Pribek

It’s about the spectacle. It’s about the event. It’s about the hype and the glam. Interesting quote here from Tampa (Super Bowl host city) mayor Pam Iorio in the L.A. Times…

“We are going to put on a first-class Super Bowl in the most frugal way that we possibly can, and that’s been our approach.”

Frugal? That doesn’t sound very Super Bowlish at all.

I haven’t been in to the N.F.L. much at all this year. I mean, I haven’t been big in to football for many years but, this year for some reason, I’ve been paying less attention than usual.

Just off the top of my brain, here is some of the stuff I’ve been hearing about the Super Bowl.

Major advertisers are pulling out. This is on my radar because, the commercials are part of the spectacle, part of the reason to look. If the big guys aren’t pulling out the big guns, it loses a little luster. May be wrong, maybe some up-and-comers will pull out the stops.

Springsteen is doing the halftime show. The halftime show is really counter intuitive to football. You got the biggest game, the lifetime goal of all these players and coaches, and you shut it down totally in the middle and drag out an overblown stage show for a geezer rock outfit. It’s a big part of the hype and the spectacle but, Bruce is running around saying he doesn’t even like football. You probably figure that Bono or Prince or Keef aren’t big N.F.L. guys but, they don’t make a point of telling everybody. Maybe Bruce is trying to pull off a little rock rebel-bite the hand that feeds you act but, it’s tough to swallow since he took the whole body massage from Wal-Mart. Nils will be there though. And he will be debuting the new hip. Nils is a trooper and you got to love the guy. He likes football.

There is a chicken wing shortage. I don’t recall when chicken wings became the official Super Bowl finger food but, how bogus is that? Yeah, I know a major chicken plant ate it but, is there a shortage of chickens?
Maybe, this will be the big limelight opportunity for frog legs or escargot.

The point of all this is, that the spectacle doesn’t seem so spectacular this year. It doesn’t seem all that Super. It seems…well..frugal.

The Frugal Bowl.

Maybe it will be a good football game though. I don’t really have a dog in the hunt but, I still harbor resentment for Bill Bidwell and the Cardinals’ St. Louis exodus so, it might be fun.

Fire up some frog legs and Go Steelers!