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Last year, Super Bowl LVII, was the first Super Bowl I did not watch. At gametime we were in Australia on a Wine Tour. Of course, I kept checking my phone. On Friday night, I finally watched that game and found it very disconcerting because at no time during
the entire telecast was there a camera shot of Taylor Swift. Several times the luxury box containing the Chief's fans was shown. I looked very carefully to find Taylor Swift, but my efforts were in vain, and indeed also a great disappointment. I really felt
I was caught out of time and space. That will not be a problem next Sunday.</div>
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All of this is a preface to say that what follows here is the first Sport and Society I wrote on the subject of Super Sunday. Four more will follow this one over the next four days, each looking at the madness of four other Super Sundays. There will be, of
necessity, some repetition, the most frequent being comments on the ideas of Thorstein Veblen. In this first piece they are laid out fairly extensively insofar as they apply to Super Sunday. The other four essays all will mention Veblen but I hope not to the
point of severe annoyance.</div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">SPORT AND SOCIETY FOR ARETE</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">January 22, 1992 Super Bowl XXVI.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Harvard Economist John Kenneth Galbraith once observed that</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">the rich are among the least understood social groups in America. Unlike the poor who are studied intensely, constantly</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">surveyed by social workers and graduate students, the rich have gone largely uncharted. The only real exception to this is to be found
in the works of Thorstein Veblen, the Norwegian American</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">economist from Minnesota, who wrote several books on the social habits of the rich, the best known being
<i>The Theory of the Leisure Class</i>. It was in this work that Veblen coined those wonderful phrases, "conspicuous consumption," "conspicuous</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">leisure," and "conspicuous waste." Veblen was tracking the habits of the rich at the turn of the century.</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">If he found himself in Minnesota this week he could just as easily track them during the Super Bowl.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The levels of conspicuous consumption and conspicuous waste have reached new and dizzying heights at the Super Bowl in the last decade
and a half. There are already signs that this week in the</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Twin Cities the rituals of conspicuous consumption, leisure and waste will reach new levels of excess.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">At the airport arriving Super Bowl visitors to the Twin Cities are being greeted by four grand pianos. What this has to do with football
is yet to be established.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">At the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in Minneapolis a sand sculpture of the Rose Bowl will be shaped by Greg Glenn of Sand Sculptures</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">International. The Rose Bowl will be the site of next year's Super Bowl. And speaking of sand, 25 tons of heated sand will be dumped
Sunday in the International Market Square in Downtown</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Minneapolis to accommodate 500 people for a beach party.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">A sister party will be hosted by former Washington Redskin John Riggins in Cancun, Mexico. The sponsor of this extravagance is a tequila
company. Most everything has a sponsor at the Super</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Not to be outdone the St. Paul Hotel where the Buffalo Bills are staying has stocked 750 pounds of Buffalo meat. Even crime takes on
an air of luxury as the Bloomington police are warning men to</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">beware of Rolex women. The name comes from the fact that they seduce men wearing expensive jewelry, drug them, and steal the jewelry
and fancy watches after they are out cold. This was once</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">called, "getting rolled."</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Clearly the centerpiece of the Super Bowl is the not game, the real action is at the parties and banquets put on by the</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">corporations of America for their executives, their clients, and their employees, and filled with celebrities from show business, sport
and politics. It is here that conspicuous consumption and</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">conspicuous waste has its finest hour.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In 1985 at Super Bowl XIX in Palo Alto, California, 26 of America's largest corporations set up huge tents for pre-game and post-game
parties costing anywhere from $250 to $350 per</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">person. The Ford Motor Company was one of the biggest spenders paying about $1M to bring 750 of its leading dealers and their guests
to the big event. Gladys Knight provided the entertainment at a Saturday night party at the Ford Tent and Neil Sedaka entertained at the Ford dinner on Monday.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Burrough's corporation rewarded 70 of its salespeople with Super Bowl trips for reaching 130% of their sales quotas. The</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">previous year the Nissan Corporation took 300 dealers and their spouses on a five-day Caribbean cruise before the game in Tampa, the
cost running into the $2M range. In addition 800 private jets were cleared for landing in the Bay area for the big week.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In an uncharacteristic show of candor the NFL revealed this week that 25% of all the Super Bowl spectators are owners of their</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">own companies. This is not a game for the fans. And all of this fuss would not be created for the average fan, or even the</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Washington Hogettes.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In 1988 in San Diego there were concerts by Frank and Lisa, comedy from Whoopi and Jay, and a Super Salad was tossed in</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Tijuana. It was a 14 foot long, 8 foot wide, and 18 inch deep Caesar Salad using 840 heads of Romaine, 1,400 ounces of garlic</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">oil, 175 lemons, 350 cups of croutons, 980 ounces of Parmesan and 840 eggs. This could be what is meant by Super Sunday. </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">In addition an estimated 2,000 limmos were used in San Diego at</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Super Bowl XXII.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Another indicator of the big numbers and high interest in the Super Bowl can be found in the gambling figures. Legal Super</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bowl betting in Nevada was in the neighborhood of $50 million last year, while world-wide the estimates are that somewhere in excess
of $250 Billion, yes Billion, will be wagered both legally and illegally on Super Bowl XXVI.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">But then one should expect excess at an event that marks itself with Roman Numerals.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">There was a time when the extended two and one-half hour pre-game show covered the rich at play very well, or as well as they</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">could, as the big corporate parties would not allow the TV cameras near them. I can remember Joe Namath and Phyllis George</span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">out schmoozing their way around Miami, New Orleans, or LA, going to the parties, the extravagant tail-gate events,
and the local watering holes. For some reason the networks stopped this coverage several years ago. It's time to get back to it. </span></div>
<div style="direction: ltr;" class="elementToProof"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Afterall, most of the corporate and business spending done on Super Sunday, represents our tax dollars at work.
Most of this will be written off as business expense on the 1992 tax form. Proving once again that Welfare for the rich can be fun. Perhaps it should be called the Super Dole.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">On Sport and Society this is Dick Crepeau reminding you that you don't have to be a good sport to be a bad loser.</span></div>
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<div style="direction: ltr;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Copyright 1992 by Richard C. Crepeau</span></div>
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