Super Bowl Night
Yesterday was a big night in the U.S. It is the night when some cities here are just turned into ghost cities simply because it is the Super Bowl night. The Indianapolis Colts won the Super Bowl 29-17 over the Chicago Bears on Sunday. It is so important to the American people that the U.S. President calls the winner to congratulate the team. I believe the night is like a national day.I might sound like I understand something about the Super Bowl, but the reality that I have no clue. I was not alone in this situation last night, another two of my friends who are Latinos shared my ignorance of the Super Bowl. Their country is well-know for soccer. Egypt’s primary sport is also soccer. American football is really an invention for the three of us. In the U.S, if you say football, people will understand that you are talking about American football.
My friends and I pretended that we have interest in the Super Bowl and said we will at least watch the commercials. Yes, do not ask me why the commercials of the Super Bowl are very popular and people wait to see it anxiously.
Anyway, the game was over and the trophy was about to be awarded to the winning team. The presenter said now the trophy goes to the “world’s champion Indianapolis Colts”. I looked at my friends and said did you hear what he has just said? Before I get the answer from them, I hear the presenter says one more time “world’s champions”. I said to my friends excuse me, do you know of any country that plays American football? Were there any international teams? They were only States’ teams. A long moment of silence….
posted by Freedom For Egyptians @ 11:39 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Believe it or not they actually have an American football league in Europe however these teams dont play the actual american teams for the trophy so uhhh yea....I dont know where world champions come from.
"Yes, do not ask me why the commercials of the Super Bowl are very popular and people wait to see it anxiously."
Don't feel bad. I've lived in the U.S. my entire life and I don't understand why Super Bowl commercials are so popular either :-)
I was for more than 5 years as a graduate student at Texas A&M (Aggieland). I was almost force-fed American football in this football-crazy university. I came to appreciate it after several games. There is a lot of tactic involved in moving and defending the ground, though physically it is not for everyone to play.
Egyptian in Germany
I do not mind at all that the U.S. becomes the world's champion provided that it is an international tournment when other teams from different countries come to participate. But anyway congratulations to the winners:)
I'm both an avid fan of (American) football and (soccer) football. I, too, have heard this argument before from many of my international friends and I suppose you could see it as inaccurate, but think of it this way:
If no one else in the world plays American football, then does it not stand to reason that the champion of American football in America would, in fact, be world champions by default. No one else plays so no one else is better, right? :-)
Keep up the good work!
Yes, I always found it ironic that the Americans called their baseball series the "World Series" too - and there are other baseball playing countries, notably in the Caribbean, and Japab. It's of a piece with the American press' tendency to say "the most" or "ever" when referring to an event or number in U.S. history, without specifying it, because of course the U.S. context is the only one that matters. It's an odd parochialism for such a generally open-minded people.
See Michael Billig's book Banal Nationalism for discussion of the reinforcement of national self-reference in the US and Britain, just to be a complete pedant.
Egypeter- before other countries played the game, the US still called it the World Series even though it was an American-only thing, eh? You're proving my point. The British "exported" the game of cricket more than a hundred years ago too, and the cricket world cup includes a dozen different cricket playing countries. The concept of "world" is understood slightly differently by, well, most people.
And I know you take great pride in being a troll, but ease up, would you?
The reason super bowl ads is popular is because they are commercials that companies spend hundred of millions of dollars creating, just to play during the super bowl. After the super bowl is over, the ads are no longer shown on tv. This is a tradition started by major corporations.
As for it being called the "world champions," who cares? The leagues decided what to call their trophies, etc, not private US citizens or the govt. The "world series" for baseball actaully involves Canada as well, not just the US. Many of our leagues here in the US actaully have teams in the US and Canada and they have been trying to add teams to Mexico for years now as well.
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