Super Bowl Shows Us The Money
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Gary [email protected]
OK, maybe that's a little overstated, but honestly, every year about this time it really sinks in how sports crazy we are in this country.
But, after all, this is America. That's what freedom is all about. Being able to pursue what makes you happy as long as it doesn't make somebody else sad.
I'm sure sitting around noodling on a guitar with the Golf Channel droning in the background isn't most people's idea of a pleasant Sunday afternoon, either. Hey, wait, was that Natalie Gulbis?
Sunday's Super Bowl, which won't be very super to me because the Green Bay Packers aren't in it, is expected to draw an audience of more than 150 million.
One of my co-workers says it's the perfect time to go shopping at Wal-Mart.
The place is empty.
Last year, some 130 million people in the U.S. tuned in. That's 43 percent of all the men women and children in the U.S. Amazing.
Worldwide, it's estimated that a billion people will watch at least part of the spectacle.
I guess that's why advertisers are happily willing to pony up the $2.6 million necessary to secure a 30-second spot.
It's not that I don't know about sports. I read. I know a little. It's just that I can't bring myself to sit through a whole game.
Even when I attend Super Bowl parties, I tend to mingle more than watch the game.
Football and basketball are bad enough, but baseball? Forget about it. Too long. Too slow. And golf? I just catch the highlights on ESPN.
I think this probably has more to do with personality than anything else. From time to time, my wife, Mary, bemoans the fact that I am so restless.
I tend not to sit still very much. I like to do stuff, lots of stuff - flitting from one activity to another.
Even if it's surfing eBay in search of that woefully uninformed person who has a vintage Fender Stratocaster at auction with a $100 "buy it now."
But, remember, this is America and we should be free to do whatever makes us happy.
So if a billion people worldwide are made happy by watching grown men toss balls and knock each other down, so be it.
And if it makes a billion people happy, you know the money can't be far behind.
Big-time sports means big-time money, but that doesn't seem to bother anybody.
Meanwhile, I get a chuckle out of people who complain about CEO salaries.
The average CEO salary in the U.S. is around $10 million per year. That's a lot of money, to be sure. But these are people who run companies. They have business skills.
They create equity for stockholders. They create jobs. They manage and market. They're philanthropic. They make something.
Look at a guy like that half-ponytailed soccer player David Beckham. The Los Angeles Galaxy recently hired him.
(Just now, I had to go online and Google up his first name and the name of the team because I couldn't remember them. That's how clueless I am about soccer in the U.S.)
But that didn't stop the team I had never heard of - and couldn't remember the name of - from paying the Beckham guy $250 million to play soccer.
Now, I knew about the Beckham guy, but not because of soccer. Apparently he married a Spice Girl. I've seen headlines about him while waiting in the checkout line of the supermarket.
The point is that even though the vast majority of Americans probably have never heard of the Los Angeles Galaxy, they wrote this guy a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar check.
The median salary for a Boston Red Sock is $3.03 million a year. The median salary for a New York Knick is $6.4 million. The median salary for a Carolina Panther is $800,000.
And that's chump change.
In March 2006, Forbes Magazine listed the highest-paid "athletes." I put athletes in quotes becomes some of these people are retired from their sport and making money from endorsements and investments.
Tiger Woods - $87 million; Michael Schumacher - $60 million; Oscar De La Hoya - $38 million; Michael Vick - $37.5 million; Shaquille O'Neal - $33.4 million; Michael Jordan - $33 million; David Beckham - $32.5 million; Kobe Bryant - $28.8 million; Lance Armstrong - $28 million; Valentino Rossi - $28 million.
But damn those greedy CEOs!
Enough of the rant, let's get down to the game.
I don't think Peyton Manning can go wild on the Bears' defense. And I don't think Rex Grossman is an accomplished enough quarterback to put up lots of points on the Colts.
I see it as a relatively low-scoring affair with lots of field goals.
Colts 19; Bears 15.
Enjoy the game, everybody.[[In-content Ad]]
OK, maybe that's a little overstated, but honestly, every year about this time it really sinks in how sports crazy we are in this country.
But, after all, this is America. That's what freedom is all about. Being able to pursue what makes you happy as long as it doesn't make somebody else sad.
I'm sure sitting around noodling on a guitar with the Golf Channel droning in the background isn't most people's idea of a pleasant Sunday afternoon, either. Hey, wait, was that Natalie Gulbis?
Sunday's Super Bowl, which won't be very super to me because the Green Bay Packers aren't in it, is expected to draw an audience of more than 150 million.
One of my co-workers says it's the perfect time to go shopping at Wal-Mart.
The place is empty.
Last year, some 130 million people in the U.S. tuned in. That's 43 percent of all the men women and children in the U.S. Amazing.
Worldwide, it's estimated that a billion people will watch at least part of the spectacle.
I guess that's why advertisers are happily willing to pony up the $2.6 million necessary to secure a 30-second spot.
It's not that I don't know about sports. I read. I know a little. It's just that I can't bring myself to sit through a whole game.
Even when I attend Super Bowl parties, I tend to mingle more than watch the game.
Football and basketball are bad enough, but baseball? Forget about it. Too long. Too slow. And golf? I just catch the highlights on ESPN.
I think this probably has more to do with personality than anything else. From time to time, my wife, Mary, bemoans the fact that I am so restless.
I tend not to sit still very much. I like to do stuff, lots of stuff - flitting from one activity to another.
Even if it's surfing eBay in search of that woefully uninformed person who has a vintage Fender Stratocaster at auction with a $100 "buy it now."
But, remember, this is America and we should be free to do whatever makes us happy.
So if a billion people worldwide are made happy by watching grown men toss balls and knock each other down, so be it.
And if it makes a billion people happy, you know the money can't be far behind.
Big-time sports means big-time money, but that doesn't seem to bother anybody.
Meanwhile, I get a chuckle out of people who complain about CEO salaries.
The average CEO salary in the U.S. is around $10 million per year. That's a lot of money, to be sure. But these are people who run companies. They have business skills.
They create equity for stockholders. They create jobs. They manage and market. They're philanthropic. They make something.
Look at a guy like that half-ponytailed soccer player David Beckham. The Los Angeles Galaxy recently hired him.
(Just now, I had to go online and Google up his first name and the name of the team because I couldn't remember them. That's how clueless I am about soccer in the U.S.)
But that didn't stop the team I had never heard of - and couldn't remember the name of - from paying the Beckham guy $250 million to play soccer.
Now, I knew about the Beckham guy, but not because of soccer. Apparently he married a Spice Girl. I've seen headlines about him while waiting in the checkout line of the supermarket.
The point is that even though the vast majority of Americans probably have never heard of the Los Angeles Galaxy, they wrote this guy a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar check.
The median salary for a Boston Red Sock is $3.03 million a year. The median salary for a New York Knick is $6.4 million. The median salary for a Carolina Panther is $800,000.
And that's chump change.
In March 2006, Forbes Magazine listed the highest-paid "athletes." I put athletes in quotes becomes some of these people are retired from their sport and making money from endorsements and investments.
Tiger Woods - $87 million; Michael Schumacher - $60 million; Oscar De La Hoya - $38 million; Michael Vick - $37.5 million; Shaquille O'Neal - $33.4 million; Michael Jordan - $33 million; David Beckham - $32.5 million; Kobe Bryant - $28.8 million; Lance Armstrong - $28 million; Valentino Rossi - $28 million.
But damn those greedy CEOs!
Enough of the rant, let's get down to the game.
I don't think Peyton Manning can go wild on the Bears' defense. And I don't think Rex Grossman is an accomplished enough quarterback to put up lots of points on the Colts.
I see it as a relatively low-scoring affair with lots of field goals.
Colts 19; Bears 15.
Enjoy the game, everybody.[[In-content Ad]]
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