War, Beer, Capitalism and Nationalism: Super Bowl Sunday
by Davis Fleetwood 
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Good morning scholars, the question for your consideration today is: Are you Ready for some football?
Preparing us for war, or just an excuse to drink beer?
The day after the hippies and yippies staged their fist “be-in” in San Francisco, American style capitalism fought back hard against that affront to middle class values.
On this day in the USA, January 15, 1967 the NFL staged their first Super Bowl.
America’s game started just as America did, with a group of all- American boys crushing the Chiefs from Kansas City. Of course the genocide was only symbolic in football, no American Indians were actually killed on the gridiron. Vince Lombadi, the coach of the Green Bay Packers, victors in Super Bowls I&II, was the spitting image of General Lemay, the US Airforce general and notorius war criminal who devised and implemented the carpet bombing stategy of world war 2. Like LeMay, Lomardi belived that “Winning isn’t everything. It is the only thing.”
God bless America. We sure need it.
In a remarkably short time, the Super Bowl has established itself as the most commonly shared American tradition. It is America’s game. With over 140 million Americans expected to tune in at some point during the day; that is nearly half the population and more than the amount of Americans who voted in the 2008 Presidential election.
Super Bowl Sunday is about Americans coming together to share a communal experience unmatched in our contemporary culture.
And it is about beer.
It is about worshipping our modern day gladiators and immortalizing them with hawkish references and war-like imagery in a game that is no so subtle in its glorification of wars past and indoctrination of wars to come. Here is a fun drinking game: have a sip of beer every time the announcers say “shotgun” or “aerial attack” or “bombs, blitzes, or heroes.” And tell me if you can make it to halftime without being rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoining.
More than war and more than even beer, the Super Bowl is about moving product.
Ad 30-second advertisement during the game costs an average of 2.5 million dollars. I’ll say that again. 2.5 million dollars. 30 seconds. And it is the ads that oftentimes provide the bulk of the entertainment, for in this high stakes war (I’m referring to the game) the outcome is often settled by halftime, with one side able to confidently declare mission accomplished well before the fighting is done.
Die hard fans of the highly paid mercenaries on opposing sides of the field idolize the players not for the content of their character, but for the color of their uniforms. We call that nationalism lite.
So the Super Bowl is about war, beer, capitalism and nationalism.
But the question still remains …. ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBALL?
I’m Davis Fleetwood reminding you that history is based on actual events.
