Super Star Wars

I remember the first time I cared about the Super Bowl. It was the year of the Orange Crush. It was the year of Red Miller. It was the year that the Denver Broncos finally made it to the last game of the season. It was also the football season that came directly in the wake of the first Star Wars movie: "A New Hope. " What better vision to take into this contest, with the scrappy underbroncs battling the Evil Dallas Empire. What shot did we really have against Darth Staubach and the rest of the Texas Stormtroopers. At that point we hadn't even found our Luke: John Elway. It was difficult to sit and watch the hopes and dreams come to such an ignominious end.
Young John Skywalker led the team to three Super Bowls in four years, redefining the margin of loss with each appearance. Sometimes the Force needs a little bit of help. A Wookie. Or a running game. Something. Between those three defeats, I began to catch the zeitgeist of the Super Bowl. The spectacle wasn't wasted on me. I began to watch games that didn't include the Denver Broncos. Imagine my surprise when, after I had moved to California, the Jedi managed to put together a win. Then they slapped another one right on the back of that one just in case anyone wasn't watching the year before. In the meantime, I watched them all. I still feel for the Buffalo Bills, who have been so close. The same goes for the Minnesota Vikings. I find myself pulling for the underdog most of the time, purely out of habit.
Lately, the games have become much more competitive. That's good news for me, who watches the game, and good news for the television networks that sell the ads that pay for Bruce Springsteen and The Who and Madonna to show up in the middle of all those very expensive commercials to connect with a demographic that doesn't really care about them. I suppose in this analogy, that would make Madonna Sy Snoodles.
I'll be the guy on the couch.