The Super Bowl is a nationwide competition to see which professional American football team will be the year’s National Football League champion. This year the teams competing were the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, with the Chief’s ultimately claiming victory with the score 38-35 after halftime. 

Physics Right teacher John-Curtis Croston was born in Kansas City and has been a lifelong Chief’s fan. Croston said that despite years of losses, being loyal to one team has finally paid off. Watching the Chief’s grow in strength is one of the reasons he loves football. 

“I was born in Kansas City, so I was always a Chiefs fan, and they won the Super Bowl before I was born,” Croston said. “And then literally 50 years went without them winning a Super Bowl. There’s something about liking good teams, popular teams, but it’s another thing when you really hold onto a team even when they’re not good. Then when they become good, it just feels like not a reward exactly, but it feels amazing after all the losing seasons and after everything else.”

The Super Bowl is the most watched sports event in the United States, according to ESPN. Andrew Meng, a freshman on the LASA football team, said that football is popular now because of how long it’s been around in American culture. 

“Since football is rooted so deeply in recent American history it’s not a shock that the game is important to many people that live here,” Meng said. “I only watch the games when the Chiefs play so I’ll be watching the Super Bowl this year. My favorite aspect is watching my favorite team play.”

According to Croston, fantasy football has also played a huge role in the Super Bowl’s popularity today. Fantasy football is a virtual game in which fans can create their own football teams, setting up a new lineup every week, and compete against one another for fun. 

“Football is the number one sport in America, and honestly I think it’s grown because of fantasy football,” Croston said. “It is fun because you can play your own game based on the games that happen on Sunday, and then you end up no longer just following one team, but you learn more about the other teams in the league itself. So I think that’s really helped the NFL.”

Croston said that another reason football exceeds the popularity of other sports is because of the limited number of games in each season. According to Croston, as every game gains more importance than the last, the outcomes are more exciting to witness.

“In football, there’s a limited number of games,” Croston said. “There’s 17 in the season, so every game tends to matter more. I’m a Kansas City Royals baseball fan, but every game doesn’t matter in baseball because there’s so many of the games. In fact in the [National Baseball Association] (NBA) they say that nothing matters until basically the playoffs, whereas in football because everything matters there’s more at stake in every game. I think that really does pull you in.”

The community that comes from watching the Super Bowl is also an aspect that tends to draw audiences to it, according to junior Dylan Ramirez. He said that because the Super Bowl is exclusive to the U.S. the game is especially important to American audiences. 

“I’d say the Super Bowl is popular because it’s the sport almost exclusive to this country,” Ramirez said. “The Super Bowl brings lots of people together and is sort of like a big Friendsgiving. It’s the most important game so everyone wants to see it, and to play in it you have to be the best of the best.”

Croston agreed with Ramirez, stating that the Super Bowl has a special way of bringing people closer together. According to him, the Super Bowl is one of the few times where the large majority of people have a common experience to talk about.

“I remember when there were only a few different channels on TV, and so everyone ended up watching the same sorts of shows,” Croston said, “and the next day at school and work there were a lot of common experiences that people were talking about, which I don’t feel happens anymore. But the Super Bowl is one of the few times where I feel like the greater culture watches the same thing at the same time, so you have a little bit of community the next day talking about a shared experience.”

Despite the Super Bowl’s popularity, not everyone has the time to pay attention to it, according to Croston. As an incentive, Croston decided to offer extra credit to his physics students if they decided to watch the Super Bowl, saying that the game is something he wants everyone to enjoy.

“I think LASA needs more sports appreciation,” Croston said. “It’s an experience that’s amazing, even if you’re not a huge fan. It’s something that everyone should experience.”

Griffin Beam contributed to this story