Commercialism king at Super Bowl

By Scott Carmichael
News reporter

I’ve never been to a Super Bowl, but I’ve been to the Super Bowl. Allow me to explain. Back in late January 2006, I was just getting my feet wet as a student in the journalism program at St. Clair College in Windsor, a city which, at the time, was revelling in its status as the co-host (to its much larger and sadly, deteriorating neighbour to the south, Detroit) for Super Bowl XL.
It seemed that everywhere you went in Windsor, particularly downtown, you were bombarded with the trappings associated with the “big game” on February 5 at Ford Field.
There were Super Bowl drink and dinner specials galore at local restaurants and watering holes.
Official Super Bowl XL pennants flapped lazily in the breeze from the lamposts lining Ouellete Avenue, the main (north/south) downtown thoroughfare.
Pedestrians (and motorists for that matter) craned their necks to view huge, flashing billboards perched majestically atop hotels and office towers proclaiming Budweiser to be “The King of Beers” and the entity chiefly responsible for bringing fans the impending Steelers/Seahawks match-up.
The Renaissance Center in Detroit – in plain view downtown as the tallest building in the cityscape lining the south side of the Detroit River that forms the border between the two cities – got in on the act as well, its cylindrical upper extremities wrapped in a massive Super Bowl banner.
T-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, pennants, every type of swag you could think of, adorned with the official Super Bowl XL logo of course, were here, there, and everywhere, for the right price.
You didn’t have to look very hard; everything the serious, or casual, football fan could want, could be had.
Cultural activities abounded as well.
For instance, several thousand football fans (yours truly included) took their turns waiting in line, on one of three mostly cool and drizzly Super Bowl weekend days, outside of the Cleary International Centre, and shelled out $6 to take in the Reebok NFL Fan Zone, an interactive football festival featuring meet-and-greet autograph sessions/photo ops with many players and retired stars (such as Hall of Famer Roger Craig, Pro Bowler Tony Gonzalez, and several Canadian-born lesser-light players from teams throughout the league, though none from either of the participating teams), skill-testing games and contests, and plenty of Super Bowl-themed chow.
(“How about a little more guacamole for my nachos, please?”)
For those with more refined or esthetic tastes, the Art Gallery of Windsor hosted a week-long NFL pictorial exhibit, Celebrating 40 Years of Football, a visual tribute to the game’s best photography going back to the first Super Bowl in 1967.
There were also family-oriented events such as an ice festival and tailgate party at the Dieppe Gardens municipal park along the riverfront.
Even the “Windsor Ballet” got in on the act, with several of the “gentlemen’s” clubs in the city’s downtown core providing the best they could offer, as official Super Bowl co-hosts, to out-of-town guests.
I recall a Fox Sports Radio affiliate from somewhere in the U.S. broadcasting live from inside Cheetah’s, one of these establishments, a few days prior to Super Bowl Sunday, playing on Windsor’s reputation as “Sin City,” where all of one’s decadent thirsts – from sexual voyeurism to the finest of Cuban cigars – could be quenched.
On a more PG-related note, I also witnessed a little of the media circus that throws up its big top in the host city every year, hanging off virtually every word uttered by members of both teams, from the star quarterback to the lowliest third-string left tackle or towel boy.
Focusing not only on the game, but the uniqueness of a cross-border, co-hosting Super Bowl community as well, not to mention what “Sin City” had to offer, the international press – print, electronic, radio, TV – descended upon Detroit and Windsor in droves.
Part of that contingent, from what I recall, about 20 or 30 members, came from Sportsnet headquarters in Toronto to the “City of Roses” – network producers, cameramen and TV personalities alike – many of whom stayed at my residence, which doubled as a conference centre/hotel, for the week.
Over the course of those three days, I was fortunate enough, in between classes and extracurricular activities, to meet and chat with a few of the Sportsnet crew, including on-air host Jim Lang (who agreed to an interview, the first of my career, to help me out with a story for class), reporter Louis Jean (probably about five-foot-five, a little shorter than he appears to be on TV, but nice as hell, like Jim, and with a friendly, yet firm, handshake that almost crushed my fingers), and analyst Jesse Palmer.
I met the former star of The Bachelor (and erstwhile back-up New York Giants quarterback) as I was leaving the residence, holding the door open for this tall, suave-looking dude entering the building, who offered a “Thanks, bud,” and a million-dollar smile as he ducked inside.
Recounting the tale to a few of my classmates the following day, most of the girls, of course, swooned, hardly believing my good fortune.
“The Bachelor? Really?” they queried.
“No,” I replied. “That %^$#* bum who should’ve taken a knee against the Eagles in the fourth quarter back in 2002...”
Funny thing is, the game itself was barely mentioned.
Which, when you think about it, was really kind of fitting when you consider that the hype – including the much-beloved TV ads, which, for this year’s game, will cost in excess of $3 million for a 30-second spot – often overshadows the match-up on the gridiron itself.
Speaking of which, I won’t venture a prediction as to the score of this Sunday’s tilt between the Giants and Patriots – a much ballyhooed rematch of Super Bowl XLII in 2008 that saw the “G-Men” upset the heretofore undefeated “Brady Bunch.”
I’ll merely say, “Go Big Blue,” and leave it at that.