Transcript

I’m recording this on a Monday. Now, yesterday was Sunday and it was Super Bowl Sunday. Now, the Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League. This is called American Football. Well, people here actually just call it football but most of the world knows this game as American football.

As you know, I am British and American football isn’t a popular game in the U.K. A few of my friends at school used to like it. They used to watch it quite a lot but they were a slight number of people. Generally speaking, people in the U.K. don’t follow American football. One thing about that though is that the National Football League, the NFL, they’re looking to try and start a new team in London. They’re trying to make the game more international and it’s going to be interesting to see how they take that and if this actually works out.

Because I’ve been living in America for 5 years now, I’ve started to really get into the game. I’ve probably watched about 15 games in total. I’ve watched about 6 Super Bowls in total too. So, I am starting to get into the game a little bit more and because the local team, the Carolina Panthers were in the Super Bowl, they were in this championship game, everyone is talking about it or everyone was talking about it leading up to the game and it’s really brought people together to talk about the game, to support the local team and I can safely say that I have jumped on the bandwagon. You know, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon of supporting the local team while they’re successful and I don’t know if I’m going to continue supporting them as much as I have done recently. But, I probably will because it’s always good to support your local team.

Unfortunately, we lost. We lost I think it was 24-10. The Carolina Panthers were the favorites going into the game but the other team were really strong and they won a lot of games without being really entertaining, while the Carolina Panthers were quite entertaining. They were good to watch. So, it was a little bit of a surprise and a little bit of a disappointment but I’m not completely invested in the team, therefore, I can get some separation from it. I don’t feel really upset today. I know a lot of my friends who are really big Carolina Panthers fans. They are a little bit upset about it. But, for me, I feel okay and part of the reason is because also we had such a great party last night.

So, we threw this Super Bowl party and this just means that we had friends come to our house to watch the game. But, it’s not just about the game. There are many things about the Super Bowl that people really love. First, it is the food because Super Bowl Sunday gives you a great excuse to eat whatever you want to eat. To eat things like pizza, burgers, chicken wings, chips and dips and salsas and also drink lots of alcohol.

So, yesterday, we had the party here and I had to spend around 6 hours in total cooking and cleaning. My wife was having to do other things. She had to do, like, work for her school. She was with my son. So, I said, “I’m going to do all the cooking. I’m going to do all the cleaning.” So, I was pretty exhausted after doing all that because I also played soccer as well during the day. But, it was worth it because the house looked great and I made a chili and other things and all my friends they brought something. So, usually when you have a party like this, people bring something. So, one person brought some gin. Another person brought some chips and dip. Someone else brought some little cakes. So, it was really good fun because everyone brought something and we ate lots of different things.

To prepare for this video, I was reading some stats before and what’s really amazing is that I think it’s around 120 million people watch the Super Bowl – 120 million people in the U.S.A. and I think the population is around 300 million. So, it’s about 40% of the population watch the Super Bowl. So, it shows you just what… just how big this event really is that lots of people tune in. Forty percent of the population tune in to watch the game.

Now, I mentioned before, they don’t just watch the football, you know, it’s about the food and the atmosphere. But, there are also two more things too. The first one is the halftime show. So, at halftime, there is a big concert and this is a huge event. Lots of planning goes into it. And again, everyone watches it. Normally, during halftime in other sports, people go… go to the bathroom, you know, they get more food. They turn the TV down. But, for American football everyone is glued to their TVs because of the halftime show. And, it was really good actually, this year it was Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars and they did lots of remixes, some really good dancing… it was really enjoyable.

Now, the other thing is that’s huge again is the commercials, the adverts, the television adverts and especially during halftime because people watch the halftime show and then they watch the commercials and there’s a big buzz about the commercials. It’s something that is really interesting at first because you think “Why do people pay such attention to commercials?” But, there’s a huge buzz around them and they also try to be creative, they try to be funny and people vote on their favorite commercial during the Super Bowl. Now, it can cost up to 5 million dollars for 30 seconds on the TV. So, if you have a commercial for 30 seconds, it can cost up to 5 million dollars. Now, people initially think about this and they say “That’s too much. It’s far too expensive.” But, people argue that because everyone is paying so much attention to these commercials that it’s worth it, that this 5 million dollars is a good investment for the companies. And also, as I’ve said a few times, there’s a big buzz around these commercials too. So, people talk about it. The television, different television shows talk about them. Newspapers write about them. People post them on Facebook. People talk about their favorite one on Facebook and social media. So, they get a lot of exposure and people share these commercials on different platforms too.

In summary, I really enjoyed the game and more importantly, I enjoyed the party and the atmosphere in our house. It was great to have my friends round and their children to watch the game together, to have the food, to talk about the commercials, to watch the halftime show and it’s a really big event and something that I enjoyed doing. And, little by little I’m starting to like American football more and more. But, I’ve got to say that soccer or football, as most people call it, is always going to be my favorite game and, luckily, in America it’s becoming more popular here. But, having said that, it’s great to know another sport, especially one that is a local sport, that everyone really enjoys watching.