Active Stocks
Tue Mar 19 2024 12:50:50
  1. Tata Consultancy Services share price
  2. 4,020.85 -2.99%
  1. Tata Steel share price
  2. 150.10 0.33%
  1. Bharti Airtel share price
  2. 1,232.40 0.60%
  1. Power Grid Corporation Of India share price
  2. 260.05 -1.87%
  1. ITC share price
  2. 410.00 -1.77%
Business News/ Mint-lounge / Mint-on-sunday/  Super Bowl or Hyper Bowl?
BackBack

Super Bowl or Hyper Bowl?

More often than not, the biggest event on the American sporting calendar is arguably less about the sport than about the hype

Photo: AFPPremium
Photo: AFP

Someone noted that after the Super Bowl ended last Sunday, it was briefly a top-trending topic in India. If that’s so, perhaps you know that this is the championship game in American professional football. Perhaps you also know that this is a sport that, to my knowledge, is not played professionally anywhere in this country. The Elite Football League of India, or EFLI, played one season a few years ago. After that, it petered out at the professional level, though EFLI still conducts college-level games.

Why would it suddenly capture the imagination of a whole lot of Twittering Indians?

I don’t have a good answer to that. But I have a confession: I have watched several Super Bowls. So, I have learned some things about them, about the hype around them. In fact, this biggest event on the American sporting calendar is arguably less about the sport than about the hype.

Following that home truth, the game itself is often a one-sided disappointment; one of the two teams seems unable to come to grips with the occasion and gets crushed. So it turned out this year, as the Denver Broncos routed the Carolina Panthers 24-10.

I wrote in this space a few weeks ago about my earliest exposure to American football. Like other Indian travellers of my vintage—I don’t know if things are different now—when I first got to the US, I knew zilch about their football. With a name like that, I thought, it must at best be a variation of the game I grew up with here in India. You know, that exercise in kicking a round ball up and down a field?

Only, I quickly found that in the US, they call that game “soccer", and anyway not too many Americans play it (though that has changed in recent years, as huge numbers of American kids have taken to soccer). Their “football" is a strange affair which doesn’t involve the feet much, except for running and the occasional, situation-specific kick.

I first learned about the game while watching my university team battle on their home field, not far from my basement apartment. But I think I started understanding the hold football has on the American psyche only when I watched my first Super Bowl, in January 1982. That was a game between the San Francisco 49ers, led by their charismatic quarterback who was already a superstar, Joe Montana, and the Cincinnati Bengals.

It was an unusual Super Bowl, in that it was a closely fought game with fluctuating fortunes. The 49ers ran up a big lead in the first half, only to watch the Bengals whittle away at it through the second half. The 49ers still won 26-21, but it was a tense game almost all the way to the end.

There were two key takeaways for me. One, that word is not pronounced to rhyme with “ball", as we Indians would say it. Nope: while the Cincinnati team is certainly named for the Bengal tiger—their uniforms and helmets are tiger-striped—the name is pronounced “Ben-gils".

Two, this was the 16th Super Bowl, but perish the thought of referring to it in such a pedestrian fashion. No. Super Bowls are so momentous that they must have Roman numerals affixed. Thus in 1982, the 49ers beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XVI. I always found this convention amusingly pretentious, but then it went well with the soaring hype around the event. Every Super Bowl is suffixed with a Roman numeral—though there’s been one exception. This year’s edition was called “Super Bowl 50". I imagine the organizers did not want to handle the confusion “Super Bowl L" might cause.

It’s been over 30 years, but I still savour memories around the two Super Bowls after that 49ers win.

In 1983, the Washington Redskins defeated the favoured Miami Dolphins 27-17, behind a stellar performance from a player called John Riggins. Always known as something of a maverick, he was to find possibly greater fame two years later, at a black-tie dinner in Washington, DC. Also seated at his table was the first woman ever to serve on the US Supreme Court, justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

After downing a few too many drinks, a bleary-eyed Riggins noticed O’Connor getting ready to leave. In an effort to dissuade her, he said the words that became an instant sensation: “Come on, Sandy baby, loosen up. You’re too tight!"

In 1984, the Redskins reached the Super Bowl again. This time, they faced the Los Angeles Raiders, known as a tough, gritty team. No contest, as it turned out. Riding on a special talent called Marcus Allen, the Raiders destroyed the Redskins 38-9. But it’s what happened afterwards that made the game really famous: president Ronald Reagan called the Raiders coach to the locker room.

Remember that this was during the Cold War, and then consider what Reagan said: “Congratulations. That was a wonderful win tonight. I just think you ought to know, though, that you have given me some problems. I have already had a call from Moscow. They think that Marcus Allen is a new secret weapon and they insist that we dismantle it. Now, they have given me an idea about that team that I just saw there of yours. If you’d turn them over to us, we’d put them in silos and we wouldn’t have to build the MX missile."

Cue an uneasy smile from the coach, and plenty of withering comment in the days afterwards.

No, that game was famous for one other reason. Innovative and spectacular Super Bowl television commercials have become something of a tradition, talked up nearly as much as the game itself. The 1984 game saw the first of these to be widely discussed and analysed: Apple’s one-minute 1984 ad, still remembered as among the most influential ads of all time.

Obviously drawing from George Orwell’s classic book 1984, it featured phalanxes of men marching in grey clothes, a Big Brother character mouthing nonsense on a big screen, and a fresh-looking young woman who runs in and flings a hammer at the screen to symbolize the destruction of the whole edifice of look-alike computing—as Apple painted it—to that point. It ended with these portentous words: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984."

Hype? Certainly. After all, it was the Super Bowl.

Once a computer scientist, Dilip D’Souza now lives in Mumbai and writes for his dinners. His latest book is Final Test: Exit Sachin Tendulkar.

His Twitter handle is @DeathEndsFun

Comments are welcome at feedback@livemint.com

Unlock a world of Benefits! From insightful newsletters to real-time stock tracking, breaking news and a personalized newsfeed – it's all here, just a click away! Login Now!

Catch all the Business News, Market News, Breaking News Events and Latest News Updates on Live Mint. Download The Mint News App to get Daily Market Updates.
More Less
Published: 13 Feb 2016, 11:26 PM IST
Next Story footLogo
Recommended For You
Switch to the Mint app for fast and personalized news - Get App