Going from European football to American football, I was ecstatic to discover that my favorite Megève bar would not only be showing the Super Bowl for no cover charge, but would be staying open until 4:30 in the morning to ensure we would be able to see the very end. Thank God they did, because, for a neutral fan, it was a great game of football. We haven’t witnessed a Super Bowl this gripping since St. Louis vs. Tennessee almost a decade ago. I’m going to refrain from commenting extensively on the actual game because this Super Bowl loss was particularly tough for Pats fans: those wounds are incredibly deep and painfully fresh. Though, as a Tampa Bay fan, I was able to take solace in a Giants victory, as they were the team that prevented me from calling my “Bucs Crocs” “2008 Champion Crocs.”
-The French coverage of the Super Bowl was unintentional comedy at its finest. This is only the second time I’ve watched a Super Bowl outside of the U.S. and A. The previous occasion was in Tokyo, but since the Japanese are allergic to any bar that doesn’t involve either karaoke, movies, or glow sticks, I was surrounded by American ex-pats in an American bar watching the American delayed feed. The result was a decidedly American atmosphere. Watching the Super Bowl in France was a completely different story. We’ll start with the French version of the pre-game show; there were more American flags than a George W. press conference. On the plasma screen behind the main studio analyst was a waving American flag. Spread out on the commentators’ table there were at least thirty mini-American flags. Banner-style American flags hung throughout the studio. I was shocked so I asked the guy sitting next to me why all the American propaganda devices. “Because when we think of America, we think of your football. And vice versa.” Don’t worry, these weren’t the only props. As it is for all pre-game shows, coffee mugs are a must. As opposed to maintaining the façade of impartiality, each host had a mug with a team’s logo on it. Not necessarily good teams either. A lot of them were eliminated from Super Bowl contention months ago. We had the Panthers, the Falcons, and the Redskins, but no Bucs! Tant pis! And, of course, helmets! There was naturally a New England helmet and a NY G’s helmet, but more importantly, a plethora of helmets from the now defunct NFL Europe. I thought we burned all remnants of NFL Europe so that no trace of that failed experiment remained? Unfortunately, there was no volume or closed captioning, which is a shame, because I would’ve killed to hear French analysis of American football. All of the analysts were hulking ex-rugby players who dabbled in NFL Europe with awful fashion tastes. One apparently forgot he would be on national television and wore his “Shock Football” hoodie. They must have been hard-pressed for remotely credible participants because one of the guys had a mole that stretched across half of his face. It’s called radio, dude. One of the hosts, according to the credentials that flashed on the screen, had played in what they called “NFL USA.” That’s adorable, France. The fact that you felt the need to modify NFL with “USA” as if people would confuse it with NFL Europe is just precious.
-Since the Super Bowl is on in the middle of the night in France, not to mention Super Bowl fever isn’t exactly a factor, there are virtually no commercials. Since the SB commercials have been très disappointing recently, this did not bother me one iota. It was actually better, because Canal Plus did not emulate the way China deals with timeouts of live NBA games (they just show the empty court for minutes on end, its fucking awful) during the all-too-often three minute breaks. Instead they showed pertinent replays from the previous drive. And without constant media over-analyzing, I was able to watch the game without other people’s opinions influencing my interpretations of the match. Honestly, it was remarkably refreshing to watch the game without the incessant pageantry that is synonymous with Super Bowl football.
-I was shocked by the number of Frenchies in the bar who were actively watching the game. There were at least ten Frenchmen in there, and a few were relatively knowledgeable about the sport. I was excited to pick their brains and learn the French words for various football expressions (nerd point!) Much to my dismay, for pretty much every word except offsides and field goal, they just use the English word. However, it did make for some interesting sounding conversations. “ça a été un pass interference!” and “Il y avait un false start!” and “On ne peut pas faire ça dans l’end zone!” Intriguingly, all of them rooted for New York. Their reasons for supporting the Giants were equally as amusing(roughly translated): “Uhh, I’ve been there,” was the most common response. “What is a New England?” was popular as well. The collective reasoning was that, in the eyes of the French, New York (along with San Francisco) is America’s most cosmopolitan and cultured city (unbeknownst to the French, this generalization does NOT apply to their football fans, and if the Jets had been playing in the Super Bowl, this misconceived notion would’ve been even more hirarious), so they can identify with the city, and thus, its football team. Watching this game without the irritating, thoughtless heckling that comes with the territory (“Brady’s a fag!” “So’s A-Rod!” etc. etc.), without the trite storylines (perfection, brady=deity?, oh, so THIS is why they drafted Eli, etc.) and sans the exaggerated sense of self importance that is the trademark of any Boston vs. New York sporting matchup was an absolute delight. Remind me to come back to France for this year’s ALCS between Boston and New York. I might actually start to like baseball again.
-Last SB item: This was really funny. http://www.collegehumor.com/article:1749089
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American Football, humor | Tagged: Brett Favre, Football, John Madden | 
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