Editorial: The ‘Super Bowl of’ Super Bowls

Nip slip.

The rhyming couplet with seemingly no relevance has worn a specific connotation for years. There is only one famous nip slip. One that is so prominent that it would be weird for anyone over the age of 20 not to know about it.

You might even go so far as to call it the Super Bowl of nip slips.

Of course, it occurred when Justin Timberlake accidentally exposed Janet Jackson’s naked breast on stage in 2004 during the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show. The incident was later labeled as a wardrobe malfunction, but the damage had already been done.

And that became the talk of the town. When Americans strolled into work on Monday, they gathered around water coolers to talk about the slip, not the score. It was such a viral moment that YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim cited it as an inspiration for the creation of his website.

It had nothing to do with football.

In fact, much of America’s obsession with the Super Bowl has nothing to do with tossing around a pigskin.

When NBC’s telecast of Super Bowl XLIX was seen by 114.4 million Americans, breaking the U.S. record for most views of a single television broadcast that still holds today, more people tuned in for the halftime show than the game. Katy Perry’s extravagant performance attracted 118.5 million viewers.

What this tells us is the magnitude of the Super Bowl derives from the fact that it’s a centerpiece of pop culture. As much as football fans across the nation look forward to the first Sunday in February to see a winner crowned and the Vince Lombardi trophy hoisted, there is so much more surrounding the event that contributes to its spectacle.

Some people watch for the commercials, which cost over $5 million for just a 30-second slot. Some people watch for the Super Bowl parties. Some people watch for the food that comes along with it.

But at the end of the day, everyone who watches the Super Bowl watches to be entertained.

Entertainment has become the cornerstone of our capitalist society. It is reflected in the amount of money that goes into our various entertainment industries, with sports being a prime example.

Whether athletes are overpaid is up for debate, but it is undisputed that they are contributing to a billion dollar industry. Tom Brady alone earned upward of $28 million this year from the New England Patriots, but he has created fandom like no other in the Northeast and around the country.

As a whole, Forbes estimates that last year’s Super Bowl generated $620 million in revenue. That is a lot of money for what is essentially a day to relax, sit by the TV and stuff your face with snacks. There is not much tangible output involved either, as consumers pay for the experience.

With so much money being thrown around, it begs the question: What else could that $620 million be doing if it was not being consumed by the Super Bowl?

For example, in 2012 it was estimated by the acting assistant of housing secretary for community planning and development that homelessness could be eradicated at a cost of $20 billion. This can be rewritten as approximately 33 Super Bowls.

In 2013, Medicare paid $6 billion in ambulance fees for the elderly to make it to the emergency room. This can be rewritten as approximately 10 Super Bowls.

Finally, Facing Hunger laid out its calculations in 2015 to estimate that six meals can be provided for every dollar donated. Another way of writing this is that over 3.7 billion meals can be provided at the cost of about one Super Bowl.

Money can’t be funneled in ways such that skipping the Super Bowl would magically fix our nation’s problems. That is unrealistic.

But Americans can learn something from the way the invisible hand, an economic phenomenon coined by Adam Smith that encourages consumers to act in their own interest, governs our economy. It teaches us what our priorities are as a collective nation. We don’t turn the Super Bowl into a humongous day because it’s important to us. We do it because it is entertaining to us.

And to be entertained, is a luxury.