Super Bowl coverage for the totally uninterested
Last year’s Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles attracted about 103 million viewers, which was actually a fairly small audience for the NFL Championship. So, chances are, you’re probably going to see at least part of this year’s installment of the biggest TV event in America, even if it’s only because your friends make you.But if you’re not into football, the Super Bowl probably seems strange. It lasts about four hours, often features some of the worst football of the year (though the last few have been pretty exciting), and takes place in neither team’s home stadium, which means that the fan reactions are usually pretty subdued. (Read: there will probably not be any insane Patriots fans taking off their shirts in sub-zero temperatures.)For reasons other than football, however, the 2019 Super Bowl promises to be a fairly interesting one to watch. But just in case it's not, here are three non-football stories to follow to keep you entertained while your football-knowledgeable friends scream and throw things at the TV. #1: Tom Brady, age 41, refuses to retire.It’s not even a football story at this point—it’s more like a medical miracle. Tom Brady, arguably the best quarterback of all time, can’t and won’t stop playing football. And curiously, he doesn’t seem to be getting any worse as he ages. Brady turns 42 this summer and said on Sunday during an ESPN interview that there is “zero” chance he’ll retire after this season. 
The important part is that he's a style icon.
#2: Super Bowl announcer Tony Romo might be able to tell the future.When former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo retired in 2016 due to a back injury, he switched jobs immediately and became an NFL announcer. The first thing people noticed about him was that he seemed to have a gift for predicting the plays that the offense was going to run before they ran them. Most people wrote this off as Romo’s insider knowledge of other teams’ playbooks—after all, he had played against them within the year—but it’s now three years later, and Romo is still predicting the future with alarming accuracy. The Wall Street Journal, in a completely exhaustive (and exhausting) study, puts his prophetic abilities at 49 for 72, or 68%. Watch and see if he keeps it up. #3: No one wants to do the halftime show.Citing the mistreatment and supposed banning of former 49ers quarterback and activist Colin Kaepernick, who famously protested U.S. police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem before games, a number of major artists who were offered the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show turned it down. And with Jay-Z, Cardi B, and Rihanna declining to perform, we’re left with headliners Maroon 5 (who've already cancelled their pre-game press conference, sensing controversy), plus supporting acts Big Boi (of Outkast fame) and Travis Scott, who only agreed to perform if the NFL would donate $500,000 to Van Jones’ social justice-minded group Dream Corps. Basically, get ready to relive 2002 with Adam Levine. 
Miss them?
Of course there are ways to make Super Bowl LII fun if you don’t watch football (you could, for example, review your Roman numerals to figure out which Super Bowl this is). But this might also be a good opportunity to see the dying fall of an American league which, between commissioner Roger Goodell's blundering and mounting evidence that NFL football is really, really bad for your head, might not have much time left. Images via, via, and via.
