Today is National Corn Chip Day. Do you think the moguls who run the corn chip industry chose this date intentionally to get you thinking about what you are going to use to dip into the guacamole that will be on the menu for Sunday’s Super Bowl celebration? I do…
Last week, USA Today had this headline:
“RIP to the Super Bowl halftime show, no longer a cultural institution”
Since I have never watched a halftime show from start to finish, I never thought of it as a “cultural institution”; but I was interested to read what had caused its demise. Evidently, lots of top-shelf performers have turned down the gig this year even though they would be playing to an audience of almost 100 million people. The reason for the difficulty in securing someone to take the gig is that angry fans have offered up petitions and social media jihads against it because the NFL has not behaved itself properly in the fans’ minds regarding social justice. Once again, the Colin Kaepernick protest – and subsequent “blackballing” – is at the heart of much of this protest.
This year’s performance will feature Maroon 5 as the headliner. In the event that Maroon 5 were to pull out of the performance at the last minute and be replaced by Chartreuse 7.5, I would not know the difference. Evidently, someone named Travis Scott will join the performance and one of the things he put in his deal with the NFL for this show is that the NFL donated $500K to an organization that works on social justice issues.
About 5 years ago, I suggested it would make the Super Bowl halftime show much more interesting to me AND it would mitigate much of the protest that is evidently ongoing regarding the performers here. Let me make the suggestion again:
- Instead of rock stars, they should clear the field at halftime and present a “Battle of the Bands” featuring 3 marching bands from HBCUs such as Grambling, Southern, Florida A&M, Alcorn…
- Pay each of the schools $500K for the band and another $500K for the school’s general fund.
- Make the show a “competition” with a bunch of judges who pick a winner. The winning band gets to designate a charity of its choice to receive another $500K donation from the NFL in the name of that band.
Total cost to the NFL would be $3.5M – – which is less than an advertiser will pay for a 30-second ad during the game. In general, HBCUs are not institutions with humongous endowment funds so the contribution to the school would be very useful. The band would get to perform on the biggest stage it will ever see, and each band can use the process of choosing its favored charity as a way to debate issues and reach a consensus.
I do not know if USA Today is correct in pronouncing the passing of the Super Bowl halftime show as a cultural institution. What I do know is that I would be much more interested in watching a “Battle of the Bands” this Sunday than I will be to watch Maroon 5 – or even Macaroon 5.
The current NFL season is not quite over, but the NFL has already made some announcements about the schedule for the 2019 season. The “overseas games” have been announced.
- The NFL will return to Mexico City – despite having to pull out of that game at the last minute this year due to unplayable conditions on the field. Next year, it will be a Chiefs at the Chargers encounter in Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. [Aside: It makes plenty of sense to have this be a Chargers’ home game since they play in a band-box and attendance in Mexico City will probably be more than double what they might draw in Carson, CA.]
- There will be 4 London Games. Two of these games will be in Wembley Stadium and the other two will be in the new stadium under construction to house the Tottenham Hotspurs of the English Premier League.
- The four matchups will be Panthers at Bucs, Bears at Raiders, Bengals at Rams and Texans at Jags. What has not yet been announced is which games will be played in which stadium in London and in what order.
Back in the high school football season, there was a game between two teams in Iowa with a total score of 180 points. Council Bluffs Jefferson beat Sioux City North by a score of 99-81. When I commented on that game, I wondered if the basketball games between the two schools would produce that many points. Well the teams met twice this year and here are the results:
- Jan 8, 2019: Sioux City North 89 Council Bluffs Jefferson 74. Total score: 163 points.
- Jan 19, 2019: Sioux City North 71 Council Bluffs Jefferson 53. Total score 124 points.
Finally, here is a real estate opportunity I ran across in Dwight Perry’s column in the Seattle Times a couple of weeks ago:
“Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson has put his Paradise Valley, Ariz., mansion on the auction block. No, not all the doors are sliders, but it does include:
- 25,000-square-foot main home
- 2,000-square-foot guest house
- 11½ bathrooms
- 7 bedrooms
- 5 acres of land
“In other words, a Big Unit.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………