Superbowl Sunday

This coming Sunday February 5 is the most important day in the lives of most American men.  The Superbowl is being played to determine who is the best team in the country, or maybe for all I know the universe.  I am really not a football fan.  Well, not of professional football anyway. 

According to most of the men I know, it's not right that the Green Bay Packers aren't playing this year.  Since I'm not a purposeful fan, and I only 'follow' them because I can't escape it in the office, I suppose that's true.

I remember going to Friday night games in high school.  I loved how it felt to go out with friends, to sit in the bleachers and freeze your butt in the coolness of fall in Minnesota.  It was cool to actually sit in class with some of the players.   Even cooler if you knew you were helping the team by tutoring some of them in algebra or chemistry! 

The sport never appealed to me much even then.  I dated a basketball player for a while.  That was a more elegant sport.  The guys were cute in their uniforms, and that was the most 'skin' we EVER got to see of any boy other than our brothers!!  And as to football, did you ever wonder why 200-300 lb men put on 20 lbs of equipment, then intentionally run into each other?  They gotta know someone's going to get hurt eventually!

I married a guy whose very blood is green and gold.  Nothing interferes with Green Bay football at my house.  And if I choose not to watch, so much the better!! 'Just stay quiet wherever you are OK??  And keep the food hot.'

When the kids were small we used to have a neighborhood party on Superbowl Sunday.  Someone would make chili or soup be the host, and the rest of us would bring snacks and desserts.  The kids would play games, the women would congregate in the kitchen, finding alternate entertainment while managing the grub. 

Every year for the past six or seven years we've done a similar thing with some friends from work.  Similar but different.  Some of the other wives are actually interested in the game!  And they're knowledgeable about the sport! 

I normally find some alternate activity that can be done in the same room with the sports fanatics.  I've taken knitting and hand sewing, but I have drawn the line at reading a book while they watch the game.  That might be bordering on the rude -- although my impression is that no one is too concerned over whether I'm enjoying myself and they might not notice!  That's not strictly true, I'm sure.  And I love socializing with these folks... I DO have a good time.

So this year, we all said the theme is going to be something along the lines of 'the game we don't care about because it's teams we don't like'.  Everyone else can rely on their football knowledge to be for one team or the other.  But I can't even pick a team based on the color of their uniforms because they're both going to be in red, white and blue.  Maybe cute QBs?  Not so much.  Mascot?  Theme song?  Phooey. 

I'm really just going for the commercials, and the snacks.  OK, just the snacks.  What down is this?  Who has the ball?