DANE ELDRIDGE: Government should look at public holiday for Super Bowl Monday as Patriots play Seahawks
DANE ELDRIDGE: Bosses across the country will be staring at a lot of empty seats, so here is an easy solution to cure Super Bowl Mondayitis.
If you see the pubs overflowing on Monday morning, don’t despair - you haven’t missed a long weekend or some reimagined version of the Six O’Clock Swill.
These incongruous gatherings will be for one of the most prestigious grand finals on Australia’s sporting calendar- and no, Peter V’Landys hasn’t gone off-piste again on the NRL decider.
It’s Super Bowl Sunday, which due to Australia’s preposterous time zone will actually be Super Bowl Monday, meaning it’s okay for these crowds to be sipping Budweiser at 10am because technically it’s the weekend somewhere.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.For those who still think “touchdown” is a flight reference and “wardrobe malfunction” is a loose hinge, the Super Bowl is the glitzy and gaudy finale to America’s NFL season.
This year’s showdown pits the resurgent New England Patriots against the miserly defence of the Seattle Seahawks, a clash that offers equal doses of familiarity and curiosity for the casual Aussie fan.
While the Seahawks are the lesser knowns having emerged from the wilderness after six seasons without a playoff win, the Patriots are a household name thanks to their dynastic era in the early 2000’s where they were best known as America’s team and/or Tom Brady’s support staff.
Not only will Seattle enter the match as favourites after ending the regular season as the NFL’s best defensive unit, they’ll annex the majority of local support thanks to punter Michael Dickson, the Sydney-born 30-year-old who’s the latest local export to continue Australia’s proud tradition of endowing American football with blokes who can kick the cover off it.
Last year Jordan Mailata became the first Aussie to win a Super Bowl who was not a kicker.
However, New England will fancy their chances too thanks to Drake Maye, their 23-year-old boom quarterback who finds himself in the midst of an MVP campaign for the Boston-based juggernaut.
For the uncommitted fans tuning in Monday morning purely for the spectacle and the hot dog breakfast, both teams offer domestic equivalents for the casual barracker.
New England were tipped to wallow in the doldrums following the departures of their champion quarterback Brady and mastermind coach Bill Belichick, but after rebounding ahead of schedule you can class them as the NFL’s Melbourne Storm or Geelong Cats- aka so sickeningly consistent you suspect they’re either superhuman or cheating.
On the other hand, Seattle is a gritty and unfashionable organisation based next to a coastline with a solitary championship to its name, so you can pity them like the Cronulla Sharks or St Kilda.
But even without a dog in the fight, you’ll be hard pressed to resist Super Bowl fever.
And while there’s still a way to go before the Super Bowl unseats our country’s iconic annual events like The Race that Stops a Nation, authorities could save themselves the hassle and name it a public holiday.
Any game full of forward passes and free of behind posts would usually confuse NRL and AFL footyheads.
Furthermore, a monolithic league like the NFL with two conferences and multiple divisions sounds more to regular Aussies like the Coalition than a footy comp.
But the American game and its mega showpiece is fast carving out its own unique position in Australia’s sporting landscape- even if that unique position falls inside business hours on a Monday.
Once a source of curiosity solely for its half time show and big budget ads, the Super Bowl is no longer a niche gathering for ex-pats, Yankophiles and Supercoach nerds.
Venues across the land now host major events for the discerning bro featuring enough celebrity footballers and discount buffalo wings to make this a frat boy Melbourne Cup.
Furthermore, the game continues to smash ratings records with Channel Seven registering a record 2.6 million Aussie viewers last year for the Philadelphia Eagles triumph over Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.
This has triggered a deluge of interest from advertisers, with the broadcast’s humble early years Down Under now flush with a platoon of premium brands going all-in on a timeslot usually fought out between The Morning Show and Play School.
And while there’s still a way to go before the Super Bowl unseats our country’s iconic annual events like The Race that Stops a Nation, authorities could save themselves the hassle and name it a public holiday.
With thousands of diehards opting to take the day off to experience the Big Dance every year, the drop in national productivity is getting so pronounced that even ESPN has launched a “Super Bowl Sickie” campaign for Australian audiences fronted by legendary network personality Stephen A. Smith.
In addition to its Australia-specific Super Bowl broadcast, it’s a commitment from an American broadcaster that illustrates exactly how bonkers we’ve gone for it.
Add Seven’s broadcast of the event in addition to its ongoing commitment with weekly matches and the Armchair Experts show fronted by Cam Luke and former NFL and AFL star Ben Graham - plus the prospect of the LA Rams hosting a regular season game at the MCG this year - and it’s clear American football’s tentacles have stretched further than just the Monday morning curiosity of Super Bowl day.
It’s a long way from when our diet of American sports consisted solely of OJ Simpson and groovy touchdown celebrations on Sports Tonight.
