Are you ready for some Football???

This is it, the reason supermarkets have been packed the last three days, the reason people give for running out and buying an new bigger HDTV -- Superbowl Sunday.

My hope, as it is every year is that it will be a good game. In concept the game has great promise. History on one side, with the New England Patriots seeking to go undefeated and the underdog in the NY Giants particularly Eli Manning taking the big stage in the shadow of his brother Peyton. I love an underdog and regardless I will always pull for a NY team.

What fascinates me about Super Bowl Sunday is how it sets itself up for failure. The drag out of false anticipation the NFL tries to create by having a two week gap between the conference championships and the big game. Coverage begins on FOX at 10AM this morning -- 10AM. Did I mention that kick off isn't until 6:15PM today. It's one game, I mean an important game no doubt and today history making. Here's my problem - more often than not the game does not live up to the hype. The fact is most games in the last decade you could have turned off by halftime because of dominant play. That and the fact that there hasn't been an interesting half time show since 'bra-gate' (aka Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction). I think it is telling that in the last decade the discussion has turned towards what the best commercials will be airing in between the actual game. And frankly, even they have lost a lot of the innovation from the late 90s that made it fun. I am equally ammused by 'counterprograming' otherwise known as 'chick flicks' on TBS or in the case of TNT today a marathon of 'The Closer', as if women need something special to do on Super Bowl Sunday so as not to feel left out of the day by television.

For me, this game and day has become a ritual within our culture. Parties, betting pools, BBQs, bragging rights - it represents one more piece of the fabric that creates social interaction for many. I always find it interesting what brings people together to create traditions. As a sports fan, the championships of any sport is a great time of year - March Madness, NBA Finals, the Fall classic, the four Tennis Opens, all have their embedded excitement as only sports can deliver. However, the Super Bowl Sunday is different and in a league of its own. Year after year it has gone from being a championship game to a spectacle, a spectacle it rarely lives up to for most who watch. It has gone beyond a major sporting event and become ritual, even among those who could care less. In a day and age where overanalysis and on demand TV choices liter the airwaves, traditions like today do a body good, because it is never a bad thing to sit in a living room cheering and screaming at a television alongside the friends and family you cherish most. No, it is not the Sunday family gathering that occurred every week when I was growing up, but it is something to remind us that coming together is a wonderful thing, no matter what the instigates it. GO GIANTS!