Superbowl in Beijing!

Finally – the Superbowl post!

Watching the Superbowl in China was probably one of the stranger experiences I’ve had (and it’s not just because it involved watching Peyton Manning avoid choking in a big game). A lot of people from our group spent the preceding night (did I say night? I meant to say the entire weekend!) celebrating the 21^st birthday of one of our friends (you can only imagine what that entailed) and decided to stay out all night until the Superbowl, which aired at 7am Beijing time. Unfortunately, I, on the other hand, had to pull an all-nighter with the massive amounts of homework I had acquired and somehow neglected to do until late Sunday night (anyone surprised? That’s what I thought). Needless to say, we all finally rendezvoused at a place that claims to be Beijing’s best sport’s bar, a British bar called Goose & Duck.

Here's Goose & Duck upon our arrival at around 6am:

We arrived at Goose & Duck at around 6am, thinking we might perhaps be able to see some of the pre-game show, but alas, we were subjected to what appeared to be NFL Films-type coverage of highlights of past and present glories of the Colts and Bears (though mostly Colts). It was certainly not what I had expected or wanted to see, but I was happy to at least see some good ole’ American football. I was psyched for the game itself. Thanks to the people who stayed out all night and arrived at the bar at around 3 or 4am, we had seats that were front and center to the big screen set up for the game. The bar slowly became more crowded with ex-pats (expatriates) as game time approached. That was the largest number of Americans I’ve been amongst in Beijing so far. A lot of them were wearing suits, and my hypothesis that they might be businessmen proved to be correct when, much to their chagrin, they had to leave at halftime in order to make it to their respective meetings on time. There were also some random British guys pulling for the Colts. I saw a lot of Bears fans, but my favorite was a guy wearing a Red Sox sweatshirt. I was wearing a Patriots shirt, marking myself as an obvious New Englander, and there ensued an instant bond that only two displaced citizens of Red Sox nation can understand.

Here are some of the people watching the Superbowl:

Anyway, everyone who cares about football knows what happened during the game, so I’ll spare you the play-by-play. One of the strangest things about watching the Superbowl in China was that because it was broadcast on ESPN International, we didn’t get the commercials or funky graphics that are critical parts of Superbowl coverage in the US. I didn’t mind the lack of unnecessary graphics, but I would have liked to have seen some good commercials. Maybe I’ll YouTube them when I get the time. In any case, watching the Superbowl this way made it seem much less significant. There wasn’t much hype leading up to it, and there really wasn’t anything that would distinguish this game from any other regular season game. The fact that it was raining in Miami didn’t help. During commercial breaks we saw the same three commercials about a million times. However, there was a cool feature during the ad breaks on ESPN International called “Amazing Games”. This consisted of a brief introduction to and footage of some of the world’s strangest games, which included bull running, Mongolian wrestling, and some type of stick-beating game from somewhere in South America, among other sports. My favorite was the unicycle segment, which featured in its final clip a man hurling his unicycle at a trash can after a devastating loss in a unicycle race. It was hilarious.

I’m assuming most of you saw Prince’s halftime show, which I thought was a little crazy but altogether one of the best halftime shows I’ve ever seen. The greatest part, however, was when the show’s final song, the ever-famous “Purple Rain”, ended, and one of the random sportscasters covering the game goes, “that….was….AMAZING.” This prompted a great deal of laughter from everyone in the bar.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Goose & Duck provided all of the Superbowl watchers with free breakfast! It was pretty good, although initially a little different because apparently it was a more traditional English breakfast. I was glad to use a fork and knife, which doesn’t happen very often here.

So the game went on, and we all know how it ended (sigh). I wasn’t as anti-Colts as I thought I would be, although I’m sure it’s because I was spared the sight of them manhandling the Pats in the AFC championship game (how the Pats managed to blow such a huge lead is beyond me). Also, I probably would have despised Peyton Manning more if I were subjected to what I’ve heard was relentless Peyton Manning-centered coverage leading up to the Superbowl. At any rate, though I know I would have enjoyed the game much more immensely had it featured Brady and the Pats, it was still fun to watch my favorite game after a football dry spell.

It was a little surreal to watch the game and see early morning sunlight start to stream through the windows. When we left the bar at the end of the game, the brightness was a little overwhelming. Some of the people from the program won footballs, so we proceeded to take a bunch of Heisman trophy-inspired photos outside the bar before groggily heading back to campus.

The entrance to Goose & Duck right after the Superbowl (this must have been at around 11am or noon):

The ubiquitous Heisman pose:

All in all, I had a great time. There were a few instances during the game when I became kind of nostalgic and wanted more than anything to be watching it back in the States, but then I looked around and appreciated the fact that I was in such good company. I know I wasn’t the only one in the room experiencing brief waves of wistfulness, and I took comfort in the undeclared bond that existed between all of us at the bar who were there to enjoy such an American tradition thousands of miles from home.

Part of the Superbowl group (photo courtesy of Jenny Lu):

FYI – In case you didn’t already know, this summer, the NFL is coming to China! Even better, one of the teams is none other than our amazing New England Patriots! They’ll be playing the Seattle Seahawks in Beijing in August. Too bad I won’t be here to see it live! Hmmm…maybe I can convince them they need my help…

Soon it'll be time to listen to MARYLAND play duke in THE basketball game of the season! GO TERPS!!