Sunday, February 04, 2007

Is there a need to watch the big game?


For those planning on sitting back and watching the American hype machine called the Super Bowl, some good news, there’s no real need to park in front of the tee vee for the football, the results are already in.

A simulation game on EA Sports Madden NFL 07 reveals that Peyton Manning will have one of those career days, throwing for three touchdowns and leading the Colts on to Super Bowl XLI victory. Manning will throw for 383 yards and three touchdowns as the Colts beat the Chicago Bears 38-27 in the Super showdown.

The game will feature much drama as both Manning and Bears QB Rex Grossman battle it out for field superiority and domination of play. Should one or the other Quarterback have a less than stellar game, then infamy may be theirs and perhaps they will earn a spot in next years ten worst Super Bowl Quarterbacks list. However, if the simulation is correct it should be a barn burner, but at the end of the day, it will be Peyton hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy high into the air.

So now that all of that is out of the way, do you really want to have a Super Bowl Party? According to Slate, your Super Bowl party may very well fall into trouble with NFL properties. The website delves into the tricky little copyright laws that dictate what is and isn’t a “public showing of an NFL event”.

A Baptist church in Indiana found out the hard way just how much the NFL can play hardball, when they received a letter informing them that their plans to show the game to the congregation and charge and admission was strictly prohibited. So for the Baptists of Indiana, there's a new commandment to learn, "thou shalt not show thy football game", in Indiana it seems game day is no TV day .

This is too bad, because everybody watches the Super Bowl, but alas, not necessarily for the football. Super Bowl Sunday is the day when advertising agencies prove their worth to their clients as a slate of new image commercials make their debut, sometimes their only appearance, to try and make their product this years most in demand.

Canadians for the most part have to wait for the Internet to provide them with a vision of advertising on steroids, the Canadian rights holder Global using CRTC regulations, has cable providers supersede it’s coverage over those American channels carried across Canada, leaving Canadians with a rather bland assortment of ads, while across that electronic line the Americans are going so far as to rate the commercials on line.

(Now for Podunkians this may or may not happen, in past years, thankfully for us, the cable operator has neglected to flick that switch and the American ads would roll on through unblocked, perhaps we’ll once again be lucky)

Canadians however won’t miss out completely on the party; if they’re patient and willing to do a little Internet searching the commercials will be found. Whether it’s on You Tube, Google video, Slate or a myriad of other locations every single one of the testimonials to capitalist excess will find their way to your computer screen. Last year IFilm seemed to be the destination of choice for quick and comprehensive airings of all the commercials.

While the game and the commercials carry on the always popular half time show will keep everyone glued to their seats at the mid way point of the game, past artists have been the likes of the Rolling Stones, U2 and the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, who appeared on the last CBS broadcast of the game in 2004 and gave us the legendary wardrobe malfunction.

This year’s attraction is the enigmatic Prince, who should keep the CBS censor on edge depending on what kind of mood the formerly Purple one chooses to bring to the show. Though one knows that the selling of sex and football is a long time tradition, so should Prince belt out Little Red Corvette or 1999 it very well might fit in just fine!

CBS will take advantage of the huge audience expected to set their channel selectors on the Super Bowl by giving one of their regular television shows, Criminal Minds a rare dose of audience delivery. Normally seen on Wednesday nights, CBS plans on airing a special edition of the show following the Super Bowl, hoping that the teeming masses of fans will take in the wonders of Criminal Behavior Sciences and follow the show back to its Wednesday night location.

By the end of Sunday, the one day blast of excess will leave the nation worn out no doubt, perhaps they may even remember who won the game, or at least who was playing in it!

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