ARE YOU READY FOR SUPER BOWL?!

Hey guys!

I want to be honest. I’m not so into football. Never seen a game, except the short part in the Forrest Gump movie. I don’t know the rules, any of the players or if there is such a thing like “Abseits” as in soccer. So, when I saw one of the many advertisings before February 7th, in which an enthusiastic voice asked “Are you ready for Super Bowl?” – well, my answer was “No!”. Although this year the 50th Super Bowl took place just around the corner of our apartment: In Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium – the home of the San Francisco 49ers!

In front of the Levi’s stadium with a huge 49ers helmet in the background (October 2015)

 

The Levi’s stadium in Santa Clara (October 2015)

As I learned at my Conversation Group Class at the Sunnyvale Library a few days ago, traffic on February 7th would be awful, people would be crazy and driving by car on the Lawrence Expressway would be a very bad idea. That is why Oliver and me went by bike. Because we wanted to experience the Super-Bowl-Mania right in front of the stadium. When we got there at 1 pm, just slipping through the traffic jam – actually I have never seen so many people here going by bike before – the streets towards the Levi’s Stadium were already controlled by the traffic police and the entrances to the stadium itself were blocked and sentineled by armed Homeland Security members with machine guns next to some kind of tank-look-a-likes. Impressive! But after the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino it made people feel safer. And besides, the guards were pretty nice and even posed for photos!

Homeland Security member with a Denver Broncos fan

“Besides bomb-sniffing dogs, machine guns and armored trucks, several government agencies monitored the ground and the air, including the FBI, the U.S. Coast Guard, the California Highway Patrol and police from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security”, writes Brent Schrotenbroer on USA Today Sports.

We moved around in the area and just enjoyed the expectant atmosphere. There were more and more fans, arriving by several buses, many people were still looking for a ticket, like that guy who offered to trade his high quality camera for one of them (I don’t know if this camera could approximately cover the costs of a last minute ticket, as some people were prepared to pay up to 12 k for it). There were marching bands, getting ready for their performance and Hippie girls, who sold flower wreaths. There was skywriting in the air and creative one-day-tattoos on naked skin. It was really fun! And actually I was now looking forward to watch the game 😉

 

At 3 pm Oliver and me headed to a private Super Bowl Party at the apartment of one of Oliver’s colleagues. Nope, we didn’t trade our car to watch the game in the stadium. Although, we could have rented out our apartment for up to $ 5000 per night – not a joke! Some football fans would have paid that! For more crazy prices around the Super Bowl 50 check out the following link to USA today.

It was awesome! Just like the time of “Fußball WM” back in Germany, when even non soccer fans come together to cheer their home country with little “Schwarz-Rot-Gold”-flags on their cheeks.

As I was told, the Super Bowl game lasts about three hours – of which only 48 minutes (4 x 12 minutes) are really played. And of these 48 minutes the action, when the ball is actually in play, amounts up to 11 minutes (according to a Wall Street Journal survey).

But, as I know now, the best parts of a Super Bowl game are the half time show and the commercials anyway. Here are my favorites:

1. Toyota Prius 4

2. Heinz Ketchup

3. Doritos

4. Snickers

It’s not a secret, that commercials on TV during the Super Bowl cost as much as $ 4,5 million for 30 seconds. Crazy! In 2014 it was still 4 million. Well, that’s just like the prices of the Oktoberfest beer, each year it costs more and people rail against it, but still pay the price.

For the half time show British alternative pop-rock band Coldplay were this year’s lead entertainers, joined by Beyonce and Bruno Mars. The show was great and certainly one of the reasons for the high ticket costs.

Well, altogether, this Sunday I watched myself turn from a football dispraiser to a – well, I would say, somebody who doesn’t ignore it completely and is really looking forward to watch her first football game in a real stadium. Of course for a little lower ticket price.

O yeah, I almost forgot: This year’s winning team, the Denver Broncos, who defeated the Carolina Panthers 24:10, goes home with the Lombardi trophy (value $ 25,000).