The Super Bowl Sunday

The amount of excitement that is generated by Cricket, especially the India-Pakistan match is a feeling shared by every Indian. The adrenaline shoots up and goes through a roller coaster ride. A similar feeling is what Americans go through witnessing a Super Bowl Match.

The 2013, 47^th Superbowl, the once a year American football Championship of the National Football League (NFL)took place today, February 3^rd in New Orleans at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The two teams participating were the Baltimore Ravens who took the field with the San Francisco 49ers.

This entire football event has a lot of attraction around it and it is interesting to see that so many people of our community getting attracted to this game as well, or to say the excitement around this game.

The day on which the Super Bowl is played, is called the "Super Bowl Sunday". The Superbowl uses Roman numbers to identify each game, so this year it is XLV11 (47th) game. It has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. In 2011 the XLV game had an audience of 111 million viewers, the most-watched American program in History, according to Wikipedia.

The roads start to get deserted as people settle in front of the Television sets from the pre-prep time, much before the game begins. This is a huge social event for some as they gather in sports bars, with friends or gang up at homes. There is loads of food around this game; another big attraction .It is the second largest day for U.S food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. Wings and Nachos are most loved at this time. We (Indians) with our American friends gang up in the celebration, often getting interested in the game and cheering aloud for the favorite team. Our food seamlessly blends in the potluck.

The commercials become a big part in raising the funds for the games, and a challenge to get themselves noticed amongst the huge crowd. This particular event makes the airtime very expensive and companies usually develop their most expensive advertisements for this broadcast. Many if not for the love of the game watch the game for the commercials. That is what interests me the most. The commercials are the most talked about aspect of the event in the offices on Mondays. 

 The Half time show is yet another attraction, and this year was a performance by Beyoncé, who stunned the audience as she appeared with her former Destiny's Child band mates. Her revealing leather and lace mini-dress also came as a surprise, as it was designed by an unknown designer Rubin Singer instead of a big name.

Today, a power outage at the Super Bowl  brought the game to a pause for more than half an hour. At this time the Baltimore were leading 28-6.  When actions resumed 49ers scored 17 consecutive points, getting as close as 31-29 and giving the Ravens a tough fight. The game ended with Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens as NFL champions defeating the San Francisco 49ers by 34-31.

 It sure was an exciting match with great company, entertaining ads, Beyoncé’s performance and some delicious food today. The only question in our minds while departing was, why is this game held on a Sunday night, when we have to resume offices on Mondays?

Navneeta Khemka