vs.         

The 2015 Super Bowl is over, and the New England Patriots won. Oh, well. I was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks. I find the amount of attention attached to the Super Bowl each year fascinating. Captive audience, varied demographics, a sport everyone at least recognizes even if they don’t follow or understand – an advertiser’s dream. I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as a Super Bowl, but that’s another post.

Before the game, I went to my local Publix, got a grocery cart (they’re call buggies here but having been raised in the Midwest, I have not taken to the term) and headed into the store. I knew it would be crowded based on the number of cars in the parking lot. Sure enough, the line at the deli counter was fifteen deep. I noted that my fellow shoppers’ carts had varying amounts of food, drinks, and other items. Some were post church folks stocking up for the week, but most were game folks sent on a mission to retrieve items for the Super Bowl party. I saw a fair number of men with cell phones held to the ear, frowns on faces, looking at shelves for whatever the person on the other end of the phone had directed them to buy.

Major events and holidays in the US center on food – Thanksgiving at number one followed by Christmas, New Years, Memorial Day, and 4^th of July. The Super bowl is not a holiday but an event, and food is a large part. Chips, dips, wings, sausages, pizza, soda, beer, ice cream and cupcakes – a nutritionist’s nightmare. As a nation, I think we look forward to these days, and the food associated, because they are the few times during the year where you can eat what you want in the company of others eating just as much food of poor nutritional value as you and not feel guilty about it. In fact, it’s encouraged.

The ads in the newspapers and on television for two to three weeks before the Super Bowl implore shoppers to come to their stores for whatever it takes to throw a good bash. You might buy a new TV or new furniture, but you definitely need food. Part of the reason football withdrawal happens is not only losing the games to watch, but the food that goes with it.

We were invited to a friend’s house. He typically throws a combination birthday-Super Bowl party. The main television room spectators had divided into the New England camp on one side and the Seahawks camp on the other. The emotion and trash talking associated with each score for either team kept spirits high and attention, for the most part, on the game. A close game makes for the best Super Bowl, and Sunday’s game did not disappoint. The last minute interception by New England galvanized that camp.

The food came in a close second to the game. The spread was immense, mostly Jamaican dishes – curry, jerk chicken, gumbo, fish stew, and several others with birthday cake, cupcakes, and brownies for dessert. The food was delicious, and I ate my fair share.

Today, New England is rejoicing, Seattle is vowing next year, and I’m back to watching what I eat and drink as I write this post. I’m sure I’m not alone.