Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sports, "Hunt's Grunts"

The indelible super bowl

 

Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Santonio Holmes makes the game-winning catch in the final minute of Super Bowl XLIII.

By Hunt Archbold

A decade ago this month, on the locally produced public access television show “Sportopia for the People,” a fictional reporter named Preston Dixon Jones traveled down “The Road to the Super Bowl” with an oversize blow-up microphone, an over-the-top booming voice and Super Bowl-worthy fervor.

The eager and bumbling newshound made stops along the 2,000-mile U.S Route 41, interviewing fans and reporting near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; in Nashville, home of the then-Super Bowl-bound Titans; and directly past the Georgia Dome, where Tennessee would lose to St. Louis in one of the most exciting finishes the big game will ever see. Unfortunately, Jones’ would-be comedic reports weren’t as rousing as the game itself.

Another fictional character, the un-credentialed Sportopia correspondent Big Earl, spent the pre-game festivities capturing the scene with interviews of such famous sportsmen as footballer Ahmad Rashad and golfer Joey Sindelar, as well as literal man-on-the-street interviews, including one with a remarkable bundled-up homeless fella who went by the name of “Tire-Man” (but who also indicated he could be called “Tree-Man” or “Hubcap-Man,” among other names). 

Later on that oh-so-chilly evening, during the last Super Bowl game this town will ever know, Big Earl was known to have been involved in some heavy petting with the show’s producer, Ra-Ra Tadpole, in an empty parking lot near the Biltmore in Midtown.

We’re approaching the 10-year anniversary of that title game this week, and after the NFL Conference Championship games today (Jan. 24), we’re down to the last meaningful football game of the season. From college freshmen reporting to camp in the late July heat to the white-hot spotlight of a possible 100 million people tuning into Super Bowl XLIV on Feb. 7, it will have been a season to remember.

There’s not enough space to go down that memory lane, so instead let’s take a look at football items both present and future. With regards to the former, take the points with road teams in today’s AFC and NFC title games, with the Jets and Saints moving on to Miami.

Regardless of the matchup, though, the hype machine will be in overdrive this week and leading into the next. And once Super Sunday arrives, you know what that means: the commercials, of course.

Of those, it will be interesting to see the one featuring this season’s most talked-about, beloved, ridiculed, overanalyzed, celebrated, criticized, praised, and, yes, even vilified player: University of Florida quarterback Tim Tebow. David Goetzl of MediaPost.com reported last week that CBS, which is televising the Super Bowl, had “approved a script” for an ad produced by the religion-based organization Focus on the Family, viewed by many as a political advocacy group. The 30-second spot will feature Tebow and his mother Pam, and according to Goetzl’s report, “will not carry a pro-life message—at least not an overt one.”

The leader of Focus on the Family is Dr. James Dobson, who is well-known for his on-the-record opposition to abortion, gay marriage and homosexuality. Six years ago, in a speech at Oklahoma Christian University in support of U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, Dobson was quoted in The Daily Oklahoman as saying, “Homosexuals are not monogamous. They want to destroy the institution of marriage. It will destroy marriage. It will destroy the Earth.”

More than likely, the ad will champion family values in a congenial manner. But how will Tebow be treated for associating himself with a group that has demonstrated a very hostile anti-gay agenda that has all too often been interlaced with political interests?

As will most likely always be the case with anything having to do with the abortion issue, the viewpoints will vary from extreme to extreme. Some will praise the quarterback for standing up for his beliefs and helping Focus on the Family further its cause. Others will condemn Tebow’s association with a group (and a man) they contend preaches hate. And then there will be others who will wonder whether Tebow even knows he’s gay (which, according to a personal source, he’s not). Celibate? Probably. Gay? Negative, Ghost Rider.

Still others won’t even think twice about it. To them, it will be just another television commercial—albeit an expensive one, costing a reported $2.8 million for 30 seconds, wedged in to fill space while the real drama on the field is in time-out.

But Super Bowl commercials have lost their luster in recent years, as the actual games themselves have taken center stage. People don’t talk anymore about Cindy Crawford and her Pepsi, or Michael Jordan and Larry Bird calling out “nothing but net.” But they do remember Santonio Holmes or David Tyree making the big catch, or Mike Jones stopping Kevin Dyson one yard short of the end zone. Those are the memories that last, even if they were made while you were in the parking lot macking with the producer while wearing an oversized ten-gallon hat.

Happy times … and considering U.S. Route 41 stops in Miami, it might be time for another adventure on the road to the Super Bowl. SP