Frankie Ruggeri has a good idea. Move the Super Bowl to Saturday.
Frankie is 16 years old, but that hasn’t stopped him from noticing Sunday is not a good day for the big game. He has started a petition to get the game moved to Saturday. That way, people could stay up late, enjoy themselves, and not have to worry about showing up for work or school the next day. He has a point.
In case you were wondering, why is Sunday the big day for pro football? It actually goes way back to the early days of pro football. When the leagues were just getting started, the pro leagues decided to not try to compete with college football. A good choice in many areas, because college football is huge. It is very likely they would not have been able to compete in some parts of the U.S.
Then there was the fact that Sunday, being a non-work day, would be an easier day for a lot of people to attend a pro game.
So Sunday it was.
Then the U.S. government got involved, passing the Sports Broadcasting Act 0f 1961, which kept the pro leagues from broadcasting games when college games and high school games were being played. That was relaxed a bit in recent years, with playoff games allowed when the college season is over, but mostly, the pro leagues have been kept to Sunday as their big day.
But it isn’t just that Frankie wants to eat his face off and stay up late for the big game without feeling awful the next day in school. He also discovered that more than seventeen million people is the U.S. call in sick the day after the Super Bowl. And a study from 2003 indicated a forty one percent increase in car accidents the day after the game.
So he may have a point.
Not only that, but if they move the game to Saturday, if the game isn’t very good, those of us in Canada can always flip over to the hockey game. Kind of makes up for not being able to watch the good commercials.
