Super Bowl XLV: America Strikes Back

The Lombardi trophy is returning to Green Bay this year. Photo from Web.

Fellow Cheese heads, rejoice! Now I’ve been known to watch some ESPN in my day (read: recently started) and I know better than to ask the question, “Who Needs Bret Favre?!” Though, since he’s recently crossed over into the pop culture realm, I’d answer: the Jets PR team, Hotels.com, future Viagra/Cialis endorsements, etc.

Despite what was a rather tame, less-than-thrilling football game (unless you’re a Packers’ fan, in which case, congrats), and one of the more excruciating “music” moments I can remember, this year’s Super Bowl seemed to have one overarching theme: AMERICA. It seemed that the NFL, on behalf of the unemployed, the hopeless and somewhat optimistic, the discouraged, the proud and the faltering, took it upon themselves to essentially say, “Hello, World!”

In a nation that used to be enraptured by baseball, it seems football has finally reached the crown success as “America’s Sport.” Beginning with the patriotic (and somewhat threatening) reading of the Declaration of Independence, and continuing through a sad rendition of our National Anthem, the theme itself was continued in the advertisements, which weren’t all super, but a few were shining stars.

Numerous outlets have already named the real winner of this year’s Super Bowl as the American car industry, and with a two-minute ad (estimated cost: a casual $9 million) provided by Chrysler, apparently America’s revivalism is starting in Detroit. If Eminem and the man with the baritone voice didn’t inspire your faith in America, perhaps Diddy and the Mercedes Benz commercial did, or even the Bridgestone tire commercial with a rabbit that has your back as long as you don’t make it into road kill.

It was a car-heavy year, but it was also very American in its aspects. The return of the nuclear family with children just behaving as children (how adorable was that Volkswagen ad with little dude Darth Vader?), the promotion of young stars (Justin Bieber is OURS now, Canada), and even our ability to both laugh at and be uncomfortable with man-on-man licking returned (see Doritos).

Post-recession demand for exorbitant spending made a comeback, as did our desire to be seen as the insensitive American bully, as experienced through the Groupon commercials. Making fun of countries in turmoil is both hilarious and American, so eat it Tibet. Seriously though, the Super Bowl had this energy surrounding it (no thanks to The Black Eyed Peas) that smelled strongly of hamburgers and the Fourth of July – the return of American ideals.

Working hard and having it pay off, taking the number one spot back from whoever we thought held it while we teetered for a bit, and doing so in a way that, somehow, cooperates with the idea of democracy. My friend attributed the feeling to a renaissance of the middle class and all that it represents, but I see it more as a national push to return to our “normal” selves, uniting around a place and ideals. Is that not what was supposed to be communicated by having politicians, athletes, American troops, celebrities and artists come together to recite the founding document of our nation? It was the semblance of unity, and while there was an effort made to include socioeconomic and racial diversity (that, in my mind, fell extremely flat), it became clear that we still have a while to go before we get there.

If we’re a nation of and for everyone, of Americans first and every other label second—similar to the title of Super Bowl Champions—then we have to think that way, and overlook a lot more than how much money we make or our position of power and the race component. This isn’t a criticism, it’s a suggestion.

Plays made on the field are about adjusting to the situation to best accomplish the goal of winning. I think we as a nation could be on the upswing, on our way to “winning” again, but it’s the unity that is being forced upon us that we must develop organically. Until we do that, there will be Super Bowl Champions, and rallying around the quintessential American sport of football, but all the ballyhoo about America being America again will be lost. There is no amount of commercials with rap stars to save us from that truth, so it’s time to put up or shut up, America; let’s try and emulate what this year’s Super Bowl ads were talking about. May the Force be with you. •