The world will grind to a halt for a few hours Sunday evening as the entire planet pauses to worship at the altar of the globe’s greatest sporting event.

Or maybe not.

The Super Bowl is certainly the pinnacle of American professional football, and its hold on this country is undeniable. As many as 100 million viewers could be glued to the tube Sunday evening.

And some will even be watching the football game. Many will tune in simply to see the TV commercials, which often are more entertaining than the action on the field.

This year’s commercial lineup promises the return of the Budweiser Clydesdales, deadly Doritos nacho chips, talking E-Trade babies, a GoDaddy.com commercial featuring a sexy Danica Patrick, a HomeAway commercial reuniting the Griswolds of “Vacation” movie fame and a Hyundai commercial set in 2020 and featuring quarterback Brett Favre, still playing  but pondering retirement.

If you prefer to nibble during the commercials, there are plenty of snack foods from which to choose. During Super Bowl weekend, more than 100 million pounds of chicken wings will be consumed by Super Bowl fans. That’s 1.25 billion wings or 600,000 chickens who will be on foot next time they cross the road.

On Super Sunday, Americans will consume almost 15,000 tons of chips and 4,000 tons of popcorn. If you lined those chips up they would reach nearly 293,000 miles, or the equivalent of a trip to the moon and halfway back. That translates to six feet worth of chips for every American man, woman and child. String all that popcorn together and you could reach around the earth almost five and a half times.

Americans will spend some $55 million on Super Bowl food this year, and will spend 10 million man-hours preparing it.

And we will spend hours and hours trying to shed the excess calories we consume. Eat six honey barbecue chicken wings and you will have to play football for nearly an hour to burn off the calories (that’s actual playing time, standing in the huddle doesn’t count.)

Speaking of those 293,000 miles worth of potato chips, if you eat just a couple of handfuls of said savory salty snack, you will have to run 4,500 yards (that’s the equivalent of 45 football fields) just to work them off.

While we’re eating and drinking, we also are betting. Legal wagers on the game are expected to hit more than $85 million, while illegal bets will total millions more.

And not only can you bet on who wins and loses, you also can wager on what are known as “prop” bets. For instance, you can bet on who will throw the first touchdown pass, or who will record the most quarterback sacks. But these are mainline props, you also can bet on how many times actress Kim Kardashian, girlfriend of New Orleans running back Reggie Bush, appears on television, or what color top the aforementioned Ms. Kardashian will be sporting.

At halftime, when the noshing and imbibing will be at its peak, we will be treated to a concert by The Who. Today’s younger generation might be saying The Who?, but to those of us of a certain age, we know these hard living hard rockers who helped provide the sound track of our youth. Fans of CBS’ family of CSI shows know The Who as the guys who perform the shows’ theme songs. Of course, lead singer Roger Daltrey is now 65, while Pete Townshend is 64, so when the boys sing “My Generation,” they are talking about the AARP and senior discount set.

As for the game, I’ll leave the predictions to my more sporting colleagues, including that unfortunate chap pictured with the bag over his head. I favor the Indianapolis Colts, because I like Peyton Manning, but I won’t mind if the Saints win, since they were the dregs of the NFL for many years.

In truth, I’m just in it for the food.



Mullin is senior writer of the News & Eagle. E-mail him at jmullin@enidnews.com.