Recovery Day Rantings: Super Bowl Rant

Greetings,

Its a Recovery Day and also Super Bowl Sunday.

It's almost a national holiday, but to me, I really don't care who wins or loses.

I almost wish the way the Super Bowl is portrayed and marketed now would diminish a little. They, meaning the NFL and the hype machine that promotes it, has made it out to be more than it is.

Back in my childhood, there might have been a 2-3 hour pre-game show covering pretty much the basics of who the opponents are, their keys to winning, and maybe a special story or two to share. Then you'd watch the game, wait for the cool ads, and watch the post-game shows for the interviews with the winners. It feels like it meant something back then. Today, its a different story.

Lately it seems there is almost an all-day affair to promote the show, and see endless "Greatest Super Bowl Ads" shows.  Almost every player, at least a star player, has some sort of 'special story to share' and its just made up baloney to me.

(It reminds me of a comment I saw about one of the Seahawks proclaiming that "No one believed in us, no one thought we were going to win that game." Which the blog commenter said, "Really? No one? No one expected the DEFENDING CHAMPS to win that game? Or make a comeback? In your HOME STADIUM?"  Yeah... its that kind of stuff that annoys me.)

Then we get to the show, and there is about an hour break at halftime due to a concert.  Like we really need a concert during a football game, but I guess its what to be expected now.  Sponsors throw millions of dollars for a 15 minute concert that takes 20 minutes to prepare for and 20 minutes to disassemble. 

This one, lone game has become bigger than the championship its played for.  I am just about getting tired of watching the NFL in general. 

Another thing that bugs me is all the 'leaked' Super Bowl Ads from companies who are just trying to create a 'viral' effect online. 

I'm sorry, but if your Super Bowl Ad is shown before the Super Bowl, then its not really a Super Bowl Ad.  Its an advertisement that's no different than any other ad you show.  Why? Because it was shown BEFORE the Super Bowl. So its not really a Super Bowl Ad. It is just an advertisement that is Pre-Super Bowl.

Uggh.

Have you also noticed that anytime you see one of those 'leaked' ads on Facebook, it always comes with a news story or blog post with a headline "This company leaked their Super Bowl Ad, but you won't believe what they did". 

I hate any 'clickbait' ads like that.  You know the kind I'm talking about:  They all start with a "This man, woman, boy, girl, etc" performing a verb action of some sort, (This man DID, This woman TRICKED her boyfriend into....) then its all followed by "But... you won't believe what happened next."

I seriously hate those ads.  Just about all those leaked ads are promoted as such. It just really bugs me because as I view stuff on Facebook and other sites, all I see is this type of headline for just about anything.

Enough, please.

Well,  you can maybe guess that I'm a little angry at the NFL in recent years with how they have promoted this game, their players, and the teams.  It's almost like they are WWE'ing the game by promoting player's stories over the story of the teams themselves. Meaning, they seem to be borrowing a few things from the pro wrestling way of promoting things and make each player sound like they are fighting for individual championship belts.  Things like always interviewing QB's or one guy on the defense and making it look like its only an individual war between the two.

I should mention something about "Deflate Gate" but all I can say on that is I think most of these games are rigged for marketing purposes of the event itself. When I first saw the story and that the fine for a regular season game of tampering with footballs is only $25,000, that's pocket change to a team. They don't LOSE the game for cheating, they are only fined for it.

Wow.  To me, it weakens the integrity of the game when teams can cheat and only get fined.  Really makes you wonder how much else really goes on.

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Maybe I need to stop and enjoy my coffee this morning. :) Its an OG Black Gold BrewKup this morning and its one of the best cups of coffee I've tasted. It leaves a better taste in my mouth than most stuff from the NFL and pro sports in general.

Yes, this has sort of been an anti-NFL rant and I will give the NFL one more shot this Super Bowl.  Let's see how they do today.  Will they screw it up or make it a watchable experience?

It will be interesting to watch.  The NFL in general is getting to be tiresome to put up with.  It is why I like keeping up with local sports more than the pro's. I can't tell you the last NBA game I've watched, its been years. Couldn't even tell you who the past champions were.  Why? Because all I hear about are LeBron, Kobe, and other individual players. They are also marketing the players as pro wrestlers who are fighting for 'rings' and not for team championships. When a casual fan like me hears more about what Kobe said about AAU ball, than about what teams are currently doing well, you know they are marketing players as the Hollywood stars of the league. I kind of get sick of that.

There is a reason I like my favorite seats at the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse at the college I work at, or propping up my fold-out seat in the west end zone of Jerome Berg Field.

To me, its the best view of the best kind of sports to watch: because its GENUINE.

I like watching genuine sports being played by genuine people.

I wonder how genuine professional sports really are lately.

Rant over.
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