For the neutral fan, Super Bowl LVIII may lack its usual appeal...

[JohnS]

For those of you who are Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers fans, I apologise in advance for this topic as its relevancy obviously doesn't apply to you. But for the many people around the world who will tune in tomorrow and watch Super Bowl LVIII, the fact that the Detroit Lions aren't there means that a Super Bowl 'fairy tale' can't happen.

Okay, we could argue that the San Francisco 49ers haven't won the big game since 1995.

How do you feel about it all, prior to Sunday night?

The article below attempts to sum up the appeal of the game for neutral fans...

Why Super Bowl LVIII could be tough to enjoy for anyone other than fans of the Chiefs, 49ers and Taylor Swift

By Jon Healy

Unless you're an ardent 49ers or Chiefs fan, you might not find much to cheer for in the Super Bowl.(Getty Images/ABC News)

Teams of destiny, underdogs, Davids slaying Goliaths … championship games are ideally contests where neutrals and the uninitiated can find something to invest in.

But Monday morning's (AEDT) Super Bowl showdown between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers will be a tough pill to swallow for anyone except ardent fans of those franchises.

Here's why.

Towing a Traylor into a political scuffle 

Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are the Posh and Becks of the NFL.(Getty Images: Patrick Smith)

Take a look at the comments section of any social media post featuring Taylor Swift by the NFL, ESPN, SportsCenter etc, and you'll see a slew of fans bemoaning the focus on the pop superstar instead of the football. (She's dating Kansas City tight end Travis Kelce, in case you hadn't heard.)

Those commenters are sick and tired of the constant focus on Swift during games despite the fact that, according to recent studies, the ball is in play for only 11 minutes of an ostensibly hour-long game.

It's a three-hour broadcast. TV crews need to film something. So when one of the most famous humans in the Western world is sitting there, of course cameras are going to find them in one of the countless periods of nothing happening on the field.

And never mind that Swift, according to the New York Times, is actually on screen for less than 30 seconds — on average — during any given Kansas City NFL game.

In a three-hour broadcast (the Super Bowl will be longer) that's about 0.2 per cent of the screen time.

Alas, those social media posts have created an inflated sense of how much of a focus is on Swift, leading to this bizarre moment when US sports take-merchant Colin Cowherd tapped into a rich vein of Swifties who will go to war for him.

A real Purdy quarterback

Brock Purdy was the last pick of the draft two years ago.(Getty Images: Cooper Neill)

NFL fans are obsessed with who is "elite", particularly when it comes to quarterbacks.

Some teams are carried by their QBs, sometimes a QB is carried by their defence or their coach or their offensive line or their running backs.

The latter are (often derisively) called "system quarterbacks"; players who are succeeding more because of the squad around them, rather than elevating their teammates with pin-point passing or clutch decision making.

And, like everything in sports media, there's often a rush to label players one or another with perceived authority.

San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy has been a nightmare for that particular brand of punditry.

Purdy, the 262nd and last pick in the 2022 draft, was at the heart of the team tied for the second best in the league in this, his sophomore season.

But he's got elite talent around him in the form of tight end George Kittle, running back Christian McCaffrey and Nick Bosa on the defensive end, and there are plenty of suggestions they've done more for the team this season than the man throwing the football.

Shout-out to ESPN analyst Ryan Clark, who's been on a real journey with Purdy this year.

The 24-year-old doesn't have the tightest spiral or the biggest arm or the fastest legs, but neither did almost universal GOAT and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady (who was picked in the sixth round of his draft, by the way).

In a culture where individual players are often judged by their team's success, having someone like Purdy, who might be just pretty good right now, winning a championship at just 24 years of age messes with the perceived narrative that only all-time greats can orchestrate championship runs.

If he wins on Monday, he has more Super Bowl wins than legend Dan Marino. And if, god forbid, he gets another at any point in the intervening 10 or so years that make up an NFL quarterback's career, well suddenly he has one more than four-time MVP Aaron Rodgers.

If Purdy just has a decent career but ekes out a couple of Super Bowl wins he'll be equal fifth among quarterbacks all-time, alongside names like Peyton Manning, Ben Roethlisberger and John Elway, creating an asterisk and caveats that people have to factor in when discussing the greats of the game.

Everyone hates a winner

Patrick Mahomes was named Super Bowl MVP as the Chiefs won in 2020 and 2023.(AP: David J Phillip)

Seeing the same teams win time and time again is like watching a billionaire's risky investment coming off. Just the rich getting richer.

Monday's game is the NFL equivalent of that, with the Chiefs playing in their fourth Super Bowl from the past five years, while the 49ers are one of the most storied franchises in NFL history.

In saying that, San Francisco hasn't won since 1995.

In fact, of the 15 teams with multiple Super Bowl titles, all but two have won more recently than the Niners, but the team still boasts five Vince Lombardi trophies (third all time) and two Super Bowl appearances in the 2010s. There are lifelong fans of teams who've never seen their side even reach the Super Bowl, much less win one, much less five.

To make matters worse, in the NFC Championship game they sent home the Detroit Lions — a team from an industrial American city that hasn't won anything in the NFL in 57 years, since before the Super Bowl was even a thing.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs in their playoff run sent home the Miami Dolphins, who haven't won since 1974; the Buffalo Bills, who've never won a Super Bowl; and the Baltimore Ravens, who had the best record in the league and whose presence in the season finale would've given us our first look at MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson in the biggest game of the year.

Lamar Jackson is one of the most exciting players in the league but is yet to reach the biggest game of the season.(Getty Images: Perry Knotts)

Basically, there were more novel and intriguing storylines available to the NFL script-writers than the Chiefs and Niners returning to the big game.

But hey, this has given us the opportunity to speculate wildly about Taylor Swift's flight patterns and forced right-wingers to potentially root for the liberal stronghold of San Francisco.

So there's still fun to be had if you know where to look.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-10/super-bowl-lviii-kansas-city-chiefs-taylor-swift-san-francisco/103419554

N.B. References to US Politics have been (deliberately) removed from this article in compliance with our forum rules.

[Chas.Alpha]

ALL POLITICAL REFERENCES HAVE NOW BEEN DEEMED ACCEPTABLE!!! IT IS CONFIRMED! I CANNOT BE BANNED FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!!!🥂💥🥇

[Chas.Alpha]

30 minutes ago, Chas.Alpha said:

🥂

 

[Chibearsv]

I think the story is nonsense.  Like any playoff final, the Super Bowl is the final match of the 2 teams that qualified to get there. There will be a great football game played.  The rest of the crap that surrounds the Super Bowl isn't meant for football fans anyway, so they'll get what they want too with Usher, and ads, and Chucky...errr..Swifty

Mahomes and the Chiefs defense vs the most talent filled roster in football.  I can't wait.

[X-Man]

My friend forwarded this to me earlier today.

Prayers up for no

Groundhog Day😉

[99call]

17 hours ago, Chas.Alpha said:

ALL POLITICAL REFERENCES HAVE NOW BEEN DEEMED ACCEPTABLE!!! IT IS CONFIRMED!

Hey, At least if 'Cigar Jesus' ™️ gets put in the clink,  we definitely know he will be back sometime around Easter.

[VeguerosMAN]

My money is on the Chiefs (I picked them to go to the Super Bowl before the season started). But if I had known about the constant on-field cringe romance between Ken and Barbie I wouldn't have picked them. I honestly thought Swift was a Has Been 5-6 years ago until the media outlets started showing her recently.  Perhaps she never went away and I need to start going out more 😁

As a Skins fan I secretly want the 49ers to win the Super Bowl even though I will lose a little money.  It's refreshing to watch fired ex Skins coaches win Super Bowls- first Sean McVay and now Kyle Shanahan...Way to go Skins for letting go Kirk Cousins and all the first class coaches and staffs and left with scrubs and maggots!! 

[Ford2112]

This kid Brock Purdy is a hell of a story. The 49ers are stacked on both offense and defense. If they can manage Mahomes they should do well, provided they can run the ball. Defense of SF has to be flawless.

[VeguerosMAN]

SF defense has to play perfectly, otherwise the league will hand the Trophy to Kansas like last year. If Kansas has the ball for the last drive I expect bogus flags against SF to keep to drive going like last year.

[Chas.Alpha]

7 hours ago, 99call said:

Hey, At least if 'Cigar Jesus' ™️ gets put in the clink,  we definitely know he will be back sometime around Easter.

A bridge too far?…

[99call]

-

[Nevrknow]

Game hell. It'll be a blowout. First one to score wins. Game over! 😂

[Kaips1]

I got money on the meteor that comes crashing down right before half time. Both these teams suck. WHO DEY !!!!!