In No Way Super

The Super Bowl is on Sunday. It will be the big event of the year for many fans. Tickets are hard to come by. I just looked at stubhub.com and they are running $2,400-$12,000. That’s a lot of dough not including your hotel, meals, transportation etc. Surely out of range for your average, loyal fan.

The Chicago Park District, owner of Soldier Field the Bears home stadium, thought of a nice solution. Why not open up the stadium and let the fans watch the game on the JumboTron. You could charge admission, sell beer and hot dogs, give the fans a stadium experience and give all the money to charity. It’s a great idea.

The N.F.L. says no dice. They say that a stadium full of fans would not be measured by the T.V. ratings system. Charity be damned.

At the same time the N.F.L. has leveed a $5,000 dollar fine to Saints running back Reggie Bush for pointing his finger at Bears players and somersaulting into the end zone. The implication is, I guess, that taunting is somehow undignified and puts the league in a bad light. Greed, hypocricy, scalping, no problem. Taunting will not be tolerated.