It's just one game of football

By Chris Furnari

I like the Super Bowl just as much as anyone else, but in the two weeks leading up to the event, media coverage is sometimes too much.

Sure, I am dedicating a column to discussing it, which may seem hypocritical, but at least I'm writing just a few days before the actual game.

It seems a bit ridiculous to me how much time ESPN dedicates to the Super Bowl before it actually happens.

It's the topic of conversation on debate programs such as "Pardon the Interruption," "1st and 10," and "Around the Horn." It dominates the SportsCenter telecast and it is almost always the lead story on ESPN.com.

Isn't all this coverage dedicated to just three hours of football a little overkill?

I don't need to hear about the times when Tom Brady was or wasn't wearing his walking boot. I don't need to see videos of some journalist in a wedding dress proposing marriage to Tom Brady, or videos of him delivering flowers to his girlfriend.

And I certainly don't need an analysis of the game 12 days before it even happens.

Let's face it - a bunch of things can happen in 12 days. Players can get sick, as was the case for a few of the Giants members who contracted the flu. Players can get injured in practice, or some other catastrophic event could occur.

For the 17 weeks of the regular season, in-depth coverage of the games primarily comes on Saturday, when top analysts sit down and hash out the finer points of each Sunday contest. This is enough for me.

I'm not saying I don't appreciate journalists' willingness to dedicate time and effort to finding relevant stories. And I'm not saying that I shut the television off when this coverage comes on.

Sure, it is perhaps the most exciting championship of any sporting event in America. Sure, the Patriots are looking to make sports history. Sure, there are a million storylines that we could cover.

But when it comes down to it, the best part about the Super Bowl is watching it on Sunday.

If I didn't see a single piece of coverage about the game before it happened, I think I would be just as happy.

I would still get together with friends and have a Super Bowl party. I would still cheer for the team I wanted to win, and I would still laugh at the hilarious commercials that keep all viewers entertained in between snaps.

All I'm saying is sometimes the coverage is a bit too much. After all, it's just a game, right?