Super Bowl about more than Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift … right?

Let the countdown begin. SB58 (no Roman). For the defending champs, the Kansas City Chiefs, it’s their “Derrick Thomas” Super Bowl; for the San Francisco 49ers, it’s their “James Brown” big payback Super Bowl. Revenge against the Chiefs for their 2020 seminal battle. 

It’s the NFL’s dream Super Bowl for this season, one that conspiracy theorists want to say Roger Goodell & Co. orchestrated but can’t because even they know that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good — and right now the NFL is both. 

And with all of the exterior esoteric nonsense orbiting the game Sunday — all of the non-football buzz madness — the game itself can get lost. Don’t fall for the deception. Rephrased: Many of you who are attracted to this moment for reasons beyond football will totally forget that the game is far, far, far more important than anything and everything else that surrounds it. For those individuals and other millions of people, here’s a refreshed, remixed, recapitulated reminder of just what SB58 (again, no Roman numerals) is not about and what not to be sucked into. A small sum-up of what a Super Bowl ain’t and what it should never be made out to ever, ever be about. 

1. It is not about Taylor Swift … as much as it is kinda to a degree about Taylor Swift. The situation and her stature can not be ignored and it would be naive (stupid) to even think that her NPL (name, presence and likeness) since her and Travis Kelce have gone public has not played a role in the new, overwhelming popularity surge the NFL is experiencing. 

But as dope, inspiring, powerful and “All’s fair in love and poetry” brilliant as Swift is, she ain’t the game and the game itself stands on its own and carries its own magnitude. Even if she has triple the following on X as the entire NFL does on theirs. 

2. Even though the game itself is in Las Vegas doesn’t mean betting should take center stage over the game itself. Meaning, don’t use this Super Bowl because it’s being pushed out there to be “the Super Bowl of Super Bowls” as an excuse to bet on things connected to or inside of the game that you’d never bet on during any other time or you’ve never bet on during any other football game. Such as, the following: The length of the national anthem. Secret guests Usher’s going to bring on stage. If Tony Romo is going to say something on-air that doesn’t make sense because he’s trying to win an off-camera side bet with his buddies. The over/under on number of times CBS will show Swift in her box during the game. Don’t let this particular game pull you out of your normal gambling behavior.

3A. Don’t fall into the trap by the social media-driven Patrick Mahomes hate, simply because haters have developed “Mahomes fatigue” and are tired of seeing him win or be in the position to win. The same happened to Tom Brady, Steph Curry, Michael Jordan, the Yankees, etc. It comes with the general public’s inability to deal with and acknowledge its own insecurities. It also doesn’t help that we in the media attach the word “dynasty” to teams and “GOAT” on players so fast it builds public belief resistance in those teams’ and players’ unfinished legacies, and forces an almost automatic pushback on our “rush to create a narrative” claims.

3B. Don’t fall for the traps masked as outside storylines surrounding Usher’s halftime show being bigger than or just as important as the game or that LIV Golf being in Vegas sharing space with the NFL is golf’s version of a Super Bowl or any buzz about the upcoming WWE WrestleMania XL including Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and The Rock holding the same weight as the SB or the culturally inaccurate and disrespectful claim-to-fame of Travis Kelce’s fade. (Or any conspiracy about his Pfizer commercial.)

4. Speaking of commercials: As hard as this is for some to believe or understand, the SB is not about the broadcast, anything that happens during breaks of the game or the $7 million spent for every 30 seconds of brand promotion attached to the game. At no point should this game be about David and Victoria’s Uber Eats spot or what the new T-Mobile commercial is going to be — or if Jessica Aniston (their goof, not mine) is going to follow Common and Zoe Saldana as their next in-the-moment spokesperson to get you to buy a new iPhone that you aren’t in desperate need of by the end of next week.

There’s always an inflection point when it comes to our engagements in Super Bowls. But this one seems different. Seems like the universal pull toward it is stronger this time and has less to do with the game itself than ever. 

It’s simple: Keep the main thing the thing. Let football football. Let Super Bowl LVIII be about the game itself. Nothing else. Engage and enjoy as is. Because by itself, void of all the profit-izing surrounding and attached to it, the game that will be played on Sunday is worth your unfiltered, undistracted, undivided attention.  

Until the Chiefs win again, of course.