The Super Bowl has become an American holiday for many reasons, from the perfect timing in the sports calendar to the halftime show to the sweet spot of spectacle, violence and capitalism it resides in. But I’d argue the best thing about the Super Bowl, and the reason it’s such a massive event every year, is that even people who don’t have the foggiest idea of what in the world is going on can enjoy the game. The Super Bowl can be fun for the most diehard of fans, and it can also be fun for those who only watch one game a year. The Super Bowl is whatever you want it to be. It’s the ultimate Casual Event.
Much like any of the great Casual Events (award shows, presidential debate town halls, live reality show tapings) what always stands out most are the personalities: The people who will take the opportunity of American culture’s grandest stage to imprint themselves on our collective memories for … well, until the next Super Bowl, anyway. You know the Rams are playing. You know the Bengals are playing. But here are the people you need to know, and why.
Joe Burrow: Is He the Next Tom Brady? Probably not. But Burrow is the instant star of these playoffs, the guy who went from a backup at Ohio State five years ago to leading the moribund Cincinnati Bengals to their first playoff victory (and first Super Bowl) in more than 30 years. There is no one in this game more likely to catapult themselves deep into the public consciousness than Burrow, and not just because of his sartorial choices.
In the wake of Tom Brady’s retirement, you can expect much NFL discussion in the coming years to revolve around “who is the next Brady?” in the same way all anybody talked about for 20 years in the NBA after Michael Jordan retired was “who is the next Michael?” (And in the same way we will when LeBron James retires.) Last year’s Super Bowl, which pitted the NFL’s reigning young phenom quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, against Brady himself, already trafficked heavily in this theme. Burrow, who with a win would become the first quarterback ever to win a Heisman Trophy, a college football championship and a Super Bowl, will be thrown into the same sports talk show cauldron if he pulls this off.
Matt Stafford: Will He Blow It? Stafford is kind of the opposite of Joe Burrow. He spent the first 12 years of his NFL career playing for the Detroit Lions, which is to say, he played in misery and obscurity. He made the playoffs three times, losing all three games, but after the Rams traded for him this offseason, he immediately took them to a division title and, after three playoff wins, the Super Bowl. He’s tall, sturdy and competent– exactly what the otherwise-stacked Rams were looking for. He also has an extremely bad habit of throwing inexplicable interceptions late in games—if it’s close in the fourth quarter, look out for that.