There’s No Place Like (Someone Else’s) Home to Watch the Super Bowl

The second Super Bowl-themed post in our series of three this week is all about the where...as in, where do you like to watch the game.

Only two fanbases are represented on the field, but every team’s fanbase tunes into the league championship. Even when two teams I despise are playing...ahem...I am still going to watch every play and get after it at the party.

The problem is, I don’t want to host a Super Bowl party anymore. I used to love to do it, but now it comes with such a headache—and that is before the hangover kicks in on Monday. At the very tail end of the weekend, the Super Bowl kicks off and causes the majority of Americans to stay up partying like it’s New Year’s Eve...on a work night. I am not saying I know this and act responsibly as a result of knowing this; quite the contrary, as I am annually full of regret the Monday after the Super Bowl.

It’s bad enough that I have to wake up on Monday morning in a daze and go to work with five full days staring me in the face. If I also have to clean up after a bash, let’s just say it makes for the worst possible way to kick off the NFL offseason. For this reason, I have decided that the best people to host Super Bowl parties are...other people. If you are the single guy in a group of married friends, you need to jump on top of this grenade. If you have that Monday off for whatever reason, you have some serious responsibility to host.

I do think house parties are way better than bar/club parties. Done correctly (ahem...Ricky...cough...you rock), the best house parties have comfy seating for all and allow you to be surrounded by your closest friends. Someone you trust has control of the remote (hopefully) and the food is always a short reach away.

Part of the problem I have with bar parties for the Super Bowl is exactly the same as the problem I have with bar parties for New Year’s Eve: they’re full of amateurs who don’t understand the drill. You find yourself surrounded by people who are more interested in having the best time of their entire lives (and feel like failures when they don’t) instead of enjoying a game between the two hottest teams in the league for all the marbles. The buildup and the pageantry certainly work to distract these rookies from comprehending that the game is the reason for the season, but truth be told, some years they are better off partying like it’s the last night on earth. Otherwise, they would have been sober for the Dallas double-schwackings of Buffalo in 1993 and 1994, or the Seattle drubbing of Denver just a couple years ago.

I love to host a party. I love preparing that environment where I know everyone is going to have fun. When it comes to the Super Bowl, however, I would much rather leave my house behind. After all, hosting requires attention, work, and constant activity. None of these things is conducive to watching football, and that is my main priority on Super Bowl Sunday.