On Thanksgiving day, a federally recognized holiday, people remain out and about, planning for their shopping sprees and fighting tooth and nail for a spot at the front of the line for Best Buy's door-buster sales that in many states start at the very second that the clock strikes midnight. Additionally on Thanksgiving, family members who are sick of talking to each other spend tens of dollars going to the traditional thanks giving movie. If this is still deemed a holiday, the stay at home and enjoy family kind of belief that defined the history of holidays in the United States has become warped. But I digress and will instead provide you with more examples. The 4th of July, New Year’s or Columbus day. These days, all recognized by law as "holidays" solicit days of for school kids and memos that delay anything from trash pickup to mail delivery.
But what just about 6 of these 10 federal holidays have in common is something that is as prevalent in this nation as grass: money. Between the sales around Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years and the unofficial beginning and end of summers that the 4th of July and Labor day represent one would think that this definition of the word holiday has been changed by the modern day, American reception of them. For kids, for the workforce, the biggest thing a holiday does to daily life is get you out of your classes or work shift and give you an excuse to sit around the house or in some cases, go throw money at anything you want. If you operate off of that new, improved and very tainted definition of such a celebration than the biggest holiday of them all is not one included on the list of 10 federal holidays.
It takes place every year in the same time slot. Every year on the same day. Every year, as the world settles in to the prime time TV routine of the first Sunday in February, the carefully orchestrated celebration of the Super Bowl begins. But like any other holiday, the tradition, the excitement that surrounds the Super Bowl goes beyond those 4 hours of gridiron. It begins in September, 6 months before the big show when despite the luster of the first game of the year, the biggest spotlight is already shining on the last one. As the season drags on teams fight it out, trying to get on top and have the best chance going in. As we reach Week 6 we begin to get a taste, who's good and who is not and so the very luckiest of us all begin to think about how great to see this big game in person.
But no one buys just yet. Soon however we are rapidly roaring into Week 17, everyone has a general idea of how the top teams are going to play and everyone knows how the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Oakland Raiders of the league will fare, but for those still trying to grind their way into the postseason, Week 17 is like Black Friday in relation to Christmas. The little kids (us fans) wondering whether or not we will get the gift we really want from our relatives (our favorite team) and of course, that favorite team fighting desperately to get us that gift. Now for more than half the league, the metaphor ends there but for fan bases like San Diego, or Philadelphia it is only further proven. So then we move into the divisional round where the big, elaborate but fragile gifts are given. In football these gifts are of course victories but in the real world they are like what you get on Cyber Monday, phones, online games or magazine subscriptions. But finally, as this Christmas metaphor nears its climax the final plans are made. In football those plans are the Conference Championships and in the real world they are things like whether or not you go to Grandma's house or everyone comes to yours for Christmas dinner.
And once THAT is all firmed out you get the pre-Christmas jitters, media day, you get the arguments when someone messes up and lets slip a little gift you will be getting on Christmas. In football those arguments take the form of the controversies. Someone says something or in Richard Sherman's case screams it at Erin Andrews at the end of a Fox broadcast...things like that. But through this all, nothing compares to the big one, Santa Claus (the Super Bowl) and the gifts he gives. For one team they are disappointed much like the kid who gets an itchy sweater for Christmas but for the other team this Super Bowl Sunday is like that one Christmas where your parents finally caved and bought that new gaming system, or that year when you were handed the tickets to a family vacation in a few months.
Just like your family members spend hundreds of their few thousand dollars on Christmas, the NFL spends millions of their few billion dollars on its highlight to the year. Much like Christmas or Thanksgiving have evolved from their modest beginnings, the Super Bowl has gone from a game 1st played in a stadium with 30,000 empty seats and a half time show with trumpeters and a marching band to what it has become today. This billion dollar game that is so much more than just a game. This day that demands that your fork over at least 2 grand to buy a seat, this day that puts the entire country in pause and sits everyone down on the couch with a bowl of chips in their lap is one of the biggest days of the year.
While it is not recognized officially, Super Bowl Sunday is a holiday but only in the most American of terms.
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