Superbowl 2012
The spectacle that is the Superbowl is done and dusted for another year. I caught portions of it and intend on watching in full later tonight.
If there is an event to be held and done to the extreme of all avenues of the term entertainment, then the Americans achieve it with the Superbowl.
The Sunday night prime time, multi-million dollar ads and the half time show define the big event. It's possibly the only ads people look forward too. If you search in google for Superbowl, it will suggest Superbowl ads. That shows you just how powerful this event has become.
The half time show is long enough to allow for a stage to be put out in the centre for a huge light, song and dance show. Meanwhile the players could just about head out for lunch they have so much time to waste.
In Australia we simply cannot match their showcase as we play our grand final during the day, robbing us of fireworks and light shows. And we also lack a lengthy half time, so generally there is just enough time for a little league game.
Next to Olympic opening ceremonies, there is no bigger show centered around a sporting event and keep in mind the Superbowl is one game and not a series of different events over several weeks.
Footballers need to take stock
AFL players are some of the luckiest employed people in the country. They are playing the game they love, getting paid for it and they have access to the best gyms, doctors and other health experts around. Yet they are in discussions for more money. More? They are already paid in excess of our prime minister and chief of police, for less important work.
They argue they are the centre of the game as entertainment and therefore should benefit more from the increased TV rights deal. You can't always play the 'centre of attention' card because that simply undermines the hard working people behind the scenes. The trainers, runners, admin staff, promoters and even the unpaid loyal volunteers. Footballers are not the only thing that keeps people coming in the gates to watch every week. Because without the background staff, those players would not be full time players, they would be inna sport like net all that requires another job to keep the bills paid.
Another classic argument is that their football career is over by 32 and if they are lucky to get that far, then they are thrust into the world without an ongoing job and no training. How about getting of your arse and training for a job after football, lime so many players have before them, Adelaide's produced a doctor who trained whilst playing elite football, that was Matthew Liptak. How can a footballer expect to get paid a comfortable amount more to help with the layoff period around 30, when so many workers like those at Bluntstone boots who lost their jobs to China, they were not paid to accommodate being let go.
So we should see these players receive more pay to take care of them in their retirement, at age 30. What a wonderful world that would be.
Mick Malthouse, Collingwood coach, summed it up when he said "don't confuse talent with intelligence". They train and play for a living in the biggest Australian sport, and that pay is huge in most cases. Even those on rookie status get $80'000 per annum, people live on less than half that. I am disgusted that they are even calling for a player pension fund, they already get superannuation as normal Australians get, but now they also want a fund they can access at retirement, which as I have mentioned is around 30. Sign me up! But wait, us ordinary, un-godlike folk can't get that. A pension fund? That's fantastic money if you can get it.
I read a football writer say that it's hard for a footballer to suddenly lose their job and need to look for new work. Is this any different to workers worldwide who lose their jobs when companies downsize or liquidate? Footballers need to remember, the game might not go on without all of them, but it could not happen without the fans as well.
Sports Stadium Toilets
Have you ever had to take a toilet break at footy match? If so you would have taken with you an interesting but disturbing experience. I cant speak for the ladies toilets but in the men's, well it's a fest pool of smells, men huddled too close and those blokes who take have the bladder sustaining power of a race horse. Those men I speak of seem to piss for so long you would assume they are taking one long toilet stop for the whole day. I swear they have pressure that on any given day could dent the urinal.
I refer to a typical 50'000 strong crowd at a Saturday game of football at the MCG. Come half time there has been at least an hour of use in those toilets so when the heavily male crowd get up to rid their bladders of their alcohol infused urine the plumbing gets overworked. The footy faithful flock to the small concrete dungeons with the words 'MEN'. Then when you enter you get a slap in the nose when you first inhale the most horrible stench of thousands of men having used this room before you. It's like no other odour, musk mixed with a hint of beer. The cubicles are for those with small genital syndrome, and they will be full. Possibly with one or two who need to take far more involved visit. Then there is the row of continuous urinals, which have a group of men shoulder to shoulder attempting to take the shortest piss possible in order to get out. Once you muscle in, you too want to get it over with. And when your done you must take care of the finale, which if you shake for too long then those around to you with potentially get the impression you are taking your visit to a new disturbing level. When your done, you zip up with the care and accuracy of a surgeon to make sure you won't require a medic to heighten the already horrible experience.
Now when you step down, you have a choice, wash or leave. If you wash you got to think, how many have washed their hands and touched that tap? Or you can leave and rid yourself of that thought. Once your out you with breathe what will feel like air that has whispered across an ancient glacier. And off you go to get back to the game.
I suggest going to the toilet during the quarter, it will mean you miss the game but also allow you to go without the need to share it with a whole bunch of strangers. It's your choice.