There’s a football game on Sunday. Did you hear about it?
Yes, it’s Super Bowl Sunday, a day to gorge ourselves on chips and guacamole and clever commercials.
And there will be a football game, Chicago against Indianapolis (4:25 p.m., KCNC-Channel 4, and KKFN 950-AM) for the championship of the world as we know it. Channel 4 will carry the game in Spanish on SAP.
Don’t let that start time fool you. CBS’ coverage starts at 10 a.m. with “Road to the Super Bowl,” followed by another five hours of “pregame” coverage.
And that’s just on CBS. NFL Network, which would like to capture all NFL football for itself, will log 100 hours of Super Bowl stuff by the time the madness ends. ESPN, on 14 platforms, including ESPNdeportes.com in Spanish, will employ 23 on-air commentators. KKFN’s radio coverage starts at 1 p.m.
Unchallenged for the worst idea of Super Bowl mania is “Stupid Bowl II: The Boys vs. the Girls,” a halftime game matching drag queens against Howard Stern’s staff and Penthouse Pets. Luckily, it’s on On Demand so only those who want it will see it.
In case you were wondering, the most-watched Super Bowl was the 1982 game, which drew a 49.1 percent rating to see San Francisco defeat Cincinnati. How crazed are we for the Super Bowl? President Bush’s recent State of the Union address logged a 29.6 rating.
Lynch on Williams
His Denver Broncos teammates have been reluctant to discuss the Jan. 1 shooting death of Darrent Williams, but Channel 4’s Jim Benemann does a one-on-one interview with safety John Lynch on Sunday to talk about gangs and young people.
“Obviously, wherever he’s played he’s reached out to the community,” said Benemann, whose interview runs on CBS4 after the game. “I think we are all just now coming to grips with the gang issues here.”
Around the dial
The Super Bowl will be televised in 232 countries and territories, including China, in 33 languages, according to NFL International … Nielsen says Anheuser-Busch is the Super Bowl’s largest advertiser, with 4 1/2 minutes last year … Bruce Arena, former coach of the U.S. national soccer team, does color commentary on the U.S.-Mexico match (7 p.m. Wednesday, ESPN2). Rob Stone does the play-by-play … ESPN marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s breaking the color barrier in major-league baseball with “After Jackie” on March 31 … A pared-down “FSN Live at the Barbershop” (no Charles Johnson, no Alfred Williams) looks back at the season (6:30 tonight, FSN Rocky Mountain) … Quotable: “The four biggest holiday celebrations in the United States are Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and the Super Bowl.” Washington Post.
Dick Kreck’s column appears Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. He may be reached at 303-954-1456 or dkreck@denverpost.com.
