What’s So Super About The Super Bowl?

February 13, 2024

My funny black and white cartoon of a groundhog prognosticating on who will win this year's Super Bowl. Drawn by artist Bryan Skinnell.

I’ll never get the Super Bowl.

And I’m not sure I even want to.

I just don’t see what the big fuss is when it comes to the Super Bowl. Or even football in general. I wish some kind soul would explain it to me for I’m a complete dunce when it comes to football and sports in general. I’m one of those rare Americans who missed acquiring that critical football/ sports gene when God was passing it around leaving me with scant interest in one of our country’s most cherished pastimes. No big loss as far as I’m concerned for it’s just “football”. And if you’ve seen one game you have seen them all as far as I’m concerned. It’s the same drama over and over again. Dudes bedeckled from head to toe in pads and helmets running amuck and running into each other in a sort of botched stampede while trying to hustle a ball across the field. Not much of a concept for any sport if you ask me but there’s no denying it gets a lot of people excited including my own father. Like the good son that I am I kept my parents company while the Super Bowl was going on even if I wasn’t paying much attention to it. I could care less about such things even if I did find myself rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs as they ramrodded the winning touchdown in a game that spilled into overtime.

Yea Kansas! Now maybe we can all get back to normal.

Why hello there! My name is Bryan Skinnell and I am a middle-aged (50-ish) artist and neighborhood kook who is living the artistic and creative life out in the boonies of Bedford, Virginia. Bedford is one of the largest counties in the commonwealth of Virginia and, for the most part, it’s still a mostly rural one that bridges the gap between Roanoke and Lynchburg. You could say, in more ways than one, that Bedford is the heart of Virginia. I can’t argue with that although I usually think of Bedford more as Virginia’s belly button myself.

I grew up right here in Bedford and have lived and toiled most of my life on our infamous red clay. The sort of clay that makes the stickiest mud known to man after a rain and which clings like super glue from God to anything and everything it touches. If you are so foolish as to get it on yourself you’ll wind up tracking and leaving a trail of red goop everywhere you go for days afterwards to the delight of your family and friends. But I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else and Lord knows I tried as I’ve wandered from one end of the country to the other. But Bedford has my heart and that’s where I’ve chosen to live my life today. In my free time when I’m not stuck in my studio making art I do love being outside gardening or hiking or just pestering the neighbors.

Every day I try to write something that’s original, entertaining, and half-way thoughtful here on my blog while sharing my happy-go-lucky attitude and zest for life. Quite often I don’t have the foggiest notion of what I’ll end up saying in a post. But, whatever I end up writing about, I do hope you enjoy it!

I do keep a mailing list for interested readers and fans. If you would like to get in on the action and follow my musings and rabble-babble, that can be easily arranged. Just give me an email address that you would like for me to send my blog posts to and I’ll see that you get it.

Thanks for stopping by!
Bryan Skinnell