NFL Sunday

Joseph La Rosa

With what can be known as a cult following of some sort, NFL Sunday Football has been the most-watched program on television on Sundays, and the Super Bowl has been the most-watched annual program in history since its inception in 1967.

With thirty-two teams in the league- sixteen in the American Football Conference and sixteen in the National Football Conference- there are 22 states with football teams. In recent years, teams like the Green Bay Packers and the Pittsburgh Steelers have been dominant, teams that in years past weren’t nearly as successful. New teams becoming bigger threats to play, such as the Buffalo Bills, don’t leave room for an “easy game” for any team and draw more viewers from different states to watch.

Fans paint faces and wear crazy outfits to games, with Minnesota Vikings’ fans wearing Viking helmets to games and Giants fans wearing all-blue spandex suits showing pride for their team, but the real question is why? Why do fans feel the need to do things like this for football when they wouldn’t do this for sporting events such as baseball or basketball? Sure, people carry along their gloves to baseball games, but that’s to catch a baseball, whereas in football you can’t bring home a piece of the game. Although football may not be “America’s Pastime,” the fans are definitely the craziest, and the reason is simple: it’s hard hitting, fast, and gives you something to cheer about. You can sit at a baseball game for three hours and see no score and definitely no contact, whereas in football you see hard hits, and good trick plays.

With only sixteen games in the regular season, and only one game a week, football fans crave to watch their team for six days every week. The buildup from game to game, and big rivalries promote the passion for the game that fans have when they go to a game with painted faces and costumes. And of course, being on the big screen pushes fans to act as crazy as they do.