This Sunday all over our nation people will gather for what might as well be considered a national holiday.
It is just a perfect embodiment of what America is: food, beer, and Football! And maybe it’s a tad “Grinch That Stole Sundays” of me with all their noise, noise, noise, but I guess I think it’s unfortunate that the sport's biggest game has reduced itself to the spectacle that it has become and it's more about the party, food, commercials and halftime show for most of its viewers than the game itself.
And even though it’s a bit technical to gripe about semantics for the commentators or radio pundits, it does bother me that it is always referred to as "The Biggest Sporting Event in the World!" There is nothing more “football” than this statement that you wear your blinders, believe you’re the only sport that matters, and do not acknowledge that the biggest sporting event in the world is not on Sunday this year, but actually two years from now in a different country, in a different sport.
The biggest sporting event in the world is not actually in football, but rather futbol. Here's proof.
First, television viewers. In 2015 the Super Bowl set a record with average of 114.4 million viewers. If you add up the last fout Super Bowls in viewers, you get 445.6 million. In comparison, in 2014 the World Cup alone pulled in over 3.2 billion viewers, and had an estimated one billion viewers for at least one minute of the final match.
Second, it should be pointed out the difference in what we are watching. The reason the statement “The World's Biggest Sporting Event” when discussing NFL is just dumb is because in the Super Bowl you have two teams that represent two cities in the same country.
That is about the smallest sample size of the world representation you can ask for. The only way it could represent even less would be if two teams from the same state played one another in the Super Bowl — or even worse, two teams from the same city, sorry New York no one wants to see that but you.
How can you compete on a global scale for interest when you are not representing more people? When it comes to the World Cup, you have 32 countries represented after qualifiers, and there are 209 countries that compete just to qualify. So that is 209 countries with some interest right from the start, as opposed to one country that only has 32 teams and of those 32 teams that only represent 22 of the 50 states in the US.
So it’s tough to get a worldwide interest in a sport that doesn’t even represent half of the individual states from the only country that plays the sport.
Finally, I want to bring up what these two different games mean in themselves. The World Cup started in 1930, so it has a 30-year head start on the Super Bowl. However, because it is only played every four years, there have actually been 30 less World Cups than there have been Super Bowls.
Super Bowl Sunday gives Americans an excuse to do the things they love most: gather together, eat, drink and watch unscripted drama play out on our televisions. It’s as much a part of the American “holiday” culture as St. Patrick’s Day, or New Year’s Eve.
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For countries like Ghana, or Malawi, or many others, soccer and the World Cup represent an escape from reality many desire. The living conditions for many in some of these countries are either extreme poverty or fear of growing up in a violent state. Some have to walk for miles to the closest television just to view the game; some places don’t even have TVs available to watch.
We as Americans are extremely lucky that we have such freedom where we live, but for some of these countries in the World Cup that is not the case and the game itself represents a moment of freedom for them. It’s a time for their country to stand unified or proud among the rest of the world, it represents them, their family, their friends, and neighbors. It is what makes it so incredible and so special and truly ìThe Biggest Sporting Event in the World!
So this Sunday, if any of you gather around to watch the other football game, try not to get upset if you hear someone refer to it as “The World's Biggest Sporting Event,' just realize they mean their world because they kind of live on their own little island, and instead of being angry just enjoy the wings, nachos, guacamole, pizza and beer and remind yourself 2018 is just around the corner.
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