Super Bowl goes on despite coronavirus pandemic

The Super Bowl is the United States' most celebrated annual television event. In any normal year, the 55th edition of the National Football League's (NFL) championship game would be all about the head-to-head matchup of the two quarterbacks: Tampa Bay Buccaneers' legendary Tom Brady and the Kansas City Chiefs' superstar Patrick Mahomes.

But this year's Super Bowl will be much different from any previous edition. No parties, no festivities, and almost no fans. The Bucs and the Chiefs are to take the field against the backdrop of a raging pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 430,000 Americans and caused economic hardship amidst a tense social and political climate.

The Super Bowl is going ahead after a season in which the pandemic has repeatedly forced games to be postponed and rescheduled. Teams faced an offseason that did not allow for players and coaches to meet in person or compete in preseason games. Coaches have had to slap together offensive and defensive schemes on the fly and players have had to hold unusual socially distanced workouts.

Trying to keep tabs on players and coaches and their outside activities in an effort to prevent the virus from spreading has been essentially impossible. From the first week of the season, franchises were dealing with the reality that they, like the general public, were vulnerable to the coronavirus. Every team from the New England Patriots to the Baltimore Ravens saw their best players miss time due to outbreaks within their camps.

A different kind of Super Bowl week

Now though, after nearly a year of essentially being cooped up at home, many people in the US will look to this year's Super Bowl as a special opportunity for escape. Even during non-pandemic times, the annual event brings together the most ardent football fans with causal viewers looking for entertainment in the halftime shows and over-the-top TV commercials.

"The Super Bowl represents the culmination of the NFL as the country's top television product," J.A. Adande, director of the sports journalism program at Northwestern University, told DW in a written statement. "Pro Football features pageantry and sanitized violence. It's as American as it gets."

This year the host city, Tampa, Florida, will have to forego the typical excitement and fanfare that the event usually brings. Under normal circumstances, during the week leading up to the game, the city would be filled with football fans and media, giving it a boost in its national profile and a boon to the local economy. Most years, the two teams would usually arrive in the host city an entire week in advance, but this year, neither is to arrive in Tampa until a day prior to the game.

"Tourism and hospitality for these games result in tens of millions of dollars in economic impact," Mark Hyman, director of the University of Maryland Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism, told DW. "Usually it's 10 days of partying, but it is going to be sobering this year."

Raymond James Stadium, the site of this year's Super Bowl, has a capacity of 65,000 seats. However, due to COVID-19 restrictions, organizers will allow only 22,000 people to attend. Among these will be 7,500 vaccinated frontline medical workers who have been given free tickets by the NFL in recognition of their service. Fans will be spaced out and required to wear masks. This will be the first time since the Super Bowl's inception in 1967 that the game has not been played before a sold-out crowd.

Business before heath concerns?

Still, the NFL cannot escape its history of putting its economic well-being before tackling social and political issues or even the players' health. Critics have questioned the league's safety practices as it pushed to continue play during the pandemic and as several players tested positive with the coronavirus.

"They (the NFL) took pride in getting through the season without any canceled games, even if meant they had to play a game on a Wednesday or a team had to play without any true quarterbacks," said Adande. "The NFL has never prioritized the well-being of its athletes over the business aspects."

But the game will go on, pandemic or not. Along with the usual halftime show, the league has invited young literary star Amanda Gorman to recite a poem meant to address the pandemic. The 22-year-old Gorman wowed the country when she recited a poem at the January 20 inauguration of President Joe Biden. 

Scaled-back TV advertising event

For decades, Super Bowl advertising has been a major part of the event and a big source of revenue for the league. Companies will spend around $5 million (€4.2 million) for a 30-second television ad to appear during commercial breaks.

"Super Bowl Sunday is as important to advertising as the Oscars are for the film industry," Robert Kolt, professor of advertising and communications at Michigan State University and president and CEO of Kolt Communications, told DW. "Everybody does the best and most creative work, and nearly half of the audience will tune in just to watch the ads."

However, major advertisers Budweiser, Coca Cola, and Pepsi have elected to not to buy television time during this year's Super Bowl, sensing that the country's climate does not call for a celebration. Instead, companies like Budweiser will be funneling marketing money towards vaccine awareness and to the Ad Council's COVID-19 vaccine awareness and education campaign.

Kolt said that while viewers will still be looking for an escape that will take them away from the realities of the world for a couple of hours, the league still needs to find an approach that fits with the needs of the moment.

"They have to come in with a unique creative strategy, they need to make people joyful and laugh," Kolt said.

It also wouldn't hurt if the Bucs and the Chiefs manage to produce a Super Bowl contest that will also be remembered for what actually happens on the field.