The Super Bowl Frenzy

I was sent down from planet Droids to check out the spectacle of planet Earth. When I first arrived on this planet, I saw many earthlings running each other over just to get to a stadium called “Qwest Field.” My reaction was “What the hell are those crazy lunatics doing?” It was intriguing because I usually see earthlings communicating happily with each other. I went into the stadium myself to see the whole place jam packed with over 60,000 people. I quickly took the nearest seat I can find and sat down. I asked a fellow that was next to me what this was all about. He stared at me like I was some stupid idiot and said, “This is the Super Bowl XL you dumb loser!”


I was shocked, the Super Bowl XL? I didn’t know what that was. During the whole game, I just saw people running each other over because they were trying to get a brown thing called a “football.” Before I knew it, the game was over and the blue team won. I didn’t think it was anything because I didn’t know what was happening, but some of the people that were sitting in the next row were crying in joy. The crowd was still cheering and going crazy over the victory for more than an hour. I even saw some guy with a sign up that said, “Now I can die.”


Now I realized what their spectacle was. It was media. Everyone went crazy for the Super Bowl XL. To me, the game was nothing but a bunch of big muscled men fighting over a “football.” To the earthlings here, it was worth everything. The tickets were over $100.00 dollars per game. Lots of people bought the ticket and sold it for a higher price to bidders. The face value of a normal ticket is $600.00 dollars. Some are even willing to pay up to $5000 dollars for it.


As you can see, this may seem worthless to us, but to some earthling fans, it’s everything. After the grueling game with Carolina, the blue team (Seahawks) prepares for the next game in Detroit. Many fans were buying plane tickets early so they can catch the game live. A lot of people were anticipating this event. Many advertisements of the NFL were being shown everywhere. Flyers were posted on public areas to let fans know when the next game will air. A very smart lady bought a hotdog during the game and is now selling it on eBay as collection item. You would be amazed at how much the hotdog is going for now. The current bid for the item is $10,069.69 dollars.


This was truly a game to be remembered. The Seahawks have not won a single game for 30 years. Now, they have finally got a chance to enter the Super Bowl XL. After this amazing experience, I decided to fly to Detroit to see if the Seahawks will win or not. When I got there, Detroit looked like a mess. Everything in Downtown looked pretty nice and modern, but everything on the other side looked like it had nothing but worn old buildings and vacant lots. I hear some residents say “They spend all that money on the Super Bowl… but they ain’t doing nothing for here.” It seems like the U.S. it self only cares about the Super Bowl and not the city that hosts it.


The only reason they even fixed up Detroit’s Downtown was because the Super Bowl was going to be hosted there. Media meant more to people than how bad a city looks. I think the government is only willing to spend money on Detroit because they wanted the visitors to see how nice “one” part of the city looks. The government will only react to media and not the people. Thank god that in planet Droids, the government cares about us. They will not care more for media than they care for the people.


After I saw all the ugly surroundings of “Fort Field,” I wasn’t too excited about the game. I thought that the stadium was going to be old, rusty, and dirty, but to my surprise, the stadium was nice, shiny, and new. They also projected many different pictures of football players up on an old building. It seems that the earthlings have found ways of technology to beautify their planet. Before the game even started, the fans around me were cheering so loud for the Seahawks and the Steelers that I felt my ears would go deaf.


When both teams finally came out, it was worse. The fans were absolutely uncontrollable. People were screaming like crazy and I saw lots of yellow rags go up waving in the air. It seemed like the city I was in was rooting for the Steelers. It felt like the Seahawks had to fight against the crowd. The game started out pretty normal. I still see men in bulky suits running each other over and over again. The Seahawks were in the lead for the first quarter. They had 3-0. However, during the next couple of plays, the Steelers scored a six. Though I don’t believe they deserved that point. The referee must have been blind to believe that the Steelers actually made the shot. The judges replayed that part over and over again to make sure they were right. To me, I clearly saw that the player from the Steelers’ side did not make it. By the time he got near the goal area, one of the Seahawks players has already blocked him. The ball already landed on the ground but the player from the Steelers’ side lifted it and placed it on the goal area.


The referee couldn’t decide whether or not they should keep the score so they had to let the judges from the top decide it. In the end, they decided to keep the score any ways so the Steelers’ were allowed a chance to kick the football over the fork. The score by the end of the first quarter was 3-7. Everyone had a good view of the scene no matter where they were sitting. The stadium had installed big screen TVs to allow everyone to have a good view of the game. In between the plays, there were many commercials. I saw a lot from bud light. It seemed like all of the commercials were encouraging people to drink.


None of the advertisements were good things that could be added to the human body. I also saw advertisements from places like Pizza Hut and Burger King. All of the food that they showed looked very greasy. I suppose many earthlings like their food oily and juicy. I also overheard some people talking about the price of putting an advertisement on during the Super Bowl XL. They said that back in the 1970s, the price to put up an advertisement during the Super Bowl XL was $42,500 dollars. Now, the costs went dramatically high. It now costs $2.4 million to have a thirty-second commercial on.


After watching the many bud light commercials, I think I’m fully convinced that earthlings love to drink. There were about eight commercials that had to do with alcohol. I rarely saw any commercials that had anything to do with the body or your health. There was only one that had to do with hygiene. That advertisement’s main target seemed to be teenagers. Another advertisement that was shown a minimum amount of times was the T-mobile commercial. It showed a woman and a child talking nonstop on the phone with a timer running. T-mobile was advertising their new phone plan which allowed more minutes for people to talk each month.


So just by looking at all of the advertisements that were shown, the one we see most is alcohol. Since the cost to put up a thirty-second commercial costs $2.4 million dollars, the company itself must have a lot of business to do so many commercials. Many companies take the chance of airing their commercial during the Super Bow XL in hope that they can receive benefit from it. After the 2nd play of the game ended, there was a special half time show. I went in the crowded room and saw some old people singing. It was shocking because I usually see a young band performing for the crowd.


However, before I saw the performance, they had a flash back that showed the previous bands that performed in the old days. I think the band they showed in the flash back was the band that performed for the half time show. The songs they chose to sing all had loud banging beats. Everyone in the stadium seemed to be enjoying it because they were jumping up and down and waving their hands. After the half time show was done, the crowd went back to their yelling and screaming for the teams. When the Steelers made another touchdown for their team, many people were cheering and rooting for them while some carried a mad face.


Towards the end of the third quarter, the Seahawks managed to make another touchdown and scored a total of ten points. So the score between the two teams now was 10-14. This was getting very intense for the fans. The third quarter was coming to an end and the fourth quarter was coming up. If the Seahawks made another touchdown, then they can turn the tables, but if the Steelers make another touchdown, then it’s over for the Seahawks. When I was staring in the earthlings’ eyes, I could see the intenseness in them. They all look very anxious to know the result of the game. In this quarter, there were many failed passes and missed catches for the Seahawks. They weren’t doing so great. It seems like they were so anxious to beat the Steelers that they did not concentrate enough on the game.


During the last ten minutes of the fourth quarter, the score was still 10-14 until an earthling by the name of Hines Ward made a touchdown for the Steelers. All of the fans for the Steelers cheered as hard as they can when they saw this. The Seahawks’ fans seemed to have lost all of their energy to do anything. The games result seems to be clear now. It was too late for the Seahawks to do anything. The new score for the game was now 10-21.


All of the Seahawks fans already knew that they were not going to win. With only three minutes left in the quarter, it’s impossible to have a comeback unless a miracle happened. The players in the team seemed to have lost the will to play too. They were not throwing good passes. It seems that the Seahawk’s glory with the Carolina Panthers made them go easy on their opponent. Finally, the three minutes remaining in the game ended. As I was about to leave, I saw many Seahawks’ fans with gloomy faces. Some were even crying.


The loss meant may seem like nothing to us, but to the Seahawks and their fans, it means a whole lot than just a game. The Seahawks were never able to play at the playoffs since 1984. The win against the Carolina Panthers gave them the ticket to the playoffs in “Fort Field.” All of these events lead to the “Media Literacy” that McLuhan was talking about. “All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered.”



Media can link everyone together as a community. One big example of this is the Super Bowl XL. Without this event, do you think that any earthling can start talking to each other about football? Without this event, do you think that any earthling would be able to share the joy that the Seahawks actually won? Media links us all together. It brings us closer to each other. It forms a big circle and lets the humans talk and meet more friends. With media, we can all know the same thing at the same time. It’s just like the news. When you see a crime being broadcasted live, you might not be the only one watching it because there might be millions of others watching it with you. With media, you are all connected in some way. There is always a way to communicate with others if you are connected with the media. It has the power to make you feel a specific way. Just like how the Super Bowl’s result made some of the fans cry. Media will always play its part in Earth’s society.