Posted on 02/08/2021 10:40:54 AM PST by EdnaMode
Almost a year after retreating inside from a deadly virus whose spread has only gotten monumentally worse since, I turned on the Super Bowl. It might be weird to see a sports event as typically hyperbolic as the Super Bowl brought down to a simmer Amid Pandemic, I thought, but at least I’d have some new shade of background noise on as I put together my 80th puzzle of quarantine.
The reality of the event was almost stranger than the strangeness I’d expected. Instead of making obvious changes to reflect the fact that the entire country is in some version of lockdown while half a million people have died, the Super Bowl seemed to unfold basically the same as it would have in any other year. The stands of Raymond James Stadium appeared to be packed, thanks to a combination of cardboard cutouts and the more than 20,000(!) people who had traveled there to attend. While 7500 were reportedly vaccinated healthcare workers and masks were required, the visual of a crowded stadium was nonetheless strikingly normal in a year that’s anything but.
Then, when it came time for the halftime performance, The Weeknd put on an elaborate, uninhibited show that automatically became the largest scale concert to be held in a year. As an audience waved lights up at the stage from the field, I briefly forgot how bizarre it was to see a real live concert happening now, as millions are scrambling to get life-saving vaccines. Even the commercials in between the game itself largely ignored the pandemic —a deliberate choice, as several advertising executives told Variety.
On the one hand, I can’t blame companies for not wanting to indulge more of the self-serious commercials about banding together and getting through hard times that have flooded TV in recent months. There are only so many times we can play the game of guessing which sentimental togetherness message belongs to whichever disingenuous corporate behemoth without losing our minds. But it was undeniably disorienting to watch ads featuring, for instance, interactions like Gwen Stefani and Adam Levine FaceTiming each other from inside restaurants without a mask or care in sight, waited on by smiling servers who didn’t have to worry about bringing death home from the brunch rush. From where I and so many others are sitting — i.e. on our couches at home, where we’ve been for months on end — that commercial felt almost as fantastical as the one for SpaceX’s all-civilian space mission. In what world do either scenarios truly exist? Not ours, that’s for sure.
So as it turned out, the most jarring thing about the Super Bowl happening in a year marred by an unrelenting virus was that the Super Bowl didn’t look at all like it was happening during a year marred by an unrelenting virus. After months of watching European soccer — which features fake crowd noise and has only sporadically allowed smaller crowds when local lockdowns permit — it was a genuine shock to switch on a sporting event in America, a country that does not have and never had a handle on the pandemic, and watch it march on relatively unchanged. Unlike concerts, awards shows, and even President Joe Biden’s inauguration, the significant forces behind the Super Bowl saw no need to adjust to the extraordinary times. Instead, they followed the government’s lead and did everything they could to make life look as “normal” as possible, no matter what. In that respect, at least, there’s something perfectly, metaphorically fitting about the fact that the Super Bowl looked about the same as always — until you zoomed in to see the truer picture of people shivering in masks.
On a basic human level, I get the instinct to reject realism for trying to make things seem alright. It’s always nice to get a reprieve from our daily dread, and being able to turn on something, anything, without thinking about sickness, loss or Zoom would be great. And yet watching the Super Bowl, I couldn’t think of anything but the devastating virus that the broadcast was otherwise determined to ignore. Seeing a stadium teeming with people wasn’t a relief, but a window into some uncanny mirrored valley where everything looks the same as it was before, except somehow still hopelessly backwards. It didn’t feel like an escape; it felt like waking up to yet another day of lockdown while having to forge ahead like everything is okay. But nothing’s the same, it’s not okay, and pretending otherwise isn’t going to be what gets us through it.
No one mentioned that Mahomes asked the ref to reset the clock because he couldn’t hear.
‘Seeing a stadium teeming with people wasn’t a relief, but a window into some uncanny mirrored valley where everything looks the same as it was before, except somehow still hopelessly backwards...’
is there any limit to cringing caterwauling from frenzied females...? or is that a stupid thing to hope for...?
>>Now all those uncomfortable masks being tugged at on the sidelines, they are noticeable.
We are almost a year into the mask mandate.
If people are still tugging at their masks and shifting them around 5 times a minute, they are exposing the fact that they HAVE NOT BEEN WEARING A MASK EVERY DAY FOR THE PAST YEAR.
It’s all for show. Joe Biden has exempted himself. Fauci couldn’t spend a couple hours in one. And the press take them off at press conferences as soon as they think the cameras have gone off.
Anyone delivering a speech (or question) should remove the mask before talking. Muffled messages are misdelivered.
I have had to make phone calls or conduct other transactions with the mask on and find the recipient (who deals with different people every day) also finds it difficult to clearly hear the message.
Can you imagine how it would have looked had it been held in Gavin Newsom's Los Angeles instead?
-PJ
Which team did the cardboard fans favor? I hear that they voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden.
And, oh, the horror. At the end of the game, unmasked players were hugging each other. Where were the mask police?
Happy I didn’t watch and see Brady win his 7th. I dislike him less now that he’s not on the Patriots, and I’m happy for the rest of the Buccaneers though. Life proceeds merrily along without sportsball and how they’re trying to indoctrinate us into leftist causes.
}:-)4
Oh ——WHEW! I knew the Chiefs should have won! Thank you!!!!
(Do I NEED to add /sarc?)
Right ? What freaking Karen’s
To me -— the only good thing about Brady winning is that Bellychicken wasn’t there.
I usually like the super Bowl game, but this year —— altho I watched —— it just wasn’t the great game it should be.
And the commercials? Fagettaboutit! I can’t remember one of them.
Yea -— baseball will be starting soon Go Mets!
Yet Fauci, his medical bureaucrats and the Democrat dictators assure us repeatedly that if anyone engages in this behavior they will die; well, unless you are doing it in a BLM or Antifa riot.
“I hear that they voted overwhelmingly for Joe Biden.”
Shhhh! Were not supposed to talk about that...
Poor little Karens
None of the cardboard props have talked so far.
Speaking of which, did Ruby Tuesday ever give an interview or testimony after she lawyered up?
LOL. Good one!
In a condo complex this weekend (Chapel Hill, NC). Many Super Bowl parties going on all over. Haha, and it was the day after the UNC student body took to the streets in a massive celebration on Franklin Street after beating Duke on Saturday night. The local news reporters were aghast. OMG! Many students not wearing masks and nobody is social distancing (as they try to light a mattress on fire). The NERVE OF THEM!!! The news stations are now waiting with bated breath for the super spreading to start...
Not necessarily—I hardly ever wear masks. Certainly not daily. Maybe twice a month I put in a mask, even in “locked down” CA. I work from home. I visit friends and family in their backyards only (I live in CA so weather is good). I eat in outdoor dining in restaurants. I walk my dog outside. I get groceries delivered and I don’t go to stores. (I’ve always hated shopping anyway).
I’ve lived my life in my home and outside, basically, for the entire past year. I only wear a mask when I go to rare doc appts.
The Chiefs beat the Buccaneers 664 to 615. Ask Hillary.
Stop with the racist comments! (s)
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