A \u201csuper\u201d day…<\/p>\n
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If we compare to last year, 111.3 million of us will sit down in front of the television at some point this evening and turn on Super Bowl XLVII.\u00a0 The San Francisco 49ers \u2014 led by Coach J. Harbaugh \u2014 will face the Baltimore Ravens \u2014 led by Coach J. Harbaugh.<\/p>\n
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We will watch the obviously super brothers, and… we will eat…<\/p>\n
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In fact, we will eat a lot…<\/p>\n
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Some of us will grill.\u00a0 Regardless of snow covering half the country, Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest grilling day of the year \u2014 the first being the Fourth of July.<\/p>\n
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We\u2019ll eat chips; an estimated 11 million pounds of potato chips will be consumed.<\/p>\n
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(… uh, not a ton of health food…)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pizza will be served in plethoras.\u00a0 It is, no doubt, the busiest day of the year for pizza restaurants, with major chains supposed to sell double what they do on a regular day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Not to be out done, however, by wings and rings and even more things, as 1.23 billion chicken wings are expected to be consumed, accompanied by 49.2 million cases of beer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Second only to Thanksgiving, Americans are expected to double their food consumption to 33 million pounds of snacks.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So we should be satisfied physically, enjoying the creativity of newly aired commercials and thus money exchanging hands…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n CBS is charging advertisers an estimated $3.7 to $3.8 million dollars per 30-second spot.\u00a0 30 seconds.\u00a0 3.8 billion.\u00a0 That equates to $125,000 per second.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n (…I could do a lot with $125,000 per second…)<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n How about betting?\u00a0 Is the Super Bowl the number one gambling day of the year?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Probably.\u00a0 According to \u201cBusiness Week\u201d magazine, \u201cNo one knows for sure since the huge majority of the money changes hands under the table.\u00a0 Last year, Nevada\u2019s 184 sports books wrote $93.9 million worth of bets.\u00a0 The NCAA men\u2019s basketball tournament, aka March Madness, recently surpassed the Super Bowl\u2019s handle (the total amount wagered)<\/em> in the state with roughly $100 million in bets, but that\u2019s over 67 games.\u00a0 According to the American Gaming Association, a gambling lobby in Washington, the Super Bowl is still the biggest for illegal wagers.\u00a0 The AMA says the Nevada handle accounts for only 1.5 percent of the Super Bowl total, which would make for more than $6 billion nationwide.\u00a0 March Madness, the lobby says, citing the FBI, is a $2.5 billion betting event.\u00a0 But Pregame.com founder R.J. Bell estimated in \u2018USA Today\u2019 that March Madness topped the Super Bowl last year, $12 billion to $10 billion.\u00a0 Again, nobody really knows.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n So allow me to get this straight…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tons of money exchanges hands…<\/p>\n Money that could arguably be more wisely spent is gambled away…<\/p>\n We will eat and drink lavishly, ‘stuffingly’, unhealthily…<\/p>\n And upon completion, the winners will call it the \u2018best day of their lives’…<\/p>\n … the losers will articulate the utter agony of defeat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n All for what is best described as a \u201cgame.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A \u201csuper\u201d game, no less\u00a0\u2014 but still just a \u201cgame.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Yep, our country is sure messed up sometimes…<\/p>\n But can\u2019t wait to watch…\u00a0 love those brothers Harbaugh…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Respectfully,<\/p>\n AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A \u201csuper\u201d day… If we compare to last year, 111.3 million of us will sit down in front of the television at some point this evening and turn on Super Bowl XLVII.\u00a0 The San Francisco 49ers \u2014 led by Coach J. Harbaugh \u2014 will face the Baltimore Ravens \u2014 led by Coach J. Harbaugh. … <\/p>\n