If
I painted a picture of a living room filled with fans sporting oversized jerseys,
consuming chips and salsa, wings, guacamole, and of course Budweiser, what day
of the year would most Americans immediately think of? No, I’m not talking about July 4th. I didn’t mention fireworks. I’m talking about the Super Bowl. With a 48.1 Nielsen rating, a widely used
system that measures audience size, the 2013 Super Bowl was the most watched
television spectacle in American history.
Additionally, Americans chow down on 1,083,333 Football Fields worth of
wings, while also consuming 325 million gallons of beer on this joyous day,
according to a study done by the Huffington Post. In fact, the Miami Herald reports that Super
Bowl Sunday is second only to Thanksgiving as the largest food consumption day
of the year in the United States.
This is no ordinary day, ladies and gentlemen. This is the day when the champion of the most popular American sports league, the National Football League, is crowned. The day when old friends come together to bond over their mutual love of watching large, angry men tackle and trash talk each other on the battlefield. The day when commercials are looked forward to! Unfortunately though, the glory of this day is often hampered by the fact that American workers do not have Monday off to recover from the festivities. The day after the Super Bowl must be declared a National Holiday.
Unsurprisingly, the Monday after the Super Bowl is
the least productive work day of the year for American workers, according to a
2008 survey published by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. An estimated 1.5 million
Americans call in sick the Monday after the Super Bowl while 170 million
dollars worth of productivity are allegedly lost from the people who even do
show up, a survey from emissourian.com says.
Some employees cannot stop re-hashing the game. Some are stuck in a perpetual food coma. And, yes, many are hungover. Firms may as well give employees the day off
as paying wages for such an unproductive day of work causes businesses to lose
money.
I have personally experienced the agonizing fight to
be productive on “Super Bowl Monday.” I
recall that in my senior year of high school, I did not focus at all in school
on Monday as my buddies continually distracted me with chatter about the
game. And who could blame them? The Giants-Patriots Super Bowl of 2012 came
down to the final play! Eventually, I
became so engrossed in the Super Bowl conversations that I was paying almost
no attention to my classes. Heck, I even
showed my calculus teacher a picture of her students shoveling down wings from
the night before.
With the Monday after the Super Bowl being removed
from the work schedule, more people will tune in to the game. Without the nuisance of work in front of
them, more Americans’ eyes will be on the television screen come kick-off. And you know what that means. More money for advertisers. For the 2013 Super Bowl, a 30 second spot
cost companies an estimated 3.8 million dollars, reports online journal
OutsidetheBeltway.com. The Super Bowl is
known for its fantastic commercials; firms and agencies put out their best
crafted ads for the enormous audience.
Of course, advertisers want as many eyes on the screen as possible, so
they would certainly be in favor of Monday being declared a National Holiday. Additionally, networks that broadcast the big
game, through television or radio, will benefit. Due to the larger audience, networks can
charge advertisers a higher rate for airtime.
Making more money from ads, networks would undoubtedly be in favor of
making Monday a holiday, as well.
Sadly, drunk driving has become a problem on Super
Bowl Sunday. On Super Bowl Sunday in
2012, the state of Michigan, whose Detroit Lions were not even involved in the
big game, had 166 people arrested for drunk driving. “Of those arrested, 52 had a blood
alcohol content (BAC) of .17 or higher,” and there were two alcohol-related
fatalities, according to a Michigan State police report. If employees were given Monday off from
work, young single people would be more likely to sleep out rather than drive home drunk. As
another option, party goers could take cabs home, leaving their cars for pickup on Monday at their leisure. This option is not really feasible with the
presence of work on Monday as most people need their cars
to travel to their place of business. If
a partier took a cab home, it would be very inconvenient to pick up their car
early the next morning. Therefore,
workers often attempt to drive home intoxicated, endangering their lives as
well as the lives of others. This is a tragic trend that desperately needs to
be dealt with.
Some would argue that since not everyone watches the
game, Monday should not be declared a National Holiday. However, not every American celebrates
Christmas yet workers receive time off for Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day. The fact that not every single
person watches the game does not change the fact that millions of Americans are
partying and drinking before, during, and after the game.
Or, the Super Bowl could just be moved to Saturday. Scratch everything I just wrote.
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Sources
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/04/overnight-ratings-make-super-bowl-xlvii-most-watched-tv-event-ever/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/02/super-bowl-chicken-wings_n_2591243.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/29/3205547/super-bowl-sunday-parties-can.html
http://www.emissourian.com/more_news/business_news/article_3bed3d50-50cf-11e1-bd1b-001871e3ce6c.html
http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2013/01/super_bowl_sunday_will_bring_i.html
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