Super Bowl Recap & Caption Contest Finalists
And the winner is...
It was fun drawing the Super Bowl, again, after so many years. Ultimately, The New Yorker, my client for the assignment, decided not to run the drawings. Today, others expressed interest in the piece and now it will appear in The American Bystander, and here, below. Without knowing this, I had already promoted this beloved publication in this issue.
But first, a little business to get out of the way…
Caption Contest Results, So Far
Here are the finalists of The Hot Sheet caption contest (chosen by their staff). To vote, just click on your favorite caption:
The winner will be announced in the February 12 issue of The Hot Sheet and will receive a signed copy of my book, Footnotes from the Most Fascinating Museums.
So now onto the Super Bowl drawings. I never take this job lightly and it means a hectic 24 hours of work. I try to add an extra layer as to what is going on and I prepare by spending the days leading up to the event, researching and even practicing drawing likenesses of principle people I know I going to ultimately draw. So, I have listened to the halftime acts and drew them a few times before the game so I could capture their likenesses quickly. I watched drone tours of the stadium, listened to podcasts on the game and heard every angle on ESPN. 99% of all of this will not be used but I am so confident that nobody is better prepared than me to do this gig, that by game-time, I am ready to go and have zero performance anxiety.
The only anxiety is transporting across the city from Queens to the Upper East Side and back to the northern tip of Manhattan, spending three hours on the subway on an already very busy day. But there are no shortcuts. If I was going to report on the Super Bowl than I had to go to the official NYC headquarters of the two teams; first for the Kansas City Chiefs (John Brown BBQ) and then Merrion Square Pub, New York’s second home for Eagle fans. At both places, everyone was so welcoming and so much fun to meet—I listened to their personal stories, learning how they became fans—and it was great to see all the fan’s excitement.
My personal impressions of the game from my vantage point? The Super Bowl is not ever set up to be a good football game. The extended halftime takes the players and fans out of the game. Any tension or drama built in the first half is lost. It’s almost two games. Throw in the two weeks of hype and over-analysis of the game and the expectations are often too high to meet.
The game pitted two teams as hated as any in the league. Football fans have Chief-fatigue. The overlap of Swifties and die-hard football fans is small. For many, Philly fans are least popular in the NFL. Their fans are intense, and they have taken the title of the roughest fans from the Raider fans over a decade ago. So, these were not two beloved teams, by no means.
The game was lopsided after the first interception (Cooper DeJean’s pic six) and the game was over by the second interception (by Zack Baun). All the sports pundits seem to be wrong this would be a close game.
That said, the game was great if you won money and a bust if you didn’t. Gambling is such a phenomenon now in our country, it’s only a matter of time when stadium seats will be teched out to have to capability of betting on games in real-time from your seats. America is thirsty for anything that provides a major distraction to what is going on in the world and the Super Bowl, for many, will be a gateway to gambling.
The American Bystander has come out with its long-awaited new issue.
From Michael Gerber, the Chief Editor…
Dear Friends,
Winter drags on, the news cycle lurches ever further into the absurd, and at this point, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t pricing flights. Fortunately, we have a much cheaper alternative to fleeing the country—a fresh cartoon from The American Bystander!
Today’s laugh comes from Bob Eckstein, whose latest cartoon—featured in Issue 29—hits just the right note of gallows humor for the moment. (laughing, crying, sobbing…)
If current events have you Googling “one-way ticket, anywhere”, you’re not alone.
But before you pack your bags, consider grabbing Issue 29—it’s significantly cheaper than expatriation, and contains far fewer visa requirements.
As my cartoonist friend, Michael Shaw, says, “Things can’t get any worse, but they can get funnier.” So please consider supporting one of the last funny humor publications left. Mr. Gerber is doing the Lord’s work for the humor community.
Thank you for all the wonderful mail and thank to you those who use The Bob as their primary news source.
Please share with a friend who has free time.
I was not near New York and I've never claimed a stool. My winner is the cancer-free knock out kid. Although, Trump signing executive order got the biggest laugh from me.