The Nat Coombs Column: Football could learn from Super Bowl hype
by Nat CoombsSteve Harvey contends the Browns should have drafted Saquon Barkley and Josh Allen in 2018, but is hopeful Cleveland can reach the Super Bowl in two years.
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"That's Darren Waller," says my podcast producer. "Let's go chat to him."
We walk up to the Raiders tight end, one of the players of the season, amid the reassuring hum of chatter on Radio Row, where over a hundred domestic U.S. and international radio stations broadcast all week long during the Super Bowl. We ask him if we could grab a few minutes to talk. "No problem," says the Pro Bowler and off we go.
In the 60 minutes prior to that, Cowboys superstar quarterback Dak Prescott duly obliged when one of our social media team needed a quick shot as part of a feature they're doing, Alvin Kamara wandered out of the gents at the same time as me, we spotted Alabama wide receiver and expected top-10 draft pick Jerry Jeudy and started chatting and Hollywood actor Miles Teller was one of dozens of stars seat hopping, jabbering away, working the mic on different radio shows in a giant media junket unlike anything else on earth.
At the Super Bowl media access is extraordinary. On Radio Row agents roam, mobile phones glued to their ears, wheeling and dealing, getting their clients exposure or denying those outlets that fall short in their estimation. It's fast and furious, with a hot spot of a few hours right in the middle of the day. The stars, mostly in town for the media opportunities, not the game itself, sell whatever it is they're selling -- a new movie, a commercial product, or, more often than not, themselves.
Everyone buys into it. Everyone has a smile on their face. It's a microcosm of what happens throughout the whole week. The technicolour circus rides into town, sprays energy, bombast and fun then breezes on out on Monday, leaving everyone behind mildly shell-shocked.
There's a difference to Super Bowl week compared with other major sporting events. Media access to players taking part in the game starts with the surrealistic chaos of Opening Night but rolls on beyond that. Outside of the more conventional, rather mechanical press conferences, additional "meet the teams" sessions are peppered throughout the week like mini versions of Monday night's main event. This enables reporters to talk with players often in a one-on-one capacity.
Compared with the Champions League final, it's not even close to a fair fight. This is before even factoring in the post-match connectivity, with media allowed into the locker rooms and carefully choreographed multi-podium press conferences for the winners shortly after the game.
Another key component of Super Bowl week that separates it from the pack is the densely populated social calendar. The Demetrius Andrade versus Luke Keeler fight -- which included YouTuber Jake Paul fighting on the undercard -- has been the hot sporting ticket in town, with a jam-packed guest list of recording artists, influencers and sports stars.
It's an arresting affair in a giant aircraft hanger style temporary venue, customised for the fight, and a Lady Gaga gig on Saturday night. Featuring DJs and MCs, a club style layout with VIP booths and a 17-year-old rapper doing a live set before one of the fights, this isn't your typical fight night. A live TV set outside features Paul with Saquon Barkley next to him. Old school fight fans sit in ringside seats, while on a VIP balcony YouTubers film each other.
Multiple parties happen daily and, as we're in Miami, they're typically pool parties. A bash I've been invited to on Saturday is exactly that, noting in the media information I've been sent that the equivalent party last year was when Robert Kraft and Cardi B danced together -- an image many of us have struggled to erase from our minds.
An honourable mention has to be made to Shaq's Fun House -- for the name and the million dollar VIP table available -- but the hottest ticket in town is Gronk's Beach Party. An event that surely needs little, if any, elaboration. A possible European football equivalent of someone who could host similarly outlandish shindigs, just in case the Champions League organisers are considering moving in this kind of direction, would be someone like Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Zlatan's Fun House has all manner of possibilities. I'd want Nicklas Bendtner involved, obviously.
Indeed, being in the thick of Super Bowl week does open up the question as to whether other sporting events could benefit from some -- or all -- of the finesse, hype and access it offers.
Year after year the Super Bowl grows in scale, responding to an age where content creation and sharing everything is fundamental to commercial value.
Creating opportunities -- around celebrity particularly but by no means exclusively -- that enable a tidal wave of social media content to be relentlessly, effortlessly pushed out, via a calendar of activity fiscally underpinned by brands, is smart marketing and other big leagues will surely feel increasing pressure to mimic it.
Is it a pumped-up slice of America, impossible to replicate? Maybe. But I'd be amazed if in 10 years' time the World Cup, the Champions League and others haven't, as an experience, shifted more and more in the same direction, customising some of the key concepts into their own space.