Soup. Or Bowl.

Have you ever thought about the Super Bowl, like, conceptually?

Consider it for a moment.

We have about five months of NFL football season. Each team plays like once a week, they have stats and rankings and records, and then there's the playoffs. And everyone- but mostly men- pay attention a little bit, mostly to their favorite team, but generally to the whole league. Interest varies among people-- some really, really care for most of the season. Some lose interest when their team is losing. Some pick up interest when an underdog (aka the Packer's as the wildcard this year) starts doing well.

BUT. Then there is the Super Bowl. The Championship game that virtually everyone in the country suddenly cares about. It generally doesn't matter which teams are playing. Everyone watches the game anyway. Suddenly football is not just about a modern-day gladiatorial game, but about commercials and halftime shows. About chips and dip and various game foods. About community and hanging out with friends-- all to enjoy a game whose players that a couple weeks before were yet to be undetermined.

It's just a strange concept. A unifier among Americans.

A couple months ago I got into an argument with two sports crazed young men-- Michael Everton and Seth Frischknecht-- about what was more influential and binding and inspirational in the world throughout history, music or sports. I obviously argued for the music side. Both sides are arguable, but I think a single song can be more far reaching than a single sporting event (they had a really good point with the Olympics. I had a good point with the tribal African songs that bound African American slaves to their homeland culture while working the fields). The argument got rather fierce, and I'm pretty sure they said some things that they [should] regret.

But to prove that I see the validity of their argument, and even support them in a big way, I present the phenomenon of the Super Bowl. Rarely is there a single sporting event that unifies the country in such a way. The Super Bowl really is a unique and special event- if only because it brings the country together.

(PS, the title of this post comes from the Boy Meets World episode when Shawn has to get super bowl tickets to get a passing grade in Mr. Feeny's class. This is where Shawn utters the famous words, "I try so hard to do everything. But there is always an Eskimo standing in my way." In this particular episode,  Shawn pushes past that Eskimo standing in his way and makes it to the Super Bowl. Life lesson learned.)