A British Super Bowl

Watching the Super Bowl in the UK is quite a different experience from watching it in the States.

For starters, kickoff isn't until 11:30 pm, which means it won't be over until around 3 am. Second, most of the people watching with you won't know much (or anything) about the sport -- like what second and five means, or if every team has impossibly large men like Vince Wilfork, or if they're actually allowed to just shove someone out of bounds. (But I didn't mind, since I haven't really gotten to talk football all year.) Third, you have British commentators. And whether or not they know what they're talking about, the fact that they have an accent and keep explaining basic aspects of the game in great detail really doesn't do much for their credibility. Here are my two favorite Neil Reynolds quotes of the night:

"That was a safety. A safety is the American football equivalent of an own goal."

"It's third and goal. They can't get a first down without scoring a touchdown."

Right...

We would have been lost without these guys.

But the biggest difference is the fact that you don't get the commercials. Sure, you get commercials. But they're not Super Bowl commercials. So you've got to go looking for those on YouTube afterward.

All in all, though, it was really fun. By the second half (which is when the game actually started getting exciting), most of my friends had a pretty solid grasp on what was going on, and everyone was pretty into it. There was plenty of yelling at the screen and laughing at the commentators, just like there should be. Plus, we had some great food: sliders, pizza, little smokies, fries, brownies, chips and this great 5-layer dip. (Side note: I had to explain on several occasions what dip was...as in, "Oooh, what's this called?" "Dip." "Dip?" "Yeah." Confused look. "Because you dip your chips in it..." "Ohhhhh.")

Tragedy struck, though, when our feed cut out right after the Giants' last touchdown. The Pats had just started their final drive, and there was 54 seconds left. By the time we finally got it working again, the game was over, and they were showing replays of the missed attempt in the endzone. Booooooo.

We finished up the night watching these:

And everyone finally left our kitchen around 4 in the morning.

So, yeah. I'd say our UK Super Bowl party was a success.