Episode 11: Super Bowl

Rozhovor s Američanem Trentem, který je fotbalovým fanatikem a povypráví nám, proč je den, kdy se hraje Super Bowl v Americe považován v podstatě za svátek. Pravidelně je přenos tohoto zápasu amerického fotbalu nejsledovanějším televizním pořadem roku, k čemuž přispívá i každoroční nadšení z tzv. "Halftime show", při které vystupují ti nejznámější interpreti světové pop music.

Transcript

Super Bowl and American Football Discussion

Speaker 1 0:07

Welcome to the English-speaking group with Kudrunat Holko . My name is Pavlina and every week I will talk to my parents from all over the English-speaking world about various interesting topics . I would also like to mention one thing If you really want to practice and improve your English , on my page on patreonpatrioncom you will find a complete list of the following conversations , with meanings , phrases and everything else that is worth knowing . And that's all from me at the beginning . Thank you very much for watching this channel and we can start .

Speaker 2 1:07

That's perfect . Well , I have to say so , you are an avid football fan .

Speaker 3 1:11

Yeah , so yeah , I'm from California , I farm and I watch a lot of football . It is my favorite sport .

Speaker 2 1:17

And you are also one of the hosts of the podcast called the Fantasy Football Dudes . Yeah , so you and your mates , you talk everything kind of football related yes , yes , yes , from a funnier perspective , not quite as serious .

Speaker 2 1:30

That's amazing , because today we're actually going to be talking a lot about football . And well , by football we have to say that we mean American football , because you know , in my eyes it would be like football with David Beckham and Messi . When you say football , that's what football means to me , but I guess that's not what it means to you .

Speaker 3 1:51

The real football . No , I'm just kidding . Yeah , we call it soccer here , the football you're talking about .

Speaker 2 1:57

Okay , okay , very cool , and well , today we're actually going to be talking about the event of the American football of the year . I would say , is that how you would call it ?

Speaker 3 2:08

Yeah , the championship game . Championship Sunday is a lot of people call it , but the Super Bowl is that we're talking about .

Speaker 2 2:14

That's what we were talking about . Yes , so we're talking about Super Bowl . So if you were to explain , and just a few words or sentences , what Super Bowl is to someone who knows absolutely nothing about football , which is me , what would you say ?

Speaker 3 2:28

I'd say it's the annual championship game between the AFC and the NFC . So that's the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference , and it's just unlike soccer and basketball and other things , those are series , championship games . Football it's only one game , so there's a lot more upsets . Sometimes the team that shouldn't win will win , because there's only one game . You can't adjust over so many games .

Speaker 2 2:53

And so what teams would play during the Super Bowl ? Because it's every , we have to say , it's every year , right ? Is it the first Sunday of February , first Sunday of ?

Speaker 3 3:02

February . Yes , so it would be the champion of the NFC versus the champion of the AFC . So and that started in the early 60s it used to just be the NFL , and then the AFL came along and they ended up beating the NFL , I think in the third Super Bowl ever , and it's kind of been going on since then . I think that was like 1963 , I believe so .

Speaker 2 3:25

Okay , and so the NFL ? What's that ?

Speaker 3 3:27

Yes , the National Football League and that's just . That's the America's professional football league . So it goes from high school to college and , if you're lucky enough , I think 2% and not even not even 1% of college football players make it to the NFL . So that's how hard it is to get there .

Speaker 2 3:45

And this is the peak event of the NFL .

Speaker 3 3:48

Yes , it's the peak event , so people throw huge parties . Very good food . Usually people get it catered . People barbecue . It's a lot of fun .

Speaker 2 3:59

And so , like the event I had to Google , all of this is hosted by a different city each year , so is it hard to get actual tickets for the game ?

Speaker 3 4:08

If you have a lot of money it's not hard , I would say . But yeah , you're looking at for very bad seats , probably $700 US dollars . You know it's very expensive and not every city can get it . Like New York has only hosted one Super Bowl since it's happened because they want it to be in the best weather , because it's an outdoor game and they don't stop for rain , snow , they'll stop for lightning , that's about it . So usually the Super Bowls in California , texas , florida's majority , where it is , is in Florida , so they rotate through city , through city .

Speaker 2 4:43

And so have you ever been .

Speaker 3 4:44

I've never been . My dad went once as a little boy in the Rose Bowl and he it wasn't a great game , but it's kind of cool that he can tell people he's gone to the Super Bowl . It's just so expensive now and I have so much fun having my own party that I'd rather almost do that .

Speaker 2 4:58

Of course , because now that you say that you have your own party , like most Americans they would watch it on TV , I suppose .

Speaker 3 5:04

Yes .

Speaker 2 5:05

So I'm wondering how does the day of the Super Bowl look like a normal American household ? I ?

Speaker 3 5:10

think the day of the Super Bowl is the busiest day for the grocery store . Every year it's the first or second , it's that , and Thanksgiving . So they say 30 minutes before kickoff the grocery store is just completely packed with people getting last minute snacks and food , and then after that it's just a ghost town and they say , if you like wanted to go to a restaurant on Super Bowl Sunday , you'd be like the only person in there , because everybody is at home watching the game or at someone else's house watching the game .

Speaker 2 5:38

And so what would you do in your house ? Would you like invite friends over , or would you ?

Speaker 3 5:43

My uncle usually has a party and he puts bleachers in his living room and yeah , so there's a lot of people and lots and lots of food . Just lots of hot dogs , lots of snacks . I think there's a I was looking at it here avocados there is 13.2 million pounds of avocado eaten every Super Bowl Sunday . Oh , wow , and I think they said that enough chicken wings are eaten on Super Bowl Sunday for the average American to eat four pounds of chicken wings . So there's a lot of birds getting eaten .

Speaker 2 6:15

For sure , and I guess a lot of beer also . There's a lot .

Speaker 3 6:18

There is a lot of beer . Yes , lots of beer . I don't drink personally , but there's a lot of beer drinking on Super Bowl Sunday .

Speaker 2 6:27

Yes , and I suppose the main kind of figure these days is the player Tom Brady .

Speaker 3 6:34

Yes , a lot of . There's two types of people in this world those who hate Tom Brady and those who love Tom Brady . So he definitely . Who are you ? I like Tom Brady . I used to not like him , but it's the guy's 43 years old . So if I could do half the things he does when he's 43 , I'll be very happy , but I do like Tom Brady . There's some other guys like Patrick Mahomes , the guy who lost to Tom Brady , who no one thought that would happen . He's also very popular , does a lot of commercials .

Speaker 2 7:02

And so Tom Brady . So he is just a player or just player .

Speaker 3 7:07

He's a quarterback , thank you .

Speaker 2 7:09

Mm-hmm . And so when you say he lost to Tom Brady , do you mean like his team or his team .

Speaker 3 7:14

Yes , the Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback , and a lot of people say he's the best quarterback in the league and his team was picked to win by a lot versus the Tampa Bay Buccaneers , which Tom Brady was at , and Tom Brady's happened to figure out a way to win again . So yeah .

Speaker 2 7:30

So he said yeah , yeah , so he changed . Right , the team changed yes .

Speaker 3 7:34

He used to be on the Patriots and now he went down to Tampa Bay and he's now a Buccaneer . So it's pretty incredible . Not a lot of guys in the NFL go and win for two different teams , especially at quarterback . He's only one of two to ever do that . He is starting quarterback and win .

Speaker 2 7:50

Mm-hmm , I also read that he also . He has won the Super Bowl seven times . Is that right ?

Speaker 3 7:55

Yes , so his old team , he played for the Patriots . He won six with them and they have . The Patriots have won more Super Bowls than any other team with six . And well , they're tied with the Steelers . The Steelers and Patriots each have six , and then the Cowboys and 49ers both have five . Well , tom Brady personally has seven , so he has more championships than even any team , which is pretty incredible , yeah .

Speaker 2 8:19

So everywhere he goes , they just go and win . Yes so and he also has like a really beautiful wife , right ?

Speaker 3 8:27

Yes , he's married to some supermodel , so yeah , and she makes more money than he does . She used to , at least yeah , so really yeah .

Speaker 2 8:35

It's the Brazilian , yes . Just sell right . Yes I think I don't know , I didn't know this like anyways , and so a huge part of the Super Bowl is and maybe it's one of the things that us foreigners Would watch or know most about is the halftime show . So can you tell us what that is ?

Speaker 3 8:55

the halftime show . I don't believe they even get paid to play in the halftime show . It's kind of just such a big publicity stunt that they'll do it for free .

Speaker 3 9:03

So it's a big concert right , it's a big concert in the middle of the field and Unfourth and it's . I guess they spend a lot of money . I have not watched not watch the halftime show the Super Bowl

Super Bowl Traditions

Speaker 3 9:14

. Believe it or not , most of me and my friends will all go outside at halftime and play football . Actually , all my friends are always together . We just go outside and throw the football around and play our own football and pretend to be Tom Brady .

Speaker 2 9:25

That's so funny , so you don't care really .

Speaker 3 9:27

No more of like a lot of . My wife has watched it before and you know a lot of the . The moms don't usually go out and play football so they'll stay and maybe and watch it and tell us if it was good , tell us if it wasn't bad .

Speaker 2 9:39

So this is interesting . So everyone kind of in America watches it , like you know . You said that your mom and your wife would watch the game as well , yes . Yeah , yeah . So do they watch any football like throughout the year ?

Speaker 3 9:51

My wife is probably rare in the fact that she enjoys watching football . Her brother played football and so she just she's grown up always watching it , so she likes it . She's a Chargers fan , so she likes watching it actually . So she watches a little bit throughout the year , but most women probably don't watch it a lot . So my wife , she will watch the Super Bowl though . So , yes , so I , most , most Americans , watch the Super Bowl every year , regardless of gender .

Speaker 2 10:17

Yeah , and age and age , yes .

Speaker 3 10:19

So you'll have little kids in there watching and it's just something , something to do , it's , it's a . A lot of people have said that it should be a national holiday , but it's not it's . It's the Super Bowl . Just closest thing to a holiday is you can get . That's not a holiday .

Speaker 2 10:33

Well , your daughter is two months old , so has she watched this year ?

Speaker 3 10:38

She was . She was in her little bouncer , kind of watching the best she could . Mom doesn't like her watching TV yet , so oh , I see yeah she might have snuck a couple peaks , you know . Just to say , she watched Tom Brady some day . I who knows he might be playing in 10 more years . The guy's incredible , so .

Speaker 2 10:55

That's very true . And so back to the half-time show . So you know , there have been people like Michael Jackson or Beyonce or Lady Gaga or , I don't know , Justin Timberlake performing . So I just I wanted to ask which half-time show was your favorite ?

Speaker 3 11:10

but you've just said the one that's my favorite . Yeah , I really couldn't tell you . I've watched a lot of the national anthems , but I haven't watched the Super Bowl shows , unfortunately .

Speaker 2 11:22

And so the national anthems . That's , I suppose , at the beginning of the of the Super Bowl .

Speaker 3 11:26

It's the beginning of the game and there's huge prop bets on that . Will the national anthem be over two minutes or under two minutes ? A lot of people always will bet on that , on how long the national anthem is going to be .

Speaker 2 11:36

And that depends on who's on the singer .

Speaker 3 11:39

So some singers will sing it really long , some will sing it very short , so I think the shortest is like a minute and 20 seconds , but usually it's over two minutes , I would say , because it's kind of they want their fame of people seeing them sing it .

Speaker 2 11:52

So people are already like oh , be quiet , we want to watch the game .

Speaker 3 11:56

Yeah , yeah .

Speaker 2 11:58

And so did you have a favorite singer performing the national anthem .

Speaker 3 12:02

Favorite singer performing the national anthem this year was Eric Church , and he's a country singer and I would consider myself a country guy , so I enjoyed Eric Church singing it . He did a good job . He's probably not Eric Church , probably isn't as much a world known as maybe Beyonce and Justin .

Speaker 2 12:19

Timberlake ? Probably not . Yeah , no , yeah .

Speaker 3 12:22

Where's the cowboy hat ?

Speaker 2 12:25

And well , another thing that's quite interesting is that the event is also a huge championship of advertising .

Speaker 3 12:31

Yes .

Speaker 2 12:31

Companies . They pay like highest money to advertise their product during the Super Bowl .

Speaker 3 12:36

I think it's like $5 million for a 30 second commercial and I might be undershooting that number . It's very expensive .

Speaker 2 12:43

So would you agree that you know , watching the commercials is a huge part of the whole experience ?

Speaker 3 12:49

Oh , definitely , definitely . Yeah . There's some that are really funny . That'll make you laugh . There's some that make you scratch your head go . What a waste of money . Why would you even do that ? It's , it's , it's , that's a whole nother event . I know a lot of women who watch just for the commercials .

Speaker 2 13:04

Oh , wow . And so would you just sit with your friends and talk about commercials as they play ?

Speaker 3 13:08

Yeah , we'll kind of say that was funny , that wasn't funny , stuff like that there's . There's some very famous ones of the the Budweiser and Heiser Bush Clydesdale horses . Those are very cool and stuff like that . There's some and they actually didn't have one this year . It was like the first time in 20 years or something . But there's definitely some memorable ones that are every the Clydesdale ones . I think those are pretty much only for the Super Bowl .

Speaker 2 13:31

That's interesting , and so did you have a favorite one .

Speaker 3 13:35

My favorite one this year was probably the Jason Alexander who plays George Costanza in Seinfeld . He was on a sweatshirt . It was a tide commercial , and every time the kid did something , the sweatshirt , his face , would change Whereas he sat on it or spilled on it . So I liked that one , and then I liked the Cheetos one .

Speaker 2 13:54

And tide , we have to say that's like detergent , right .

Speaker 3 13:57

Clothing detergent yeah , my wife puts it in the washing machine to clean the clothes .

Speaker 2 14:00

So yeah , that's very cool . And what did I want to say ? What do you think makes these commercials different to kind of like standard commercials you can watch or skip on ?

Speaker 3 14:11

YouTube . Yeah , I think it used to be a bigger deal like in the 90s , but now they'll actually release the commercials beforehand and put them on YouTube , which kind of defeats the fun for some people . I don't watch them , but I know a lot of people will watch them ahead of time .

Speaker 2 14:25

And is it for , like any product you can think of any product , you got cars .

Speaker 3 14:30

you have sodas , lots of Coke and Pepsi commercials . Food You'll have your pizza commercials , your grocery store commercials . I would say car commercials are very popular .

Speaker 2 14:42

And how often are the breaks for the commercials during the game ?

Speaker 3 14:46

There's one at the end of every quarter , so there's four quarters , there's one before the halftime show and probably about , I would say , on average , there's a commercial probably every five to 10 minutes .

Speaker 2 14:57

And so how long is it ? A whole game .

Speaker 3 14:59

Of actual playtime , Without commercials and anything . There's only 60 minutes of a game . So you're watching for about three and a half hours to watch just 60 minutes of a game .

Speaker 2 15:08

Oh , so it's like four quarters , each 15 minutes long .

Speaker 3 15:12

Yes , so a team will get the ball , they'll kick it off to the other team and then they will get the ball and then they have four tries to go 10 yards . And if they can make it 10 yards , they keep going until they get the end zone . If they can't make it 10 yards , they punt to the other team and then that will be a commercial break after that .

Speaker 3 15:32

Mm-hmm , I see , and then they go back to the other team with the ball and then they have to go 10 yards . So if a team doesn't get a first down which resets the downs , you get four downs . You get first down , they'll go to a commercial break .

Speaker 2 15:46

Mm-hmm , mm-hmm , and , but it still is quite aggressive , or isn't it ?

Speaker 3 15:51

It's very aggressive , yes , Very hard . Hitting can be hard on your body . So if you're too skinny , yeah , but you have to be able to catch the skinny guys too , so there are a good amount of skinny guys playing . The linemen who block for Tom Brady . They're very big . A lot of them are over 280 pounds . Yeah , they're very big .

Speaker 2 16:10

Mm-hmm .

Speaker 3 16:11

So football is the most popular sport in America and I think it's just . It doesn't discriminate towards body types . So you have fat guys playing football , you have skinny guys playing football , you have tall guys , short guys , Whereas if you watch a basketball game , they'll all be . I think the average NBA basketball player is over six feet two inches . Oh god , I'll have to and none of them .

Speaker 2 16:39

That would be like two meters or something .

Speaker 3 16:42

Yes , yeah , you guys are on the metric system . I guess we're the weird ones apparently . But basketball you don't see a lot of fat people Baseball you don't see . So it's just , there's all types of body types in football . It's very neat to see .

Speaker 2 16:58

But like if you watch Tom Brady , like he looks like a professional athlete .

Speaker 1 17:02

He's not fat no he's very ripped and like he looks very perfect .

Speaker 2 17:07

Yeah , that's interesting , and so why do you think that this is kind of like the event of the year for Americans ?

Speaker 3 17:16

It's just a fun time to get around with families and friends , and if your team's in it it's even better . But it's just , it's a very good . It's kind of a social holiday where you get to pick who you're hanging out with , if that makes sense . Very good food , very good ? Junk food ? Usually Definitely not . It's not the type of food Tom Brady would eat . Probably not the food is a very big driving force of that .

Speaker 2 17:38

And so you mentioned chicken wings and hot dogs and pizzas . Is that what you would eat ?

Speaker 3 17:43

I made some tri-tip , which is a it's on a cow , so it's a . It's a type of beef that's actually only in California . A lot of people in America don't even know what that is , but it's kind of like a brisket , sounds good , it's very good yeah .

Speaker 2 17:57

Sounds very good . And well , I suppose that this year must have been a little different due to the pandemic , or how was it different to , you know , any other year ?

Speaker 3 18:09

It wasn't too different , actually , where I , where I , live , we still got together with friends , and in California , we've been in over in lockdown almost a year , and people are kind of just over it , and a lot of people are meeting now and doing stuff . A lot of them aren't too , though , so if if you are worried about that you , those people would stay home .

Speaker 2 18:27

Yeah , of course so , and the game was still being played with audience right .

Speaker 3 18:32

Yes , yes , so where I live is a farming community , so a lot of us never stopped working , actually because that's an essential job . So it didn't . Some of the stores shut down stuff , but thankfully we got to keep working in the profession that I do .

Speaker 2 18:47

Yeah , and so are you already super excited about next year's Super Bowl .

Speaker 3 18:53

I am excited . So I'm a Dallas Cowboys fan . So for the past I don't know 15 years I've been saying this is our year . So yeah , I'm very excited for next year . I , this is your year . Yeah , whenever it's football season , I'm excited . I'm watching TV every Sunday . I'm watching college football on Saturdays . I'm watching my little cousin's play on Friday nights at the local high school . So , yeah , I'm I'm always very excited for football .

Speaker 2 19:16

Oh , that's nice to hear . Well , thank you , trent . So much for telling us everything about . Well , maybe not everything we would have to sit here for that would bore you .

Speaker 3 19:26

That would bore you quite a bit .

Speaker 2 19:28

No , but thank you so much for joining me today . It's been great fun and I hope that people will go and Google Tom Brady oh yeah .

Speaker 3 19:35

Yeah , all right . Well , thank you , pavlene , it's been a lot of fun .

Speaker 2 19:38

And thank you to everyone who's listened to this episode as well , and I hope to see you next week . Bye .