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The Not So Super Bowl

The Not So Super Bowl

I began Super Bowl Sunday with hopes that I would cheer and watch as Tom Brady and the New England Patriots would win their fourth Super Bowl. Instead, my friends were the ones cheering as the New York Giants beat the Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI.

I sat through a horrible halftime show and overdone commercials, was forced to explain a safety to a so-called football fan, and had to listen to an argument about whether Tom Brady or Eli Manning was cuter.

All that for nothing.

I’m not some upset Patriots fan looking to vent about how we would’ve won if tight end, Rob Gronkowski was healthy (you know it’s true), but recently, the Super Bowl has become bloated.

After the Black Eyed Peas’ train wreck of a halftime show with the Black Eyed Peas, Madonna headlined this year’s show featuring LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. (who flipped off America), and Cee Lo Green. The NFL quickly learned that several popular stars don’t necessarily make a performance better.

The halftime show awkwardly shifted from ancient Egyptians to cheerleaders to a marching band, and finally, a sci-fi choir, as pop was forcefully fused together with techno and rap.

Yet, somehow, 114 million people watched the halftime show, more than the 111.3 million that watched the actual game, making it the most watched Super Bowl halftime show in history. If Madonna got that many people to watch something that bad, I can’t wait till Justin Bieber performs next year!

One number that was down in comparison to last year’s Super Bowl was the attendance of the game. Over 30,000 fewer people attended this year’s Super Bowl than last year’s. Maybe people have finally learned that spending several thousand dollars on a ticket, no matter how good the seat is, isn’t worth it.

Spending $3.5 million to purchase the rip-off that was a 30 second commercial wasn’t worth it either. Especially if companies are releasing their ads prior to the game, the excitement that a Super Bowl commercial once had is now gone.

“Releasing ads prior to the Super Bowl doesn’t make sense,” said Ben Rogers ’15. “When people see ads multiple times, they get boring.”

If you only watch the Super Bowl for the halftime show and/or the ads, please don’t pretend like you know football and then ask, “Why can’t there be 12 players on the field?”

Go ahead and save yourself a few hours and just watch what you want online, because I don’t want to hear about how you think Tom Brady is a ten and Eli Manning is a seven.

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About the Contributor
Bailey Ethier, Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief Bailey Ethier ’15 has self-described himself in one word as “Texan.” Growing up in Texas, Ethier dreamed of being a professional athlete. Soon enough, however, he realized he didn’t have the athletic ability to do so, and turned to the next best thing, in his opinion: journalism. When he moved to Westport before ninth grade, he decided to join Inklings given the fact that he enjoyed a seventh grade project on sports broadcasting. As a sophomore, Ethier was a Web Opinions Editor, and was then a News Editor as a junior. He is ready to lead Inklings as Editor-in-Chief this year, and is fully committed to the paper. “I absolutely love this paper,” Ethier said. Deeply committed to journalism and hoping to pursue it in the future, Ethier is constantly trying to improve his journalistic skills. This summer, he attended a journalism program at Columbia University in New York City. He then headed to Texas for his eighth year at Camp Champions summer camp in Marble Falls, Texas, completing a three year senior camper program. During his senior camper program, he learned many valuable lessons, including how to lead by example. He hopes to carry his leadership at camp to Inklings this coming year. Ultimately, Ethier hopes to accomplish much during his final year on Inklings. “When people think of highly acclaimed newspapers, I want them to think of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Inklings.”

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    Kyle SpainFeb 8, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    This is Kyle Spain from the erie bayhawks. This is a really great article and I believe that this is correct.

    Reply