SB51: Haven’t Been There; Don’t Need To Go
Ah, The Super Bowl! Like many of you with enough age behind you – and enough sports fan compulsivity about you – it’s easy to declare that we’ve seen all fifty that have been played, so far, and that we will likely see SB51 – the third to be played in Houston – if we don’t keel over in the brief meanwhile.
We’ll see this one to – the same way we saw all others – and that is, of course, on television. The difference now is that even we average fans could see the game better live at the stadium. Those smaller, grainy picture screens that we used for TV during most of this half century period gave us a pretty good perspective on where the ball was being moved by the offenses, but we had to watch the plays in that fuzzy era of lined picture screens that ribboned the mind with one fairly consistent universal experience and conclusion: That is, to say, “we would never pay to watch a big screen movie at the theater, if this were the best picture quality they could bring us.
Then, in recent years, came high definition, digital pixel quality television and many of us devotees of the home screen suddenly realized, at last, that we now owned the better hand on picture quality. The home screen quality was now bigger, richer, clearer, and brilliant in its capacity to expose the human eye and soul to direct light colors that strike our emotions and imaginations much more deeply than the faded movie film colors of the same action on the formerly called “big screen”. – Big screen? – With the health safety that also comes from these new gigantic HD digital TV screens, we may sit as close as we choose to the new big eye on the world at home and enjoy the biggest wraparound viewing experience on the new vivid picture home windows of the simultaneously quite inviting and most foreboding world of the early 21st century.
Our family went to see the NFL Texans play once in 2013 and had to settle for expensive tickets in the south rafters of that end zone for the experience of watching the locals lose to the Oakland Raiders. Most of the game, we watched the action on NRG’s so-called “big screen” simply so we could actually see how each play effected field position. We could have watched the same game on the big screen at home much more comfortably – in underwear and easy chairs, if we so desired. And we do so desire. At least this ancient Papa Bear does. – And, as the bonus – I never have to worry at home about someone standing up in front of me just in time to cover up the biggest plays of the game.
Some of the movie theaters are also getting hip to the message about the growing demand for comfort at the viewing venue. The Cinemark multiple screen theater now offers seating in wide recliners, and they’ve added buffer walls that block viewers from the distraction of OCD people seated in front of you who feel compelled to keep checking their social media site connections throughout the movie. The only problem is – they still will not let theater-goers watch movies in their underwear as they surely might choose to do so at home. For the sake of salvaging some modicum of civility and respect for privacy, that’s probably a good idea.
The final nutshell.
Take it to the bank. If I’m still vertical and breathing the intoxicating sweet air of this beautiful energizing world on Sunday, I will be watching my 51st consecutive Super Bowl. And like the fifty special NFL championship games that have passed before it, I shall, like so many of you, be watching it on a nice sized home screen HD digital pixels television receiver.
My personal record of never having seen a Super Bowl in person with the much over-rated naked eye shall remain intact. – Haven’t been there. Don’t need to go.
Have fun at the big game, everybody – in whatever way that pleases you, if you’re interested at all. If not, there is still a pretty rich reward out there called reading for those whose HD clarity finds its greatest resolution of imagination in the wonderful theater of the mind.
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Publisher, Editor, Writer
The Pecan Park Eagle
Houston, Texas
The Pecan Park Eagle 
February 3, 2017 at 4:54 am |
I can’t claim that I’ve seen them all, but I definitely saw the first ones up through 1971. I was overseas in 1972 so I missed that one. I remember seeing, or listening to, the Oilers winning the first couple of AFL titles behind George Blanda. I remember the enthusiasm about those football victories, and about some of the other players, like Charlie Hennigan, Billy Cannon, and Charlie Tolar, the great 5’6″ fullback. I remember Blanda kicking extra points and field goals when he wasn’t throwing touchdown passes.
Oh my gosh, Bill, I’m getting old!
February 4, 2017 at 4:13 am |
I remember you working at the Super bowl at Rice Stadium. Miami vs Vikings. We got a chance to watch the 2nd half of the game.
February 4, 2017 at 4:36 am |
Don –
I’ve never counted that one as an attendance since we were there to help the brother of a friend sell Super Bowl souvenirs out side Rice Stadium and we didn’t even have to pay to come in and see part of the action for free in the second half, but it was such a dull game that I hardly glanced at what was going on.
So, now that you’ve shaken the cobwebs off an ancient memory, I guess it would be more accurate for me to report that the first SB in Houston was one I almost attended, but never really saw much more than a few TV glimpses from the outside and the free part inside that I pretty much ignored, talking with people.
Because of that one first SB in Houston, so much for my perfect mark of seeing all of the first fifty all the way through on home TV – and so much for my perfect mark of never having set foot in a stadium at all when a SB was playing.
I’m still thinking that there can’t be too many people, other than us amateur vendors, whoever got into a SB for any period of time for free.
Oh well, it’s back to my normal SB routine this Sunday. 50 of 51 SBs on TV at home purity is good enough for me.