So...The Super Bowl

In about three hours we will have the kickoff for SuperBowl IXIII, pitting the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Arizona Cardinals.

As anyone who knows me well knows, I am a football geek. Every Sunday during football season, I am religiously sitting in front of my television, enjoying watching my hometeam Atlanta Falcons play. And even if they aren't the team I'm watching, I gravitate towards professional football when given the choice, and college football when that isn't available. And it seems that I am not the only one. Of the seventeen most watched television programs of the last thirty years, seventeen of them are SuperBowls. It is the most watched single-day sporting event in the world, and by a considerable margin at that. In fact, professional football is the most watched television show in the United States, outdistancing such phenomenon as American Idol and Survivor with room to spare. Yet, for the first time in history, this year the SuperBowl did NOT sell out their infamous commercial time weeks before the game was to air. In fact, last week NBC--the network showing the game this year--had to lower their SuperBowl ad rates (also a first in SuperBowl history).

What does this tell me? Well, it could be one of a couple of things. Maybe the matchup for this game is scaring off some advertisers, who see the Cardinals as being a detriment. After all, it has been sixty years since the team played for an NFL Championship. And due to that, they have long been considered a bit of a joke to most NFL fans. Or maybe this is another reflection of just how bad our economy is right now. Unemployment is at a 30-year high, and consumer confidence is at a new low for that same time period. Maybe advertisers are afraid to shell out the money that would be needed for this big-time stage. In all likelihood, it is probably a combination of those two factors.

But, personally, I don't care. I'm in it for the game. And, as a football fan, I'm excited to see the Cardinals playing for the title. They have played the best football of any team in the playoffs, and they deserve to be where they are today. I believe in them.

My pick: Cardinals 24, Pittsburgh 14