What My (Danish) Husband Learned About America from Watching the Super Bowl
You can tell a lot about a nation by watching its favorite sport
My husband from Denmark, like many Europeans, is a hard-core soccer fan. Yet he couldn’t resist the spectacle of the Super Bowl and spent the game glued to the screen at his first-ever Super Bowl party.
Here are a few things he learned about America by watching the country’s favorite sporting event.
We don’t mind a little aggression
An outsider can’t help but notice similarities between the American dog-eat-dog mentality and our favorite sport.
When it comes to the way we play, and the way we live, we don’t mind a little aggression.
“American football makes soccer look like ballet dancing,” my husband laughed.
As he watched our football players pile themselves up on top of one another, he exclaimed:
“So much testosterone!”
That’s because we in the U.S. get ahead in life not by thoughtful strategic movements but by bulldozing our way through, even if smashing our heads a little in the process.
“Grace is certainly not a word that comes to mind,” my husband concluded as he watched the game.
But that’s America for you. Grace is certainly not a word that comes to mind.
We like to be razzled dazzled
Last Sunday, my husband learned first-hand why many Americans find soccer boring.
While Europeans get psyched up to watch the World Cup for the sheer love of the game, we in America love to be entertained every step of the way.
Little explains America better than the Super Bowl. It’s loud, it’s pompous, and it’s a jumble of sport, music, and capitalism. The game itself gets lost among all the spectacle that comes with it.
“So it’s not so much about the sport as it is about the parade that comes with it?” my husband wondered.
It certainly seems that entertainment is such a big part of the American spirit that even a sports game has to be turned into a musical.
We need to be stimulated
Whether it’s with loud music, cars, or commercials, we in America love to be stimulated. We may not even notice it’s happening, but to a European, this much is obvious: our brains are never quiet.
Noise pollution, both physical and metaphorical, is real in America.
Be it honking, beeping, talking, or rushing to a fire — everything is done just a little bit too loudly. We’re bombarded with images, messages, and sounds 24/7.
Quietness would lead to thinking, and thinking is dangerous.
“Everything is louder and bigger in America, even your football,” my husband laughed.
The Super Bowl is no exception. Our favorite sporting event is also the loudest one.
“It’s like soccer on steroids,” my husband concluded.
Indeed, we like our football like we like our cars: big and loud.
It’s all about selling stuff
In the days leading up to the Super Bowl, the main street in our city of Santa Monica, CA, exploded with numerous stands offering free giveaways, sales, service subscriptions, you name it. All in the name of the Big Game.
Just then, my husband started to realize — the Super Bowl, like any other event in America, is about selling stuff.
Just about anything here can be turned into a sales opportunity. Because that’s what America is all about.
“Are people more likely to sign up for Verizon because the Super Bowl is coming?” my husband asked me, as he watched a giant Verizon truck spread across the Promenade, music blasting and lights flashing.
“I guess if you hype them up enough, they’ll buy anything,” I thought out loud.
We love our commercials
And what’s better at selling stuff than commercials?
Upon his arrival in the U.S., my husband was blown away by the number of commercials he saw on cable TV (which we only watched in hotels). He was mesmerized by both the volume of TV time those ads got and their ridiculous content.
“Why would anyone pay a hundred dollars a month to watch these many commercials?” my husband asked me.
But it was not until the Super Bowl that he understood just how important commercials were to an American viewer.
Buying and selling are so embedded in American society that we don’t stop to think twice about why even our favorite sporting event got turned into a TV shop.
“Is Super Bowl just an excuse to watch better commercials?” my husband wondered.
He sighed and continued:
“It sucks because the flow of the game is ruined by constant interruptions”.
Not a football fan myself, I do enjoy both the half-time shows and the TV ads that come with the Super Bowl.
And maybe that’s what it’s all about — there’s something for everyone.
What can better convey the American spirit to an outsider than our loudest, craziest, and most exciting sporting event?
My husband learned that in football, and in life, we like to go all out.
Americans do get just as rowdy as your hard-core English football club, it's just not on TV. Instead go to the fields where the little kids play soccer and watch the parents. Many years ago I coached a team of 7 year-olds, when my son was playing goalkeeper. I got red-carded, not for my coaching, but for the stream of curses emanating from the father of one of our forwards. This father was also pastor of a local church! The parents all believe their child is a prodigy, worthy of scholarships or professional status. The kids, on the other hand, leave the game not always knowing which team won. They just had fun playing, which was my primary goal in coaching.