Why Is the Super Bowl Super?

Recently I read a blog in which the author commented on the place of sports and entertainment generally in our society and the Super Bowl in particular. The day of rest is dominated by watching others sweat it out on sports fields and in arenas. Most sports seasons extend across multiple calendar seasons. When you have the baseball world series in Toronto, you run the risk of having snow interrupt the games! So much for the boys of summer.

Participants in professional sports and entertainment receive some of the highest salaries in society. Combined with what they make through commercial endorsements, few if any in the business world come close to their annual incomes. They produce entertainment.

We pay well for entertainment. The previously mentioned blog noted that a thirty-second commercial slot during this year’s Super Bowl will cost the advertiser four and one half million dollars. They are counting on you watching the Super Bowl and being persuaded to buy their product. They are counting on you wanting to be entertained.

We pay well for entertainment. Why? Why do advertisers find the Super Bowl so lucrative as to lead them to spend four and one half million dollars on thirty seconds of viewing time? Does the Super Bowl represent the epitome of our willingness to exist on vicarious experiences and an escape from our daily routine?

The gridiron represents combat in which there will be clear winners and losers. Nobody likes a game that goes into overtime and then ends in a tie. We want winners and we want losers. We want to know someone is more talented, better trained, and more determined to win than someone else. Upsets may be exciting, but if they happen too often, we wonder who set the standard of rating.

It’s hard to believe we see the Super Bowl as just a game. Seats sell for thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars. The viewing audience is numbered in the tens of millions on every continent of the globe. Special steps are taken to allow as many of our military personnel around the world as possible to have a chance to view the event.

The writer of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes faced the situation in his own life of trying to find something worthwhile that would give life meaning. Pleasures beyond mere life maintenance and entertainment were two of the areas he explored. The result was disappointing.

Ecc 2:1  I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself." But behold, this also was vanity.

Ecc 2:2  I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, "What use is it?"

For that Old Testament writer, pleasure without production had no appeal. He saw no use in it. In that same chapter he describes how many ways he tried to discovery meaning in please, and failed every time. In looking for something of lasting value, he came up empty when he turned to pleasure without purpose.

He finds more hope in another area. He writes of his discovery…

Ecc 3:12  I perceived that there is nothing better for them than to be joyful and to do good as long as they live;

Ecc 3:13  also that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil--this is God's gift to man.

The writer of Ecclesiastes never condemns pleasure. It is a gift of God. It is in how we seek the pleasure that meaninglessness sinks into our lives. Rather his focus is upon work that benefits others in a productive way. Enjoy the basic necessities of life and find pleasure in the work of your hands. These are to be the priorities.

Do some of us benefit from that vicarious excitement on the big screen? I’m sure some of us think we do. Should your life be dominated by entertainment in which you can never join? Probably not. The Super Bowl is only super to those who have not yet discovered how entertaining their own lives can be if fully explored in a productive way.

That’s Entertainment?

No answer for life’s great crises or paradoxes will be found in this submission. I deal with a tension in my soul every time I allow myself to think of the ridiculousness of the question. What is entertaining and why?

The upcoming Super bowl prompts this self-directed question. I would like to spend, though I may not get to, three hours watching a bunch of guys fighting over an oblong ball. They will huddle in a circle for several seconds. Then for several more seconds they will try to take that ball across a manicured field. All that time they will be pushing each other, knocking each other down, and getting paid millions of dollars in front of millions of people. Can I justify three hours for that!

I enjoy watching NCIS. The writers generally put in less blood than most good guy-bad guy shows, and I love watching Abby’s miracles with all those computers and analyzers. Who do you know has the analytical skills of Gibbs? At times I’m just in awe.

Then there is the Bourne Trilogy. Watching Jason Bourne is liking watching McGiver with a gun in his hand. By the way I really miss McGiver. He is my kind of good guy. Bourne is after the bad guy and tries to do what’s right at every turn. He even refuses to shoot someone who has been trying to kill him. I find this entertaining.

Competition does not have to be violent, yet it can be very exciting. Watching runners is an example. You have to admire the training that is endured to produce the performance necessary for an under four-minute mile. The 100-meter dash that produces someone who carries the title of fastest man in the world can get you to hold your breath throughout the race! This is great entertainment.

Yet I look at our darker side and I have to ask myself that question, why do I find football entertaining. I can say that I enjoy watching the spiral in a 60-yard touchdown pass. I love the athletic ability exhibited when the receiver has to make a 36 inch vertical leap to catch it. I am energized as I watch a running back break through a hole created by his offensive line and race for a 98 yard touchdown.

Then there is the defensive back with the smarts to read the offensive play and gets himself in just the right position to intercept a pass. I admire the speed that a safety finds when he realizes he is the last line of defense against a sure touchdown pass and he outruns the receivers for a play-ending tackle only a few yards before the end zone. I find this all exciting.

I also like seeing the defensive line of my team smash through the offense of the team I don’t like. We’re talking full body contact here! I like seeing my team’s offense knock the other team’s defense on their backs into the grass as well. I enjoy seeing all this too.

In college I once asked a classmate if he was going to the football game that afternoon. He said he wasn’t. I asked why. His response? “I’ve seen a football game.” All the aspects of the game I found enjoyable, he found a waste of time. I could say the same thing my college friend said about a car race on a big oval track . It seems to me people only watch the things in hopes of seeing a wreck. I’ve seen a car race.

Whatever part of the Super Bowl I get to see, I intend to enjoy. Yet I still have to ask myself the question, is there a difference in the pleasure I get in watching highly trained athletes perform well and the burst of energy I get from seeing a hard tackle or someone getting their feet cleaned out from under them. Sports can lead us to strive for physical and mental improvement that simple acknowledgement for the need might never do. But do we need the violence to provide the entertainment? Have we really changed all that much from the days of the Roman coliseum?

What Is It Worth To You?

Super Bowl ads are selling in excess of three and a half million dollars for a thirty second spot. As of Jan. 2 maybe two were left for the February 3^rd game. CBS expects to set a record for revenue with this year’s event. At those prices, that is not surprising.

One report added that at least three commercials were in excess of one minute in length. Unless the business got a discount, that puts the price for their spot near eight million dollars. Somebody somewhere thinks that the time in front of all those millions of people is worth it. If I get to see the game, I’ll be the stereotypical viewer that uses commercial breaks to head for the refrigerator.

We are always placing value on the things around us be they material or otherwise. We place value on commercial advertising time. We place value on the time we spend watching the football game. Woe to the church that tries door-to-door visitation during that three hour block! We place value on the people with whom we share that time. We may even place a value on the place in which we share it.

The team owners place value upon the team members. The team members place value upon the other members of the team. The spectators who attend have placed a significant value upon their tickets and seats. For some that value extends to the great expense to which they went just to get to the game.

We place a level of value on everything. Some things we categorize as having no value at all. The other extreme includes those people, things, and ideas for which we are willing to give up life itself to show our level of value. In between are all those aspects of our lives about which we make value judgments every day.

What is the worth to you of your context and what it contains? I dream of wealth and then tell myself that I would starve to death sitting in a room filled with gold. Ask King Midas. Invest in gold, but if you are not willing to sell it, you starve to death or freeze to death or cannot pay the doctor for her care. Wealth has value for what it can do, not for what it is. A lot in life is like that.

Other things in life have their value in what they are rather than what they can do in and of themselves. A beautiful rose brings us pleasure both visually and through its fragrance. A cut sapphire is only a cold stone yet its beauty and quality place it in a different category from common flint. People will travel great distances to see the water cascade over Niagara Falls and only because of the beauty represented in its awesome power.

A baby’s laugh, the soft touch of the hand of a friend, their silent presence in a moment of grief, honesty, sincerity, faithfulness, wisdom, and so much more have nothing to do with monetary value. We place tremendous value upon such things and yet cannot begin to measure that value in dollars and cents. The writer of Proverbs says, “Happy is anyone who becomes wise – who comes to have understanding. There is more profit in it than there is in silver; it is worth more to you than gold.” (Proverbs 3:13-14, Good News Translation)

Individuals and churches, maybe governments as well, need to reevaluate on a regular basis what is of greatest value to them. Our values should determine our priorities and therefore our actions. For businesses that is generally making a profit. For churches and Christ followers the most valuable priority is living out the relationship we have with our God. What he considers of value, we must also. Wisdom that comes from spending much time with him will show us that. Time spent with God always carries the greatest value.