Super Bowl Hype For Golf?

So, much like 100+ million other people, I watched the Super Bowl this past Sunday. Another good game for America's favorite sport as, once again, the big game lived up to it's hype.

It kind of makes you wonder why the Super Bowl is as revered as it is. What does the Super Bowl have that the World Series doesn't? Why are we all excited to tune into the Super Bowl, but not as much the NBA Finals, or the Stanley Cup Finals? And where does golf rank in this question?

Well, to get it out of the way quickly, my short answer to why the Super Bowl is so much more popular than the championships of other sports is...there's only one championship game. The whole season and everything a team has played for, comes down to one game. That right there is part of the popularity for two different reasons.

Reason 1 - The sporting reason - There simply is no second chance. The team has one chance to win. It's not a series. There is no game 2 (or 3,4,5,6 or 7 for that matter). You lose, you're done. It's exciting! What if there was no series in the World Series or NBA Finals. Would it have made Rangers-Giants or Lakers-Celtics even more exciting? My guess is yes!

Reason 2 - The entertainment/get-together reason - It's just so much easier to gather friends and family for one game than it is for, somewhere between, four and seven games. Who gets together for the entire World Series? Maybe a game or two...and a game 7 if there is one. But unless there is a game 7, then who knows when the last game (the actual championship game) will really be? See, the logistics of it are just too tough to figure out.

Now take golf...it's just a mess. The Maters, The PGA Championship, The Opens, The FedEx Cup, the money list, the rankings...what the hell?! Who's #1 and why? I mean, I can see who's ranked #1...but how did they get there? Especially if they haven't actually won any tournaments! Drawing on stinky golfer Pete's idea - there should be one single tournament to determine the season's champion!

But since it seems highly unlikely that the PGA would completely rearrange its entire structure to accommodate a complaint that a couple of hacks at a place called golfstinks have made, it seems the next logical step to add some hype to the boredom of the golf season is...halftime shows!!

Look, the Super Bowl is a huge draw every year. But ever since 1993, when Michael Jackson performed, it's obvious the NFL changed it's perspective on halftime and has made every effort to bring in big names rather than the college band theme they had been doing previously. And the result? One could argue that a significant part of the reason some people watch the game at all is for the halftime show! I would rank it with the commercials, but they seem to fall flatter and flatter every year. (On a side note, beer commercials used to be funny. Now, they are just awful).

So what better way to draw more viewers (and fans at the gate), whether fans of golf or not, than to book a kick-ass rock group for the Friday (halftime of a golf tournament) night festivities? It's working for the NFL, isn't it? MLB and the NBA are beginning to work it in at their all-star games. Why not give it a shot?

OK, so I'm really reaching again. But hey...I'm just trying to help. A little music and entertainment never hurt anyone. Just one request...if anyone involved in the PGA halftime entertainment division is reading this...please don't book the Black Eyed Peas. Was the halftime show a spectacle? Yes. But it was likely the worst music to ever make it to the Super Bowl.

Swing 'til you're happy!

Posted in: FedEx Cup,golf stinks,golfstinks,halftime show,Michael Jackson,NBA Finals,PGA,PGA CHAMPIONSHIP,Stanley Cup,Super Bowl,The Masters,tournament,World Series