My road to the Super Bowl | Living with Gleigh

It’s Sunday morning, February 5, 2012. My husband and I turned on “The Road to the Super Bowl.” It got me thinking about my road to the Super Bowl. We are not a sports family; although my husband gets together with friends to watch the Daytona 500. My daughter asked him if that’s the Super Bowl of NASCAR. Interestingly, the Daytona 500 is the kick off of the season, where as the Super Bowl is the culmination of the season. Quite honestly, I don’t really care about either of them. But I am fascinated by the fascination with football and specifically the Super Bowl.

We discussed having the TV on during the Super Bowl just for the commercial value. I’m not embarrassed to admit I really don’t know when the actual game starts and I thought I knew who was playing because I saw Jay Leno’s Super Bowl predicting dog. The dog had a penchant for popping balloons, so they put him on the floor with half Eagles’ balloons and half Jets’ balloons and the last one standing would win. But as I was reading this to my daughter, she informed me it was the Patriots and the Giants. So needless to say, I don’t remember which team the dog predicted.

“The Road to the Super Bowl” may be the most interesting part of the day for me. People’s stories keep me engaged and most of what this pre-game program talks about are the players and how they got to be where are. They don’t talk about all the players, only some of the most special players. The names are familiar to me because every talk show, radio show and news program mentions these players, similar to the gossip of TV reality shows I don’t watch.

I do know the basic rules of football. I went to my high school games because I grew up in a small town and there was nothing else to do. I stood on the sidelines as a member of the service club and we kept stuff off the field and picked up all the paraphernalia afterward.

My husband and I go to our daughter’s high school home games. She’s in the pep band. We do watch and enjoy the games; appropriately getting excited when there’s action. But when we’re filming or taking pictures the camera is pointed at the band. Our team’s players have a lot of heart even if they don’t often win. But for us the fact that the team doesn’t do well is only a side effect, because the band is always awesome.

So here we sit, watching the pre-game shows, fascinated by the fascination with this violent sport, wondering how the players can make it off the field in one piece and trying to sort out unfamiliar facts. How can a new player be a “half a sack” short of getting some rookie award? Isn’t someone “sacked or not?” How can they be “half sacked?” Is it like being half-fired? My husband jokingly mentioned they must’ve gone to the grocery store and came home half a sack short of groceries.

The day after the Super Bowl, I usually hit the internet to see the funny commercials that have replaced talk of the actual game. Some commercials are better than others, like last year’s Dorito Ninja and Betty White playing football in the mud.

But here’s the best part of Super Bowl Sunday – there are no people out and about. We have often gone tubing at Snoqualmie pass on this day, we’ve gone to Seattle Center, or even just to a movie where we encountered few crowds. It’s just too bad we don’t live near Disney World.

My planning was off this year, though, because I am not usually aware of when the Super Bowl is played. I made plans to have my mother over today to help my kids’ make costumes for their anime convention in April. Maybe it’s time they made this day a government holiday, with Monday being a day off so everyone can recover. Then I would be more aware of when it happened so I’d be sure to plan accordingly.

So this year, as we sit here and watch “The Road to the Super Bowl,” reported by former Super Bowl players (get the experts), we are considering joining the sixty-something percent of men and women who watch the Super Bowl.

But who am I kidding? I don’t have a Super Bowl Road, unless I hit the road on this rare, warm, sunny February day.

Gretchen Leigh is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Covington. She is committed to writing about the humor amidst the chaos of a family. You can read more of her writing and her daily blog on her website livingwithgleigh.com.