Really Super

This is the time of year that I tend to ask my mother who she likes to win the Super Bowl. Occasionally, the answer has been an easy one. Those are the occasions on which the Denver Broncos find themselves in the running for the Lombardi Trophy. When this is not the case, she will search for some rationale or hint that will bring her to some connection that will allow her the three week run-up to the Big Game to be full of intrigue.
Otherwise, it's just another football game. Another year with the promise of spectacle that tends, for most people, to center on the commercials. Or the puppies. The expectation, however, is right there in the title: it's supposed to be Super. It should be noted that only about thirty percent of these games have been won by seven points or less. That's out of fifty-two games, so you figure it out.
What I am suggesting is that my mother and I continue to try and drum up excitement for a game that rarely lives up to the hype. By having this conversation with my mother, I am trying to invigorate my own concerns about Super Sunday. I have, over the years, hosted Super Bowl parties even when "my team" has not been a participant. This is primarily because I want to have the badge of honor that says I have participated in this cultural event. Anecdotally, I can add that back when the Denver Broncos did win Super Bowl Fifty ("L" to its friends) I had jury duty the following Monday morning, and my opportunity to flaunt the outcome of that contest was lost by sitting in a very quiet room with a bunch of folks whose football allegiance was as unknown as my own to them. The next day when I showed up to school, no one was really interested in discussing the finer points of Peyton Manning's last game, or the significance of winning the third Super Bowl in franchise history.
Everyone else had moved on. Super what?
But now we're here, and the road to Atlanta is heating up. Atlanta is where the Super Bowl is being held this year. Building excitement is the challenge for those of us living outside the four remaining cities that have a horse in this race. Okay, they're not horses, that's a metaphor. A sports metaphor which is worth mentioning because my mother also attends a yearly Kentucky Derby party at which she has picked the winner for the past seven years in a row.
Wonder why I'm asking my mom about the Super Bowl?