It’s time again for that special day dedicated to everything Americans hold dear. Yes, I’m talking about the Super Bowl, which celebrates violence, sloth, gluttony, inebriation, commercialism, sex, and excess of all kinds.
But this year is different, as is everything else in our troubled nation. The Super Bowl comes to us with not a bang but a whimper. The Roman numerals are still there, but just about everything else is downsized or diminished.
Usually the game is played on Sunday, but changes in the sports calendar forced by the Coronavirus pandemic has forced it to be move to Monday night.
The game, which will start at 6:30 p.m., will be between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the first team to play In a Super Bowl in its home stadium, and the Kansas City Chiefs, trying to become the first team since New England in 2004-’05 to win back-to-back titles.
Billy Reed is a member of the U.S. Basketball Writers Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame and the Transylvania University Hall of Fame. He has been named Kentucky Sports Writer of the Year eight times and has won the Eclipse Award three times. Reed has written about a multitude of sports events for over four decades and is perhaps one of the most knowledgeable writers on the Kentucky Derby. His book “Last of a BReed” is available on Amazon.
There won’t be much of a crowd due to sanctions imposed by the virus, but the TV ratings should be huge for CBS, the network doing the event. The Super Bowl commercials, which cost $5.5 million for 30 seconds, and halftime show also should get more than their usual avid attention.
The star of the halftime show is a Canadian singer who goes by the name, The Weeknd. I hope he’s very good, but I have a hard time believing he measures up to previous halftime stars such as Lady Gaga, Paul McCartney, and the Rolling Stones.
Let’s see, what am I forgetting?
Oh, yeah. The football game.
As has been the case since he became the New England Patriots’ starting quarterback in 2001, Tom Brady will be the straw that stirs the drink. A solid player at Michigan, he was the 199th overall pick in the 2000 draft. All he did was become the game’s all-time best at his position, quarterbacking the Patriots to nine Super Bowl appearances and six championships.
After the Patriots were upset by the Tennessee Titans in a “wild card” playoff game to bring an abrupt end to the 2019 season, Brady announced he would not renew his contract the the Patriots and become a free agent. It was widely assumed his decision was because he felt Bill Belichick, his only coach at New England, had lost confidence in him.
Tampa Bay signed him to a guaranteed two-year contract that paid him $50 million in base salary, along with a lot of performance-based incentive bonuses. Heading into the Super Bowl, Brady already has collected almost $2 million in bonuses with another $500,000 to come if Tampa Bay beats Kansas City.
The Chiefs are 3-3 1/2 -point favorites, but one unidentified bettor believes so much in the Brady mystique that he or she has put $2.3 million on the Buccaneers to win.
This is almost an insult to Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahones, who is not exactly chopped liver. He has arguably replaced Brady as the league’s best quarterback and seems to be a nice guy, besides. And that brings up another Brady puzzle: Why do so many fans dislike him?
With me, it’s jealousy. He is movie-star handsome, married to a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, ridiculously rich, and the best at what he does. How can you NOT hate a guy like that.
But he is a bit short in the humility department. He has a sense of entitlement and a smirk that seems to say, “I’m Tom Brady and you’re not.” And so I root for anybody who can wipe that smirk off his handsome mug.
And then there’s this: Brady is friends with the orange-haired former President of the U.S. I don’t believe any true American hero would allow himself to be in that position. But I have my politics and you have yours, so I’ll let it go at that.
I will watch this Super Bowl with more interest than any since, oh, 1987, when Phil Simms of Louisville and Morehead State led the New York Giants to victory. I hope everything goes as planned. I even hope The Weeknd surprises me. But mostly I hope that bettor loses his $2.3 million.
Kansas City 31, Tampa Bay 24.
Super Bowl on Monday???????????