Super Bowl XLII

Posted by Alan Knox on Jan 23, 2008 in community, fellowship, gathering | 2 comments

Something strange is happening in me this year. I’m excited about Super Bowl XLII (that’s 42 for those who are not football fans and who never learned Roman numerals). Now, you must understand, I love college football, but I’ve never been a fan of professional football (in fact, I had to search to determine which Super Bowl this was). My son, Jeremy, on the other hand, loves the NFL and all things football. But, even though I care very little about the game itself, I’m excited about the Super Bowl.

I do think it would be great if the New England Patriots finished the season and the post-season undefeated. But, if you are a Giants fan, this does not mean that I have decided to pull for the Patriots. In fact, I really don’t care who wins the game. Actually, I’ll probably watch very little of the game itself. So, watching football has little to do with my excitement.

The halftime show will probably be very entertaining. I like Tom Petty. Several years ago (17 – I looked that up, too) Margaret and I saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers on their “Into the Great Wide Open” tour. It was one of the best concerts we’ve been to. So, it should be fun to hear Tom and the boys sing some of our favorite songs – and there will probably be no costume malfunctions this time either – at least none that anyone cares about. But, even the halftime show has little to do with my excitement about Super Bowl XLII.

Then, of course, there are the commercials! Many of the commercials from the past few years have been very funny. Do you remember “carne asada” – spoken like Ricardo Montalban, of course. Or what about the CareerBuilder survivor ads, the Sierra Mist comb-over, and the home-made Doritos ads. Those were all very funny to me, and even though I’ll probably watch more ads than football game, the commercials are still not the reason that I’m excited about the Super Bowl.

I’m excited about the Super Bowl because I know that we will either host or be invited to a Super Bowl party! This means that we’ll be able to hang out with many of our closest friends. We’ll talk and eat and laugh and cheer and generally have a good time together. A few weeks after the game, the game will be history and probably mostly forgotten, the ads will be old, the songs will be on the radio… but the friendships will continue. And, as I’ve seen in the past, God will use those friendships to point us to himself. This is why I’m excited about Super Bowl XLII.