Superbowl Blackout

The Superbowl Blackout proved one thing: and that’s that people will watch anything. For over twenty minutes, all action during the Superbowl ground to a halt because the power went off. The level of excitement wasn’t any less than it was watching confused officials and coaches scream into their cellphones and headsets than it was during the actual plays. The Superbowl is the most drawn-out game outside of playing chess by mail. They actually tally how many time-outs each team has on screen. The commercials and the half-time show are considered as big a draw as the game itself. Watching people do nothing for twenty-four minutes or-so while five dudes in suits talk about how nothing is going on and replaying the clips they’ve already re-played isn’t much different than watching the game.

So what’s the draw? What’s the excitement, other than being told to be excited? Sports fans are only ever interest in their home teams, so why is there such a huge draw for the final game after all other teams have been eliminated?