America’s most anticipated sports game of the year has come and gone. Every year, since 1967, the two best teams in the National Football League (NFL) play the last game of the league’s post-season. This year’s match-up will include the reigning champions, The Kansas City Chiefs, versus the San Francisco 49ers. This year, like every other, Athens Drive students will be tuning in to watch, alongside the 110 million others who watch every year. Although this year some watch not to see who wins, but instead, who loses.

“I refuse to cheer for either team. I hate the Kansas City Chiefs, and I don’t particularly like the 49ers. I don’t like how they [the Kansas City Chiefs] hold themselves, and how they interact with other teams, there’s been certain instances where they’ve done some quite rude things to others, not very nice,” said Rebecca Roorda, sophomore and flag football player.

Roorda, along with many others who will be watching the Super Bowl this year, doesn’t want either team to win. Due to the Chiefs, coached by Andy Reid, coming back for the second Super Bowl in a row after beating the 4.5-point favored Baltimore Ravens 17-10 in the AFC Championship. As well as the 49ers, coached by Kyle Shanahan, beating the Detroit Lions, who had yet to win a Super Bowl in their entire franchise, 34-31. While there seems to be a consensus of watching simply to see who loses, the Super Bowl is still the most-viewed sporting event in the United States. 

“I encourage them to watch a lot of sports, and I think that you learn a bunch of different skills. you learn the game more watching people play at the highest level. I think you learn different skills that translate to different sports, and just that competitive nature of the game. No matter what sport you play, you can watch that and see just how hard and intensely that these people are playing at,” said Tommy Smith, Athens football coach.

The Super Bowl is continuously the most watched televised event of the year, the average ticket to the game is around $10,000, and tickets are not the most expensive spend. For companies to get a 30-second ad during the game, it will run them up $7 million. This year’s game, Super Bowl LVIII, is the most expensive Super Bowl on record; the previously most expensive Super Bowl was Super Bowl LIV in 2020. Which happened to be between the same two teams, San Francisco and Kansas City, was the previous record.

“ It is one of the most highly commercialized sporting events in the whole country and bonds a lot of people…I think it’s important to publicize to younger athletes what they can be and what they can achieve,” said Andrew Moore, sophomore varsity football player.

Due to high viewership, the Super Bowl can have a large influence on younger athletes, especially those who are aiming to play professionally. Watching films of themselves playing is a widespread practice that many sports teams do to improve their gameplay and knowledge, the Athens Drive football team being one of those teams to partake in the practice. But watching any form of film can have the same effect: Watching the Super Bowl, or any high-level sports, can teach athletes to perform at their best and push themselves. 

“I wished that all athletes watched it because I think you can gain a lot of information from it, not just by playing, but [by] competitive nature, how the team works, beating adversity, because there’s always some kind of adversity that happens in the game. Being affected [by] the momentum of the game and what sport you play,” said Smith.