nutbag fan.
Compared to most NFL games, and in particular the other NFL playoff games, Super Bowls are fairly sedate due to the massive number of neutrals in attendance, and compared to Seattle’s regular home ground are nap time at the old folks’ home.
Fair dinkum, for most NFL games it only takes a second to realise who has the home ground advantage when you see 95% of the crowd has left home wearing the same colour.
Elsewhere the game suffers from the usual big match bloat.
The numerous pre-match traditions. The drawn-out halftime entertainment. Global media causing blackouts. The extra commentator factoids, tidbits, flashbacks and use of experimental camera angles.
And yes even the game itself.
Don’t get me wrong, when two teams turn up on Super Bowl Sunday primed and ready to go, sporting magic can happen.
As we saw yesterday though, when one team drops behind early and suddenly realises all their hard work has just been returned off the kick off for an untouched touchdown, you’re going to see a lot of beefy, sad blokes just going through the motions.
Which, with all the extra attention, can often feel for the spectator like taking front row seats to someone dying from a lung disease.
If I had to personally recommend someone watch one NFL game a year it would be either the NFC or AFC championship matches, games that are played at a home ground and feature teams just about as good as any Super Bowl without all the extra hoopla leaving the casual observer thinking Bruno Mars might win MVP.
Plus, by the time the Super Bowl rolled around a fortnight later, imagine how much they would know about quarter-pounding!
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