The Super Bowl is an American tradition. Every year, on Sunday, we gather with friends, family, and bags of chips and liters of coke to tune in to watch the endless ads, the glamorous halftime show, and the anticipatory halftime trailers. However, last night was indeed terribly anticlimactic. The Tom Brady led team defeated the Los Angeles Rams yesterday in Atlanta at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. With the score 0-0 after the first quarter, the fate of each team was unpredictable. But the anticipation was short-lived, as The New England Patriots were up 3-0 by halftime. By the third quarter, the Rams were able to catch up and the win was really up for grabs at that point. Ultimately, it was The New England Patriots who scored gold with 13-3.
During the halftime show, Maroon Five created a nostalgic wave with a performance of some of their oldest, soft rock hits including “This Love” and “Harder to Breathe” from the band's debut album, Songs About Jane. With lights shining “One Love” in the sky behind them, the band performed another of their greatest hits, “She Will Be Loved.” Later in the show, Levine was joined by Atlanta-native rappers, Travis Scott and Big Boi, breaking into their 2017 hit “Girls Like You.” However, with the absence of Cardi B, the overall performance fell flat and ended with the usual: Adam Levine tearing off his shirt to sing the band’s 2017 single “Moves Like Jagger.” Cardi B, as well as Rihanna, declined to participate in the Super Bowl, reasons being the controversy surrounding Kaepernick and the NFL.
Speaking of Kaepernick, the friendly relationship between Robert Kraft and Donald Trump left many Super Bowl fans bitter and unwilling to be involved any longer in the long withstanding American tradition. A social media campaign titled #AGoodGame was therefore launched to encourage edgy Patriot’s fans to donate to "an organization of your choosing every time your team scores.” The goal of this was to pacify the internal conflicts arising surrounding the NFL’s politics. Many of those participating in the campaign still watched the Super Bowl, but it is unclear whether or not the campaign itself had any momentous effect on the show’s overall ratings and viewership.
Several beloved, movies and tv shows including Aladdin, Stranger Things, and Star Wars, iconic to our culture as Americans, declined invitations to the Super Bowl, refusing to become wound up in the game’s controversial new streak. This left Hobbs & Shaw to be the only full-length trailer to be showing, leaving viewers underwhelmed and rather irritated, as many had already seen it, as it recently debuted online on Friday. To wrap up this segment of the event were brief showings of teasers and a couple of ordinary collaborations. Game of Thrones fans were equally disappointed when new footage from their favorite HBO was not shown. Instead, a short clip was aired during the game, supplemented by a longer clip posted online.