Perhaps I shouldn’t even attempt to write a Super Bowl LIX column, because I saw only snippets of it. With the exception of Major League baseball—and then only when the Braves are playing—I have little interest in professional sports. I already spend enough time watching college football. And basketball. And baseball.
I didn’t host a Super Bowl party on February 9. I wasn’t invited to a Super Bowl party. But I did have the TV on (muted) while I did other things, because I hate to be left out of the conversation entirely. I didn’t give a care which team won. Though a Kansas City three-peat would have been newsworthy (no team has ever won three Super Bowls in a row), I kind of wanted the Eagles to avenge their 2023 loss to the Chiefs. I like Patrick Mahomes and I like Jalen Hurts, because they’re both not only good quarterbacks but also good guys.
I didn’t see a single Super Bowl commercial, though over the past several days I’ve watched Harrison Ford’s Jeep ad more than once on YouTube. It’s a good one and not just because I’ll always be a little bit in love with Harrison Ford. I like what he says about humility in the commercial: “Pride is a terrible driver.” He also says, “You don’t have to be friends with someone to wave at them.” And the last line—“This Jeep makes me happy, even though my name is Ford”—is icing on the cake.
Whether by good fortune or by design, I caught not a single glance of the President of the United States at the game. Hooray for that.
But I can’t help but believe his presence was at least partially the reason that, for the first time in four years, the words END RACISM weren’t written in the end zone. But karma got the last laugh because Kendrick Lamar was the star of the halftime show. Like the Jeep commercial, I watched it after the fact on YouTube. Though rap/hip-hop is not my favorite genre of music—in all honesty I haven’t really enjoyed a Super Bowl halftime show since 1994’s “Rockin’ Country Sunday” featuring Clint Black, Tanya Tucker and The Judds—I’m glad Kendrick Lamar was there this year. And what fun to see Serena Williams up on the stage.
All of which leads to what I intended to write about in the first place, which is some of the common football terms many of us use in every day conversation. The list is from Reader’s Digest and was shared with me by my friend Susan Ray.
The first term is KICKOFF. Because the advice to “omit needless words” is my writing mantra, I love that we can ask “When’s kickoff?” rather than “At what time does the football game begin?” Of course, we also kick off a new year, a party, a conference and on and on and on.
Then there’s BLINDSIDED, tighter and more descriptive than saying “caught off guard.” Just read the news from the past several weeks for dozens of real-life examples. True, also, for the term MOVING THE GOALPOSTS.
Way back when, my Protestant mother’s Protestant brother married a Catholic and gave me three Catholic first cousins. I was enchanted with their Hail Mary prayer, which—obviously—was around for centuries before the Cowboys’ Roger Staubach threw a long-shot, game-winning touchdown pass in the 1975 NFC divisional playoff game and gave HAIL MARY a whole new meaning.
Last but not least is my favorite football term of all: PUNT. It goes so much deeper than dropping the ball and kicking it before it hits the ground when a team has been unable to make a first down or a touchdown. To me, punt means conceding defeat in the short term while counting on a victory in the long run.
Which is exactly how I’m trying to live my life right now.
(February 22, 2025)