It's that time of year again! Americans will hold their annual football championship today — 4.5 hours from when this story goes live — Sunday, February 7th, 2021 starting at 6:30 PM EST (2230 UTC).
In years past, people would gather together for tailgate parties of every description and to watch the game. Social distancing in response to COVID-19 has certainly put a crimp on things this year. Fear not! We are again(!) offering a place to (virtually) gather with friends to comment on the game and commercials!
You are hereby invited to meet up with us on IRC in channel "#SuperBowl-LV"
See below for some details on the game.
Buccaneers vs. Chiefs 2021 Super Bowl: Date, time, TV channel, and more:
How to watch Super Bowl LIV:
Date: Feb. 7, 2021
Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Where: Raymond James Stadium, Tampa
TV: CBS | Stream: FREE on CBSSports.com and the CBS Sports App
The story continues with which performers will sing The National Anthem and America the Beautiful, and who will perform at the halftime show, and a host of other pieces of information.
(NB 1: "Super Bowl" is a registered trademark of the National Football League; no affiliation is expressed or implied.)
(NB 2: For some reason, what the rest of the world calls "football" is what Americans call "soccer". This super bowl "football" game is decidedly NOT "soccer".)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:05PM
The local popular grocery store (USA) is usually too crowded for us, even with everyone wearing masks. But during these big games the stores empty out and it's a great time to go shopping. We'll have an early dinner and hit the store at about 6:30--same time the game starts here in EST.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:12PM (1 child)
I don't need to watch a bunch of gazillionaires pretend to be oppressed.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:08PM
Yup, Kitten Bowl VIII FTW.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:19PM
Can't wait to see Kansas City, from Kansas, play today!!!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:22PM (1 child)
Trademarked, which is why you see "The Big Game"
fsck professional sportsball, in all its forms
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @01:58AM
Doe's your slash code convert superbowl to BIG GAME.
Please don't hunt the BIG GAME!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:24PM (3 children)
Who's with me?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:37PM
Is this a declaration of rape or consensual sex?
(Score: 0) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:16PM
Brady Plays for the Tampa Bay Bucs, which is ironic considering that he's the Whitest quarterback in the league playing on a team full of Bucks, headquartered in a city full of Bucks, and playing against a half-Buck quarterback.
I got no dog in this fight, but personally I'm sick of hearing about Brady and would have liked to see another team (other than the Patriots) go up against the Chiefs.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @08:34PM
Time for Brady, Gronk, and the rest of the Bucs to beat the Chefs!!!!!
I have no problem with Brady. I do, however, despise the Chefs. My issue is mostly with their owner, Clark Hunt, whose votes probably helped the Rams relovate from St. Louis. This St. Louis fan will never again root for the Chefs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:41PM
Just like before.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:46PM (3 children)
Even TFS is inconsistent, using both numbers.
The official signage clearly reads LIV, with a ball dotting the I, but people are also referring to it as LV.
Not that I have any skin in the game, not being a sportsball fan, but the inconsistency bothers me, so it's got me curious.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @06:47PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LV [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:32PM (1 child)
I seriously can't even remember how to write 1, 1000, 51, 6 and 500 in Roman numerals.
I M LIVID!
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Sunday February 07 2021, @10:57PM
There is no 'I' in "Super Bowl LV"
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:07PM (7 children)
Football, basketball, baseball, it's all a just a bunch of guys playing with their balls. I don't want to see that. :P
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:37PM (2 children)
Yeah, what he said. ^ When my own sons were playing in local teams, in local sports, I still cared about sports a little bit. Their little triumphs meant something, and Dad was around to teach them to cope with defeat. All that shit meant something. Haven't cared two shits about professional sports since I was a boy, and everyone seemed to care.
By most accounts I've read, fewer people give a shit about the pros each year for the past few years. If the teams and the leagues all die off in the next decade, maybe life will be better? Spend more time with your own families doing something meaningful, instead of watching adults playing kid's games for big bucks.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @12:36AM (1 child)
Your opinion is soooo interesting, Runaway1956! Could you tell us more about how you feel about sports?
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @01:12AM
We all find it interesting that certain AC's spend their online time stalking some balding old fucker who could have been AC's daddy, if that dog hadn't beaten him over the fence.
(Score: 1, Redundant) by Frosty Piss on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:45PM (1 child)
I’m totally into watching guys play with their balls.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday February 07 2021, @08:03PM
Assuming you can find them first [youtu.be].
(Score: 2) by Tork on Monday February 08 2021, @01:44AM (1 child)
I have no use for the game, even in arcade form, but I wouldn't dream of taking that joy away from my friends that love it.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @05:28AM
I seem to remember football games being pretty fun in the 90s if you were stoned out of your gourd.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Troll) by VLM on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:09PM (19 children)
This might be the first year the average age of bowl viewers exceeds 51. There "seems to be no question" it'll exceed 50, the question is will they bust 51?
'19 average viewer age was 47.7
last year average age was 49.1
As for speculation, its going up more than a year per year as the political pandering repels younger people who skew further right wing than old men. Dying orgs always go leftward across all spans of human activity.
A lot of speculation online that this year they'll stage a big false flag attack. "They deserved it for going out during a pandemic" We'll see soon enough.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:27PM (12 children)
I boycotted all sports this year due to woke bullshit, but it was also a throwaway season thanks to the COVID hoax.
But this season also saw a lot of wimpy unsportsmanlike conduct of players/teams. Like James Hardin crying about not wanting to play for the Rockets, or that NFL team who took their star quarterback out of the game so they could deliberately lose the game (to gain a better draft spot for next season), or any sports team who had to take athletes out of the game for COVID reasons at all, coaches getting fined without masks. No wonder why Philip Rivers, Drew Brees, and Aaron Rodgers are gonna retire -- I'd cash out now too, if it meant avoiding woke and COVID hoax bullshit.
This is why you literally have Nickelodeon showing NFL games now. They're that desperate for consumers now that they have shot themselves in both feet because Orange Man Bad. And they're gonna go out of business in a few years unless they ditch the woke bullshit and COVID hoax stuff.
(Score: 3, Funny) by istartedi on Sunday February 07 2021, @08:29PM
I boycotted all sports this year due to woke bullshit, but it was also a throwaway season thanks to the COVID hoax.
It takes more than ethanol to fuel this. What else you into?
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @08:59PM (5 children)
LOL! Epic fail by EF! Time to turn in your man card.
Players have demanded trades when they're unhappy for a long time. Tanking has been very common in the NBA for many years, despite the draft lottery, because it's a viable strategy for building a winning team quickly. You act like demanding trades and tanking are something new this year. They most certainly are not.
Yes, COVID has made for some awkward situations, such as when all of the Broncos QBs were out for a game because of COVID exposure. But such protocols are necessary in order to keep playing during this pandemic. It's been handled far better than in college sports. As for the coaches getting fined for not wearing masks, so what? I fail to see the problem here.
Brees and Rivers were probably influenced heavily by injuries when they decided to retire, not because of anything woke or related to COVID. Rodgers will likely be back with the Packers next season. Even if he left the Packers, it seems far more likely he'd go somewhere else that might give him a better chance of winning a Super Bowl.
As for sports being woke, all of the "protests" have taken place before games. Last I checked, they don't interrupt the game to play the national anthem. It happens before the game. There's a simple solution. Turn on the game after the national anthem is over but before kickoff. You'll spare yourself a usually awful rendition of the national anthem but still get to watch football.
Seriously, if you're not watching football because it's too woke, then you've forfeited your man card.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:32PM (3 children)
Bend the knee, soyboy.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:39PM
APK, is that you?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:48PM (1 child)
Weird how angry people get when someone protests police brutality. Fascist cunts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @03:02AM
" protests police brutality. " is not disrespecting your country and countrymen. Or burning down anything. Attacking the police is a sure way to make things worse too. Grow up and read more truth news and turn off the propaganda TV.
Signed
Fellow American
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:42PM
I'll summarize EF's post, because I feel the same:
Sports have become a stage for a bunch of cunts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @01:51AM (4 children)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @05:31AM (3 children)
See, there's the problem. There are no victims. You've been lied to. Not accidentally but with good intentions. You've been straight up fed known bullshit to rile you up for your vote because you can't be "the party fighting oppression" if there isn't any left to speak of.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @05:44AM (2 children)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @06:46PM (1 child)
Hundreds of miles off base with that strawman. Care to try again with something not laughable?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @10:57PM
You're the one that brought up party lies, there's no call for you to be evasive about it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @10:56PM (5 children)
Other than the handful who roam around with assault weapons looking to kill protesters, are there any of these that you mention?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @05:35AM (4 children)
A whole lot. The post-millennial generation isn't even remotely on board with woke bullshit. Even after having it shoved down their throat and having their grades depend on parroting it, they're still not buying what you're selling.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @07:38AM
I work at a university. I'm not "out" about my political beliefs to the students, but many of them have uttered what the modern left would consider crimethink in the past year. They wouldn't put this on the university Facebook group, but it comes out in smaller group social meetings on Zoom.
One friend, graduated into unemployment from what was planned to be supplemental foreign study in preparation for a foreign service career, doesn't hold much favor for the Left. Last I heard, he went to Washington in January to show support for President Trump.
Yeah, the children of the elite may have big mouths and, together with the spineless administration pandering to them, able to shout down public conservative speech. But there are many children of normal working class parents, some of them already scarred by the 2008 recession. They're not going to have their heads filled with social justice fantasies and the like, they know they'll have to secure a job after graduation that gives them a chance to stay afloat.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday February 08 2021, @01:20PM (2 children)
Its like leftists have never considered the concept of teenage rebellion.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @06:48PM
Which is really damned funny since pretty much every position they take is based entirely on hating everything daddy stands for.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday February 09 2021, @07:58AM
"I'm relevant," screamed the bigot. Remind me which political group just threw a violent temper tantrum brutally murdering a police officer, gouging out the eye of another, and leaving over a hundred injured? Oh right, it was you guys.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Arik on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:13PM (9 children)
The reason for the confusion, in this as in so many similar cases, is that words have both broad and narrow readings.
Football, broadly, is a family of games descended from the ancient games of football. They tended to be a bit irregular by modern standards; they might involve any number of men on each side, they might require that the ball be touched by foot, or not, they might be won by moving the ball over a specific goal line, or simply by having possession of the ball at the end of the day. About all they really had in common was a battle over a ball, and kicking it would play a role. These games tended to be played once a year, or even less often, and injuries were common, death not unheard of.
At any rate, the modern codified game sought to preserve the fun of these old games, with a bit less ultraviolence so they could be played on a regular basis by schoolboys without overwhelming the school infirmaries. And when the codification efforts got going, there developed two quite distinct forms of the game - rugby football and association football. Association somehow produces soccer in UK slang, you can see they have 'soc' in common, and Association football is standardized, widely popular, and has also come to be known as International football.
However Rugby went on to split into many variant games; Rugby Union, Rugby League, American/Canadian football, Australian rules football, and Gridiron football are different forms of Rugby football.
So football in the broad sense means any or all of them, so yeah, it's all football. But football in the narrow sense inevitably means the specific game that is most common in the speakers environment. That's where it gets tricky. In the US, that'll be Canadian/American football; but in most of the world, it'll be Association football instead. So no, that's not football!
"Keep your pants on" has wildly varying meanings in different countries too.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:28PM (2 children)
If you say you need a fag you'll get some interesting looks.
Cookie vs biscuit is a good laugh too. "Eat my cookie" means something entirely different on each side of the ocean. God only knows what UK people think of USA girl scouts selling their cookies. "Well, god save the queen at least they're not on onlyfans yet"
(Score: 2, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:48PM
Mehh - most of the world has Girl Guides, rather than Girl Scouts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Guides [wikipedia.org]
They have a messy history due to stupid sexist attitudes. Having worked with Boys Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Brownies, I think Boy Scouts have traditionally had the better deal. Unfortunately, recent events and trends have undermined both organizations.
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:49PM
Yup, definitely different in the UK [youtu.be].
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Sunday February 07 2021, @10:40PM (2 children)
A game in which the ball rarely touches a player's foot should not be called "Football". At least Rugby has the decency to avoid the F word in its name.
Not that I'm expecting the US'ians to do anything about it. After all, they still call their local Baseball competition the "World Series".
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday February 07 2021, @11:38PM (1 child)
I can see the point. On the other hand, the ball /is/ still kicked regularly; both to punt and for field goals.
"At least Rugby has the decency to avoid the F word in its name."
Except it doesn't, it's still Rugby football, after the form of football played specifically at Rugby School; as opposed to what they were playing at e.g. Eton.
"After all, they still call their local Baseball competition the "World Series"."
It made sense when Baseball was only played in the US and Canada. Now, I agree, it's an embarrassment. They should open up to more international teams, surely Japan could contribute at least one, and baseball is very popular throughout the Americas.
Unfortunately then it suddenly gets political, because politics ruins everything. If you open up for teams from the rest of the Americas, oh noes, the Cubans would certainly field a team. Can't have that. Or Venezuelans, or Bolivians, the horrors.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 08 2021, @04:36AM
Japan, too. I suspect a good dose of the Stockholm syndrome (grin)
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @11:26PM
We call it REFBALL.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @05:59PM (1 child)
Great explanation.
I also love the irony that, while all the games have strayed from the original "Football," American football is closer to the original game than International football.
It's kind of like how the most authentic traditional English accent (for spoken English) is some random isolated island in the US which has relatively little contact with the wider world... all accents have changed in the past 200 years, but theirs has changed less than actual England.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday February 09 2021, @12:47AM
Ok, but is it, really?
What's the "original game?" As far back as I can pierce in history, there were already a bunch of them. It's hard to say what was the "original game" exactly. It's very tempting to pick one of the handful for which good documentation can be found and call it "the original game." The Atherstone game comes to mind. But it's still very late and very evolved.
"It's kind of like how the most authentic traditional English accent (for spoken English) is some random isolated island in the US which has relatively little contact with the wider world... all accents have changed in the past 200 years, but theirs has changed less than actual England."
That's not entirely wrong, but not quite right either. There are some very conservative dialects in the US, or at least there were up through the 80s. But the same is true of the UK. None of these conservative dialects was more "authentic" than the rest; they're all quite completely authentic.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:16PM (10 children)
Pick a player/team to hate more than the other one.
Watch the game to see them lose.
That's the key to enjoyment: you watch to see the assholes lose.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:22PM
Nah, the key to enjoying football is watching Joe Montana throw passes that make it look like Neo doing it with mad Matrix hacking skillz. But he retired from the Chiefs a long time ago, so it's just not worth bothering.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday February 07 2021, @07:32PM (6 children)
Towards the end of my football interests it was fun to put some money on the games.
Not like mafia bookies but like $1 bets with family members just for fun. At work a coworker and I would bet and loser had to pay to bring donuts to work.
Eventually football got pretty boring. No way to get around it, the media coverage is all aimed at old guys who are about half thru a case of beer, and that schtick gets boring.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:08PM (5 children)
Let me make it clear.
The key to enjoying watching sports is pure naked irrational hatred.
Some are born with it, others managed to nurture it. Either way that's the key.
What's key again? Pure naked irrational hatred.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:41PM (4 children)
I think you've confused sports with politics.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 07 2021, @11:15PM
Nah, sports are my limit. Politics are too nasty and violent.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Monday February 08 2021, @01:41AM (2 children)
I think most of the US has confused sports with politics, on that note...
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday February 08 2021, @04:49AM
Or confused politics with a sport.
Or maybe both the politics and the sport confused most of the US.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday February 08 2021, @11:00AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Sunday February 07 2021, @09:51PM (1 child)
Well, if you're watching the kitten bowl (or maybe a cat one), pretty much all you'll see is assholes. I bet they probably have to do a lot of editing on that one.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday February 08 2021, @05:37AM
Nah, cat assholes are just ignored and aired as-is except in US cartoons for some reason. Japanese cartoon cats have assholes though.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Rich on Sunday February 07 2021, @10:18PM (1 child)
Eintracht Frankfurt won 3:1 at Hoffenheim today and is CL-ranking fourth now. Kostic and Silva played a superb match. That is important.
And now everyone: Schwarz-weiss wie Schnee, das ist die S G E ! ...
In other news, West Ham United drew without goals at Fulham and slipped out of the international ranks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @07:43AM
Sportsball gets exemptions from Merkel's grand prison.
Panem et circenses...
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @12:15AM
Fuck it and suck it.
I am special because I use this type of font, therefore you will read more of me, hee heeeeeeee!
nigger me once, shame on me. nigger me twice, shame on you!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 08 2021, @06:41PM
What was it that you were saying in IRC about the winner?