After a dramatic NFL playoffs, Russell Wilson and the defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks will battle Tom Brady and the always-dangerous New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX. For many fans, the game itself is only a small part of the entertainment.
To a select group of students at Salt Lake Community College, this matchup means much more than a game of football; it means bragging rights over fellow classmates who will be on the receiving end of more trash talk than Richard Sherman’s opponents. On a much broader spectrum, many students are only interested in watching the commercials or the halftime show.
Regardless of whatever reason fans choose to watch, it’s likely they will attend some sort of Super Bowl party.
Since the turn of the century, the Super Bowl has transformed into one of the (if not the) largest entertainment event the United States has to offer. Between Katy Perry’s halftime performance and America’s largest companies competing for this year’s best commercial, the student body who ends up actually watching Super Bowl XLIX will have an endless pit of conversation to keep them preoccupied until finals week.
What does a Super Bowl party mean to the students at Salt Lake Community College?
Victor Valleges, a student from the Jordan Campus, plans on “hanging out with [my friends and family], to watch the Patriots lose.” Team preference aside, watching the game with friends and/or family is a popular answer among students.
Devin Whitworth, a student at Miller Campus, gets to spend his Sunday morning serving Super Bowl fans alcohol and appetizers at the restaurant he works at.
When asked if he thinks the Super Bowl should be considered a national holiday, Whitworth jokes “it should be, because then I wouldn’t have to work and I could have [the day] off.”
Whitworth’s situation brings up an interesting question: Should the Super Bowl, and more importantly the day after the Super Bowl, be considered a national holiday?
Recently “Super Bowl Monday” has been coined as national sick day. In fact, according to a recent study by Kronos, an estimated 1.5 million Americans called in sick to work and another 4.4 million were late to their jobs.
As for the unfortunate students who scheduled an early morning class this semester, they too may fall victim to Super Bowl Monday.
Whether students splurge on their Super Bowl spread, drink all night with their friends, or suffer exhaustion from screaming at the television, students might as well enjoy attending a Super Bowl party and plan on taking the next day off.
A word of advice: Start thinking of a believable excuse to justify why you can’t attend class on Feb. 2.
