Recubo

I've always considered Super Bowl time to be a good time. A day of warm camaraderie with friends and family full of food, beer, and fun entertainment. It's football at it's best, where champion meets champion in their lifelong quest to be crowned ruler of the gridiron. The holiest day of all in the sports world, the big game has captured the consciousness of the nation and it's turned into a non-official holiday.

Years ago I learned that there was as much as a 40% increase in domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday. Apparently men, who are brutish thugs anyways, feel compelled to beat their significant others whenever they walk in front of the screen during a touchdown.

This saddened me as more hype was surrounded these incidents. Commercials were aired during the big game asking men to play nice with women and some even called for gals to leave the house for a few hours for their own safety. This made watching the game difficult as I imagined some woman getting hit with a belt every time an turnover was made by a Bills fan.

Then years later it happened, the internet came upon us. I started reading the website Snopes.com, which is an interesting site which debunks media myths and common urban legends. The authors of the site (who still love the 1996 design apparently) did some actually research into the studies cited by reporters and F.A.I.R. and found to the surprise of everyone that the statistics were false and those behind the data made no implication of a sharp rise in battered women.

It seems the women's groups and the media were either misinformed or lying much to my shock. What really saddens me about this is that I bought it. My own prejudices about football fans took effect and I believed the rhetoric without question. What's even more sad about this is that I do watch the sport as do many guys I know. Not one of them commits acts of violence especially against their girlfriends/wives. The stereotype of the loud, unkempt, aggressive jackass who hasn't showered in a week watching a highly masculine sport while smacking their spouse for not bringing the beer fast enough was so impregnated in my brain that I failed to question the sources. Yes F.A.I.R. is an organization I tend to give too much trust to.

What's really sad about this is that Rush Limbaugh was the first to break the myth, but no one listened, cause he's Rush.

Be safe out there today!

"I predict one of these two teams will win the Super Bowl." - Gilbert Gottfried