When the entire nation -- and more than 200 other nations -- are talking about it the next day, you know you've got yourself a terrific sports day.
The Super Bowl, despite all the insanity leading up to it, is still a great day. So great, it's the eighth best sports day of the year.
It meets all the necessary requirements for inclusion: Big event, everyone knows when it happens, occurs every year around the same time, has implications far greater than just a game.
Ever since the NFL went to a bye week between Championship Sunday, the sixth best sports day of the year by the way, and the Super Bowl, many football fans have grumbled about the extra week of hype/worthless stories you'd never hear about it except for the fact that newspapers and TV stations needs words and images to fill their space.
But rather than lament about the slow, methodical demise of the Super Bowl's mystique, think about all the things we get on this final Sunday of meaningful football until September:
• A license, a mandate perhaps, to eat greasy, grimy, unhealthy food
• An excuse to party
• A somewhat acceptable excuse to consider calling in sick from work on Monday
• One more real football game
• Great deals at the supermarket
• Commercials worthy of watching instead of DVRing through them
• Societal acceptance to discuss all those commercials the next day at work, thereby delaying having to work
• Halftime extravaganzas
• The chance to watch previous Super Bowl highlights from NFL Films on ESPN
• 43 hours of pregame garbage programming
OK, so maybe that last one wasn't such a perk. But it does add to the mighty American tradition that is the Super Bowl. And if your team is fortunate enough to make it the final day of the season, then you'll watch and read everything you can find.
Such overhyping often causes the game to stink. In recent years, we've had some great games, though. From the Patriots beating the Rams (Damn you, Vinatieri!) to the Patriots beating the Eagles and Panthers (Damn you, Brady and Belichick). From the Titans coming up 1 yard shot against the Rams to the Jets beating the Colts (OK, so that one was in Super Bowl III but whatever.)
No matter how much exposure there is leading up to the game, no matter how lame the game may wind up being, it's still the Super Bowl. It has its place firmly stamped on the fabric of American sports. This thing is bigger than Nino Brown.
The Best Sports Days of the Year
1. Opening Day for baseball
2. The start of March Madness
3. Pitchers and catchers report
4. NFL Sunday Week 1
5. Selection Sunday
6. NFL Conference Championship Sunday
7. NFL Draft
8. Super Bowl Sunday
9. Sunday at The Masters
10. Kentucky Derby*
Honorable Mention
• FIrst televised baseball game for your team
• Bowl games on New Year's Day
* Upon further review, the Kentucky Derby has moved from first runner-up to No. 10 on the list, replacing the first televised baseball game of your favorite team. That game, almost always a spring training game, is still a good day, but perhaps we were caught up in the emotion of it a little too much to think rationally.