Chip Shot
February 6, 2021 at 4:45 a.m.
Chip Shot
By Chip Davenport-
It’s Super Bowl weekend! Paaarrrrtaaaayyy!
(Sigh) I’ll pass, as I have each year beginning in 1999.
It’s one of those moments when I fall back on the hackneyed, “It’s not you, it’s me” to defend my stand for not participating in the social events on the big day.
My last Super Bowl party, a very good one at that, was January 1998. Yep, kids, they used to play the Super Bowl in January. Sometimes (gasp!) as early as January 9th (Super Bowl XI)!
My sister, Della, who lives in Elkhart, hosted a Super Bowl party with the usual great spread of food, and a wide variety of adult beverages customarily adorning their bar. There were guests of all ages including some adorable kids.
I mingled, joked, got a peek at the usual TV ad offerings, and horsed around with the kinder. It was a great time!
But I missed almost all the game!
This was the Super Bowl where Terrell Davis scored the Denver Broncos game-winning touchdown during a (literally) blinding headache. It was the Bronco’s Pro Football Hall-of-Fame quarterback John Elway’s first Super Bowl win after three previous clashes in the big game.
Part of missing that game is on me. I’m a mingler, and quite a talker. I was very social that day, and I could have sat my tukus down and watched the game from start to finish. However, I had much fun chit-chatting, and eating! Time moved quickly. The collective group at the party either didn’t have its dog in the fight or didn’t care much about football.
The cable sports channels in 1998 weren’t wired to have the replay of the game on the ready throughout the week as they do now, so I had no idea when I could make time to watch such a thing if it were televised at my convenience.
Thereafter, I began watching Super Bowls in my living room. There are many reasons I’ve done this since 1999., but the most significant reason is to watch the game much more closely.
If it’s a good game, or if it’s a blowout but watching the winning team’s quality and style of play is remarkable, I’ll stay tuned. If it’s a bad game, I’ll leave the TV on while I put away laundry, iron Monday’s clothes, or (these days) read news on my phone.
My daughter was 16 months old when the Ravens (the real Browns) won their first Super Bowl in 2001. I recall ironing a week’s worth of outfits because they were slaughtering the Giants on their way to a 41-0 win. My daughter used her doll to shadow puppet against the wall, and that was actually more fun than my task at hand, and the game itself after a while.
Nowadays there are times my family watches the game. Even so, I watch in an alcove in my bedroom with a comfy place to sit when no one else cares to watch, or even if the game is on in the living room. That alcove is my comfy spot. There’s no battle for the living room TV on Super Bowl Sunday in my house.
Additionally, the commercials are hyped during the week leading up to the game. Spoilers abound on-line, only a smart phone view away! So, they’re no big deal anymore.
Pregame shows are starting to look like the Olympics! Once I hear the piano intro, I’m out!
I’ve narrowed The Super Bowl highlight marathons for each of the 54 prior games to the choice of about 6-8 Super Bowls. I usually record them, too. Four of those are from the first four Steelers’ championships. There’s something else that wrinkles the Northeast Ohio hometown faces. As much as we hated those Steelers, they were such a machine, I was hypnotic when they were on TV.
This pandemic-year Super Bowl will be much easier for me to adjust to than it is many of the other folks who incorporate a social setting into their game-watching plans.
What are those folks gonna do?
Take the bars, for instance.
There’s freshly purchased but unlaundered NFL jersey person with four huge creases on the front and the back, there’s someone who calls the center the “hiker dude”, there’s someone who already can’t complete an already-slurred sentence by 3:30 p.m. (kickoff is 6:30 p.m., you know), and the person who must tell everyone all the game bets and spot bets they have on the Super Bowl.
I stopped watching Super Bowls in bars a long time ago, but I don’t need to be in one to picture who’s usually there.
What goes on in the house parties now? Smaller parties, perhaps? What about high-fiving guests you’ve never met? Hugging is way out!
I tell my kids often, “I’m from the future!” I guess I unwittingly prepared myself for this year’s big game. I don’t feel I’m missing a thing. You’ll find me in something comfy to wear, in someplace comfy to sit.
It’s Super Bowl weekend! Paaarrrrtaaaayyy!
(Sigh) I’ll pass, as I have each year beginning in 1999.
It’s one of those moments when I fall back on the hackneyed, “It’s not you, it’s me” to defend my stand for not participating in the social events on the big day.
My last Super Bowl party, a very good one at that, was January 1998. Yep, kids, they used to play the Super Bowl in January. Sometimes (gasp!) as early as January 9th (Super Bowl XI)!
My sister, Della, who lives in Elkhart, hosted a Super Bowl party with the usual great spread of food, and a wide variety of adult beverages customarily adorning their bar. There were guests of all ages including some adorable kids.
I mingled, joked, got a peek at the usual TV ad offerings, and horsed around with the kinder. It was a great time!
But I missed almost all the game!
This was the Super Bowl where Terrell Davis scored the Denver Broncos game-winning touchdown during a (literally) blinding headache. It was the Bronco’s Pro Football Hall-of-Fame quarterback John Elway’s first Super Bowl win after three previous clashes in the big game.
Part of missing that game is on me. I’m a mingler, and quite a talker. I was very social that day, and I could have sat my tukus down and watched the game from start to finish. However, I had much fun chit-chatting, and eating! Time moved quickly. The collective group at the party either didn’t have its dog in the fight or didn’t care much about football.
The cable sports channels in 1998 weren’t wired to have the replay of the game on the ready throughout the week as they do now, so I had no idea when I could make time to watch such a thing if it were televised at my convenience.
Thereafter, I began watching Super Bowls in my living room. There are many reasons I’ve done this since 1999., but the most significant reason is to watch the game much more closely.
If it’s a good game, or if it’s a blowout but watching the winning team’s quality and style of play is remarkable, I’ll stay tuned. If it’s a bad game, I’ll leave the TV on while I put away laundry, iron Monday’s clothes, or (these days) read news on my phone.
My daughter was 16 months old when the Ravens (the real Browns) won their first Super Bowl in 2001. I recall ironing a week’s worth of outfits because they were slaughtering the Giants on their way to a 41-0 win. My daughter used her doll to shadow puppet against the wall, and that was actually more fun than my task at hand, and the game itself after a while.
Nowadays there are times my family watches the game. Even so, I watch in an alcove in my bedroom with a comfy place to sit when no one else cares to watch, or even if the game is on in the living room. That alcove is my comfy spot. There’s no battle for the living room TV on Super Bowl Sunday in my house.
Additionally, the commercials are hyped during the week leading up to the game. Spoilers abound on-line, only a smart phone view away! So, they’re no big deal anymore.
Pregame shows are starting to look like the Olympics! Once I hear the piano intro, I’m out!
I’ve narrowed The Super Bowl highlight marathons for each of the 54 prior games to the choice of about 6-8 Super Bowls. I usually record them, too. Four of those are from the first four Steelers’ championships. There’s something else that wrinkles the Northeast Ohio hometown faces. As much as we hated those Steelers, they were such a machine, I was hypnotic when they were on TV.
This pandemic-year Super Bowl will be much easier for me to adjust to than it is many of the other folks who incorporate a social setting into their game-watching plans.
What are those folks gonna do?
Take the bars, for instance.
There’s freshly purchased but unlaundered NFL jersey person with four huge creases on the front and the back, there’s someone who calls the center the “hiker dude”, there’s someone who already can’t complete an already-slurred sentence by 3:30 p.m. (kickoff is 6:30 p.m., you know), and the person who must tell everyone all the game bets and spot bets they have on the Super Bowl.
I stopped watching Super Bowls in bars a long time ago, but I don’t need to be in one to picture who’s usually there.
What goes on in the house parties now? Smaller parties, perhaps? What about high-fiving guests you’ve never met? Hugging is way out!
I tell my kids often, “I’m from the future!” I guess I unwittingly prepared myself for this year’s big game. I don’t feel I’m missing a thing. You’ll find me in something comfy to wear, in someplace comfy to sit.
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