Collier 1

Joshua Collier
Mrs. Thomas
UWRT-1102
2 April 2016
Reflection
Throughout this project I have learned a lot about the Super Bowl. It has really opened my
eyes to all the money and hard work that goes into making it the most watched program in the
United States. The amount people pay just to have their commercials seen is outrageous, but if it
helps bring in revenue then its worth it. Another thing that opened my eyes was the halftime
show. I always thought that the artists got paid for performing, but apparently the NFL is a lot
cheaper than I thought. I have learned a lot on this topic, and hope that you also will learn more
about the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the most watched event on television in the United States. The
reasoning behind this is, because it is the NFL Championship game, has great commercials, and
has an amazing halftime show. My inquiry question is whats the biggest reason people watch
the Super Bowl? I have researched this question over this semester, and during this thesis I will
explain to you what I have found.
There are three major reasons that people watch the Super Bowl. These three major
reasons are that they watch it for the commercials, the halftime show, or they like the sport. The
biggest reason is, because people just like the sport according to research and a twitter poll that I
created. In this twitter poll 62% of the voters said they watch it because they like watching

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football, 21% said they watch it because of the commercials, and 17% said they watch it because
of the halftime show.
Professional football did not get popular until the 1910s, and then it was still just a
recreational league. It wasnt until the 20s that the league became official, and was called
American Professional Football Association with Jim Thorpe as the President at first. In 1922
they reorganized the league and named it what it is known as today the National Football League
(NFL). The NFL has grown an exceptional amount, from only 14 teams in 1908 to 32 teams in
present day. The Super Bowl did not start until 1967 (NFL History). Before that it was just called
the championship game. Calling it the Super Bowl makes it have so much more of a meaning to
it. The name championship gives it an honor, but it is also very basic and boring. The name
Super Bowl gives it more than just a name. It gives it special distinction from other sports, just
like the Stanley Cup is the championship game in hockey. By naming it something other than
championship, it gives it more of a culture and people want to watch it and understand it more.
Humans love football. We love the adrenaline rush we get when its a close game. We
love the hard hits, and barbaric mentality that the players have. We love to see amazing plays like
when the wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. caught the ball one handed falling to the ground in
2014. Humans as a whole have always gotten excited by brutality. In 310 BC they were having
gladiator fights in Europe. People brutally murdered one another inside of a ring, and massive
crowds of people cheered them on. This lasted until about the 7th century AD, which shows how
something so barbaric was so important to the human race. Football is nowhere near as close to
barbaric as gladiator fights, but it still has that barbaric attitude to it.
Now 64% of Americans watch NFL Football regularly. Even though more people watch
the Super Bowl than other NFL games, the biggest reason people watch the Super Bowl is

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because they enjoy watching the sport. People enjoy watching football because of the upbeat
tempo, its a true team sport, and it is a game of inches. In football something interesting is
happening every single play. The average time per play in the NFL is under five seconds. That is
why speed is such a big factor in this game. Players have to get to their spots as fast as possible
without making errors. The sport of football is a true team sport. All eleven players on each side
of the ball have to work together every play. Youre only as strong as your weakest link. In the
NFL every player is a spectacular athlete, and that is why it cannot be a one player team. If the
best player is a receiver, then you still need a quarterback to pass the ball to him, and the
quarterback still needs an offensive line to block for him so it is possible for him to throw the
ball to the receiver. Everybody must work together in order to win. Football is a game of inches.
The field is 100 yards end zone to end zone. You have only four plays to get 10 yards. That might
sound easy, but its not. If you end up an inch short from the first down, then its not your ball
anymore. You just gave up your chance to score. Football is so intriguing in this way. Although
some people only watch the Super Bowl for the commercials and the halftime show, it is not the
biggest reason for watching it. It is the championship game between the two best teams in the
NFL, and all NFL fans love watching football. The sport is part of their culture, and they cant
live without it. They depend on sitting on their couches, eating, and watching the games. When
football is not in season they fiend for it to start back up.
NFL fans are the reason why the NFL is still around today. Without the fans, the NFL
would go bankrupt. The fans are what pay the bills for each team. Whenever a team is doing
well, they make more money. Fans tend to wear more of their favorite teams gear in order to
show off. This is all explained in Professor Christian Ends An Examination of NFL Fans'
Computer Mediated BIRGing. Professor End is an associate professor at Xavier University. In

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1997-1998, he conducted an experiment to see how fans react to different environments.
Environments such as how they dress when their favorite team does good or bad. It helped me
greatly to understand NFL fans. Whenever the fans team is losing they are somewhat
embarrassed of their team, causing them to not show off their gear. Whenever a fans team is
winning they are excited and proud, which causes them to wear more gear. When teams are
doing well the prices for their gear will increase, because it is at a much higher demand.
I do enjoy the funny commercials, and the stunning halftime show, but that is not why I
watch the Super Bowl. I watch football and the Super Bowl, because it is a part of me. I have
played football since the third grade. It is more than a game to me. It is a lifestyle. It was such a
big part to me in high school to be able to play in college. I did everything possible to make that
happen. I went to two separate trainers every week. One was a speed and agility trainer that met
twice a week, and that other was a strength trainer that I went to three times a week. I ate, slept,
and breathed football. Last semester I was able to achieve my goal of playing college football. I
attended Alderson Broaddus University, and played football there. I transferred from there,
because they changed my major from a 3.5 year program to a 6 year program, and I did not want
to deal with that. It was very hard to say goodbye to football when I did. It has been a big impact
on my life. It made me into the person that I am today.
Commercials during the Super Bowl are the best ones of the year, every year. Most of the
time they are very funny such as the Doritos commercial in 2010 where the boy slaps the man,
because the man is going on a date with the boys mom and tries to eat the boys Doritos. The
boy slapped him and said put it back, then held two fingers up saying keep your hands off my
momma, and keep your hands off my Doritos. This was an instant hit with viewers from all
over. Some other commercials are more emotional like in 2013, the Anheuser-Busch commercial

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with the Clydesdale reuniting with its trainer. Commercials are meant to capture the audience's
attention, and that is exactly what the commercials do during the Super Bowl.
Since the Super Bowl has started the average second for advertisement rates have
increased drastically. From 1990-2000 the cost for advertisement has gone up by 200% (Yelker
11). This is because more people have started watching the Super Bowl. Corporations want as
many people to see their advertisements as possible in order to sell more. Therefore, the price of
commercials will be higher. But is the high cost of these ads really worth it? For some companies
it isnt, According to Brad Adgate, research director at Horizon Media, 42% of dot.com
companies went bankrupt about a year after advertising in the 2000 Super Bowl (Korn). It
couldve just been the wrong time to post the ad or it couldve been that the company was cursed
to begin with. Although these companies didnt prosper off of their expensive commercials, some
other did,
Super Bowl ads can reverse a companys bad fortune. Online brokerage firm
E*Trade (ETFC) said it saw a 32% increase in new brokerage accounts the week
after its 2008 Super Bowl ad. Choosing to advertise proved to be a smart move for
E*Trade, which at the time was hurting financially -- its stock had dropped 80%
that year. E*Trade is just one example. According to a CareerBuilder.com
executive, the job search Web site experienced an average 40% year-over-year
growth in invoices and a 23% jump in job applications one month after its 2011
Super Bowl ad (Korn).
Dont forget about the halftime show. Some people think that setting up the halftime
show is easy. According to Edward J. Micone Jr, it is actually a full time job. His job is to
basically keep them in their seats (Wadler). By them he means the audience watching the

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Super Bowl. Usually during halftime its time for people to go get refreshments, and to use the
bathroom. Now The Super Bowl halftime show has evolved into a strobe-lit, confetti-strewn
spectacle (Altman). Everybody wants to see the big performers, and see how big they make it.
In 2015 Katy Perry came in riding on a huge robotic lion. This year in 2016 Beyonc and Bruno
Mars had a dance off. Its almost impossible to get any bigger than that. Before deciding who
would perform at Super Bowl 49 in 2015 the NFL wanted the artists to actually pay to perform.
When I tried to find out how much the NFL wanted all I found was, It is unclear how much
money the NFL was seeking (Karp). This was shocking after knowing that the NFL makes
roughly 9 billion dollars off of the Super Bowl. They make plenty of money to pay the artists for
performing. This was even more shocking once I found out that in the past The NFL typically
only covers the halftime performers' travel and production expenses, which can run well into the
millions (Karp).
These performances are amazing, and are able to be amazing because of the people that
help put it together. Although the halftime show has professionals responsible for it, there are
some mistakes sometimes. One of the biggest mistakes was Janet Jacksons wardrobe
malfunction in 2004. People still talk about it today by saying things like lets see if someones
costume falls off this year. It has become a big joke, just like all mistakes usually become. The
company that heads this up was very embarrassed of this incident, and has taken more
precautions every year to keep it from happening again.
In conclusion, people watch the Super Bowl mainly for the love of the sport. It has
become such a big part of our culture that it is almost like a holiday. Its a way to get away from
everyday life. People every year set up parties and go out to restaurants to watch the game. They
stop worrying about work or bills, and worry about having fun while watching the Super Bowl.

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If you dont watch it, then you will feel left out of the loop for at least a week. It has become
bigger than ever imagined with all of the sponsor's, commercials, and the halftime show. People
from all over the world gather around to watch one of the most watched events in the world. For
those 60 minutes that the two teams are playing, everyone is united. Whether youre cheering for
opposing teams or not; youre still united within the culture. That is what football does for people
in the world.

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Works Cited
Altman, Alex. "A Brief History Of: The Super Bowl Halftime Show." Time, 2 Feb. 2009. Web.
25 Mar. 2016.
Chuck Tomkovick, Rama Yelkur & Lori Christians (2001) The USA's biggest
marketing event keeps getting bigger: an in-depth look at Super Bowl advertising in the
1990s, Journal of Marketing Communications, 7:2, 89-108, DOI:
10.1080/13527260121725.
End, Christian M. "An Examination of NFL Fans' Computer Mediated BIRGing." Journal of
Sport Behavior, June 2001. Web. 25 Mar. 2016.
Karp, Hannah. "NFL to Coldplay: Pay to Play the Super Bowl." WSJ. The Wall Street Journal, 9
Aug. 2014. Web. 12 Apr. 2016.
Korn, Morgan. "Are Super Bowl Ads Worth the Cost?" Daily Ticker. Yahoo, 30 Jan. 2013. Web.
12 Apr. 2016.
"NFL History." NFL.com History. NFL, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.
Wadler, Joyce. "A Full-Time Mission: Super Bowl Halftime." ProQuest. New York Times, 20
Jan. 1999. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.