By: Emily White
I used to be the furthest thing from a football fan. I knew nothing about the game, because I never watched it growing up (we were Jeopardy! fans instead). Frankly, I found football fans annoying, and after spending years in school with an otherwise lovely football-enthused classmate of mine, I even vowed I would never date someone with any interest whatsoever in football.
Then, mere hours before the 2025 Super Bowl, Amy Van Arsdell, the Accent sports editor, invited me to a friend’s Super Bowl party that was rumored to have free food. I was running low on sustenance in my apartment, and looking for some socialization. I decided to go along.
That evening, I found myself crammed into a small living room with about 30 other people. I had no idea which teams were playing, but upon asking whom to cheer for, I was told to go for the Eagles, since they were the underdogs, which I found delightfully romantic (in the literary sense!).
After the Eagles scored the first touchdown, I assumed that they would probably stay ahead, so I went outside to get some fresh air and call a friend. I returned 40 minutes later to find all of the pizza, the main reason I was there, gone. Lesson learned: always get food as soon as possible.
Soon after my return, the halftime show began. I had never seen a Super Bowl halftime show before, and I was unfamiliar with Kendrick Lamar. To be honest, I still don’t know what I think about the performance, but I did enjoy seeing the dancers lined up like the American flag.
I had opinions about the advertisements, though. Many were for injectable weight-loss solutions (I hate needles so I had to avert my gaze), AI companies (I have philosophical objections) and women in sports (go women!!).
My favorite ad was for Ram trucks with a guy I thought was Channing Tatum, but I was very wrong; after further research, it turns out it was Glen Powell, whom I eventually recognized from Top Gun: Maverick. The ad, with its wacky representation of the story of Goldilocks, also proved to be popular with the rest of the partygoers.
Eventually, my lack of football knowledge caught up with me as my curiosity about the game grew, so I humbled myself and started asking questions. Through Amy’s commentary, I came to understand things that are common knowledge to most football fans: what the quarterback does and why he’s so important, when a play ends, when the ball moves possession to the other team and why the quarterback will sometimes hit the ground when there seems to be no imminent danger.
That night, I transformed into someone my younger self wouldn’t recognize (and would probably be horrified at). I knew my metamorphosis was complete when the Eagles scored that really cool touchdown in the third quarter — where their quarterback just PITCHED the football across the field and some other Eagles dude ran and caught it in the endzone — and I involuntarily cheered along with everyone else.
I’m sure my 13-year-old self would have died at the development of this reflex, but my 22-year-old self was totally vibing. And, of course, I was happy when the Eagles, whose existence I had just learned about three hours earlier, won.
After experiencing my first Super Bowl, which was also my first football game EVER, I enthusiastically encourage you to go try new things. Open yourself up to different worlds, where the people are pretty nice and are happy to share their knowledge and fun with you. You might even find yourself open to developing new relationships in that realm, just as I have found myself more open to dating a football fan. (Any takers?) 🙂
