13 February 2024 , 23:24
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Disclaimer: I am in no way – nor have I ever been nor will I ever be – interested in any kind of sport. OK, now that’s out of the way – why can’t we have a Superbowl?
This weekend’s one was the most watched TV programme in American history since the Apollo 11 moon landing – with the pleasing on many levels number of 123.4 million viewers.
And they can’t all have been don’t-you-dare-call-her-a-WAG Taylor Swift fans hoping for a glimpse of her in the stands supporting her HAB (husband and boyfriend) Travis Kelce, who was playing some kind of game. Obviously her being there at all was a case of the stars aligning perfectly, especially as she brought a posse of famous faces too – but even without Taylor, the Superbowl is still extremely covetable.
Patrick Mahomes led the Kansas City Chiefs to Super Bowl LVIII glory in Las Vegas (Getty Images)Despite what the Government tells us about small boats, there aren’t 123.4 million people in this country to watch it – but still, imagine knowing it was on every telly in the land.
In these days of increasingly rare event TV, that people experience at the same time and bond over and discuss afterwards, old-fashioned water-cooler style, it feels like the Superbowl brought the whole of America together.
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Hard not to be a bit jealous, as the UK needs that so desperately at the moment. The Superbowl’s secret sauce was there was something for everyone. For sports fans, there was apparently some kind of sport. For music fans, astonishing performances from the top names, featuring collaborations between artists never seen before or again – this time Usher, Alicia Keyes, will.i.am and H.E.R.
Every celebrity worth gawping at was there to see and be seen, from Beyonce and Jay-Z to Elon Musk via Kim Kardashian. Even the adverts in between the… basketball? baseball?... were unfastforwardable as they starred the likes of Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Pratt and Christopher Walken.
The Superbowl caters to so many different tastes, ticks so many boxes – never mind bringing the nation together, it must have also united families, and maybe even saved marriages.
I would happily go and watch Arsenal lose if there was a chance Taylor Swift and Beyonce might be there – and while I’d probably still zone out when the intricacies of the game were being endlessly bored-on-about by my husband, I’d put much more effort – ie some – into hiding it.
Don’t want him giving my ticket for the next one to someone else. We’ve probably never been as alienated as a nation, as a society, as we are right now – our opinions and beliefs regularly weaponised against us to divide and conquer.
Coming together for one afternoon won’t be a magic cure, but it may be balm that would soothe the wounds and, who knows, hopefully then the healing process could begin. It definitely wouldn’t hurt. In other words, the FA Cup Final needs a serious glow up.