Despite being a sports fan, Sunday wasn't all that super for me.
What once, and still is, heralded as the pinnacle of sports proved to anything but as I watched the Super Bowl continue its long, painful journey to a land one notch above the XFL - a failed, sensationalized step child of the National Football League.
I grew up watching NFL Films Super Bowl highlights, mesmerized by amazing championship moments that included Joe Montana's 98-yard touchdown drive in the final minutes of the 1989 Super Bowl. Then you have Joe Namath's guarantee that he realized in 1969 and the Miami Dolphins' undefeated season in 1972.
The sad thing about Sunday is that the game had all the elements for a great Super Bowl - namely, an amazing run by the underdog New England Patriots and a championship decided in the final seconds.
But I didn't see much of the game. Sure, I watched the Super Bowl, but it was surrounded by so much fluff that it was hard to discern the difference between the game and the rest of the prepackaged spectacle that made it one big commercial.
Calling the game over-hyped and overdone is an understatement. The Super Bowl exemplifies the digression of professional athletics.
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This is no longer about a football game. It is a six-hour advertisement and the game is a sideshow at a carnival of decadence. The Super Bowl extravaganza now embodies the excess of American culture.
Many readers who aren't sports fans likely are either questioning this as editorial topic or wondering why the Super Bowl is any different than all other sports.
It matters because the NFL has allowed the crowning achievement of the season to lose its luster en route to cashing million dollar checks. It matters because these are the people in our culture who have been elevated to heroic stature.
This infestation is seeping into the ranks of collegiate and high school athletics. Agents and recruiters now work at playgrounds where they prey on promising middle school athletes.
It matters because this was once about a game that pit athletes against each other in a fierce competition that requires skills, talent, intellect and luck.
Sunday showed that, despite some amazing performances, the values of sportsmanship and teamwork just don't matter.
Vince Lombardi must be weeping in his grave.
Iliana Lim¢n
Editor in chief
