The Super Bowl Brouhaha.

It was the day after Super Bowl last year. I was at work thinking of how to go about the day’s assignment of duties to my guys. Casually, one of them asked how I felt about “yesterday’s game”. Shrugging my shoulders nonchalantly, I answered that I did not watch the game. The guy asked if my team was not among the two teams that played. This time, my response was that I had no football team. At this stage, I wished he had left me alone in my thoughts. Rather, he went on to ask if I was one of “those people” who preferred basketball to football. Now exasperated, I looked at him and stated that I had no basketball team, no baseball team, no hockey team, no “nothing”.

Was he angry? “What kind of a guy are you…with no interest in sports?”

I retorted quickly that I had interest in soccer, boxing, martial arts and Track & Field.

“You can’t compare those ones with football!” he screamed like he was about to cry.

“Alright…fine…can we now get some work done?” I said firmly.

The guy sulked all day, not hiding his disdain for me.

Fast-forward to yesterday morning. I tried everything to avoid all discussions about the Super Bowl. But toward the end of the shift, I saw a patrol car trying to pull me over. It was my football-loving guy. Looking like he had the most important thing in the world to tell me, he said: “With all due respects sir…if you can watch the Super bowl, you’ll realize what you’ve been missing all your life…”

“Ah…okay.” I nodded my head in dismay at such a fanatic devotion. As he walked back to his car though, I decided subconsciously to watch the game.