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‘It’s Like the Super Bowl’
Authored by Andrew Perna - 1st June, 2006 - 5:16 pm
There’s a difference between a favorite and a lock. When up against a team with playoff-level talent, it’s rare that the team with the better record ever appears in the second category.
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There are certain things a woman can say that can make a man lose his mind. Whether or not the woman means to, these things often have to do with sports, and most often football.
It could be when your wife tells you that she made plans to go out to eat with her parents just minutes before kickoff on a Sunday afternoon. Or it might be when your fiancée explains how you have to go furniture shopping right now when you’d rather be watching Peyton Manning throw a gazillion touchdowns against the Texans porous defense.
For me it was while I was relaxing with my girlfriend of three years. We were watching the American Idol season finale when my girlfriend said something that made me immediately relive what I had eaten for dinner. Before I reveal what exactly she said, I know what you’re saying to yourself.
Why was I, a sports-crazed guy in his twenties, watching American Idol?
I can’t even pin the blame on my girlfriend, because it’s not like she ever has to pull my leg to sit down and watch it with her. Contestants like Taylor Hicks and Chris Daughtry are easy on the ears, while Katharine McPhee is more than easy on the eyes.
Back to the scene of the crime – As my girlfriend and I were enjoying the two-hour finale of ‘Idol’ as Hollywood’s hippest call it, she looked over at me and said, “It’s just like the Super Bowl!”
Whoa.
Let’s not get carried away. The Super Bowl is something people work their entire lives in order to reach. The contestants on Idol, while very talented, walked into a tremendous opportunity and their lives will never be the same because of it.
If she had said that the finale was like the Super Bowl of singing competitions that would have been one thing, but comparing it to what has become a pseudo-national holiday? I’m sorry, not on my watch.
The Super Bowl has Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones, and wardrobe malfunctions. The Super Bowl has a pregame show that lasts all day, and a season that leads up to it for over six months. Players’ careers are defined by excelling on football’s brightest stage. Winners are forever held in sports lore, despite how the rest of their career pans out.
Most of the contestants on Idol will fade back into everyday life in a few months, while winning the whole thing doesn’t secure anything but a record deal that could very well fail. A few years ago a very large man by the name of Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken in the annual competition. That didn’t stop Ruben from fading, and Clay from ultimately excelling.
While American Idol is by no means anything close to any major sporting event, it does have its upside. Imagine if the winner of the Super Bowl was determined by fan voting?
While the championship would undoubtedly lose most of, if not all, of its legitimacy, the fans would be in control. The more popular teams would win, earning more television exposure, and ultimately even better ratings. The league would love the increased camera time for guys like Michael Vick and Randy Moss, but most importantly the fans would have a say.
Rather than sitting on your couch and complaining to your dog that the Eagles need to run the ball more, you could do your part to help them win by dialing their toll free number all Sunday long.
Of course none of this would ever happen, nor would I want it to. but it’s an interesting thought. Maybe instead the NFL could hold its own singing competition. Imagine seeing Warren Sapp belting out ‘Ordinary People’ by John Legend? What about hearing Terrell Owens sing ‘Why Can’t We Be Friends?’ while Donovan McNabb performs ‘Tainted Love’ by Soft Cell?
Simon, give me a call I just might be onto something.
If the NFL put out an Idol-like series maybe then my girlfriend would be more interested in football. They could get Tom Brady to play the hosting role of Ryan Seacrest, and have the panel of judges consist of John Madden, Michael Irvin, and a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.
Maybe then she’d watch the Super Bowl with me and say, “Wow. This is even better than the American Idol finale!”
