Super Bowl Sunday

So another part of the American institution that I had to experience is the phenomenon known as 'Super-Bowl Sunday' which is the final of their national 'football' championships. The best I can describe it is like the Champions League final of proper football (don't give me any of this 'soccer' malarkey!).

This year was Super Bowl XLVII (I hope you are up to speed with your Roman numerals, but for those of you who are not it was the 47th) and took place in New Orleans, Louisiana at the Mercedes-Benz Superdrome between the Balitmore Raven's and the San Francisco 49ers.

I went to watch it round my Teamie's house again as her husband is a big football fan and I was hoping between him and his friends someone would be able to explain the rules to me so that I could understand them. I should be so lucky.

From what I can work out, it is like rugby in the following ways:

• Although called football it is actually throwing
• They have a scrimmage and not a scrummage (parallel universe example right here) but I think it is kinda played in the same way
• There is a big prong shaped goal thing (technical term) that you have to kick the ball between to score points

It is not like Rugby in these ways:

• You don't actually touch the ground to score a touch down (try)
• They wear a shed load of body-armour in spangley colours
• They seem to stop every 30 seconds or so

Some Key Factoids:

• The first Super Bowl took place in 1966
• It is the second largest day for food consumption in America after Thanksgiving.
• It is the most watched American television broadcast of the year.
• It is the second most watched sports programme in the world, behind the aforementioned Champions League.

The Half-Time Show is one a major part of the super bowl which is really hyped up. There is always a big announcement on who it is going to be and how well did they perform. This year Beyonce did her thing and was joined by the other girls from Destiny's child and to me it looked great and I was entertained. For true "football" fans though she didn't really seem to cut the mustard.

There was a lot of flashing lights and sparkler cannons and the such which seemed quite funny that it appeared as though she had used up all the electricity in the meter when the power went off for around 20 minutes in the second half of the game which worked quite well for the 49ers who came back into the game and managed to lose at a more respectable margin. The end result was Ravens 34 - 31 SF49ers.

The other thing I was told people watch for is the adverts. It is the most expensive slots of the year and so all expensive new adverts are launched here. I watched most of them and I laughed at a few, but on coming into the office on Monday and having people talk about them, I didn't recognise anything that they were saying. Obviously American advertising doesn't work on me. In the UK I see and advert for pizza and I want pizza.I see an advert for Carbury's I want chocolate. British born and bred!

So on the whole, what was my take on the day. Well, I enjoyed the company and the hype of it all. I enjoyed hanging out with my friends and eating until I was fir to burst, but the game - take me back to Blighty and give me the Six Nations please!