Twenty-one years had come and gone, and my aural, optical and emotional senses had remained Super Bowl-free. In fact, most sports have slipped under my radar until I decided to try understanding this American tradition by enrolling in a sports history course at USF St. Petersburg. Televised football games? I can't say that I've watched one, ever. I did attend USF's big game against West Virginia my freshmen year, but I don't know that I ever took my eyes off the 55,000 screaming fans.
Truthfully, until this year, my family would traditionally visit Busch Gardens or Disney World on Super Bowl Sunday specifically because we knew there wouldn't be any lines. But for this Super Bowl Sunday, I committed myself to attending a Super Bowl house party and attempting to understand the game along the way. Luckily, I had a three weeks of sports history under my belt, but that meant I could talk football only up to the beginning of the 1900s.
I liken it to visiting a foreign country and learning the lingo while surrounded by native speakers.
Here is what I learned from Super Bowl XLV.
This thing could be voted in as a national holiday, in fact I wouldn't doubt if someday in the future it is. Even I was asking myself days before whether Publix would be open that day (they are open on Super Bowl Sunday, I called).
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.