Super Bowl LII: circus hits Minnesota for America’s Supersized festival

You have your events that stop certain nations. In the US, the Super Bowl is the Greatest Show On Earth

Head coach Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots arrives with his teammates for Super Bowl LII at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Photo: Getty Images

New England coach Bill Belichick arrived at the Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport in a black ­fedora that belonged to his late ­father. He stepped off the Patriots’ charter flight in a dark suit and tie that gave him the appearance of a chain-smoking, Dragnet-style 1950s detective before bracing himself against the crooked cold, shuffling into the Super Bowl LII Opening Night function and being asked if he knew it was ­National Curmudgeons Day.

“Nope,” he replied with the sort of humour possessed by only the greatest of curmudgeons.

Belichick is not typically regarded as a barrel of laughs but he was in a warm mood when he was questioned about his dashing ­attire. “That was my dad’s hat,” Belichick said ahead of his 10th Super Bowl appearance. “So I thought I’d just toss that one on today. I felt good about wearing it. Minnesota is a good place to have a hat, so it did the trick.”

The Greatest Show On Earth? We’ll see. It’s rather an exciting journey to find out. The Patriots meet the Philadelphia Eagles in downtown Minneapolis on Monday morning (AEDT). You have your events that stop certain ­nations — when Hyeon Chung was beating Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open last week, for instance, the most common phrase typed into South Korean search engines was, “What are the rules of tennis?” The Super Bowl will stop a healthy portion of the planet, many of whom will not have the foggiest about what’s going on without consulting a search engine. Tom Brady? What happened to Marcia?

Yet when ESPN broadcasts the 52nd edition of American football’s grand final to more than 69 million households in 74 countries, including Australia, the international audience will be joining a US viewership of about 170 million. What are the rules? Not everyone needs to know. The occasion is the thing. The song-and-the-dance. The high-octane collision sport. Cheergirls. Marching bands. Military parades. The Star Spangled Banner. The return of Justin Timberlake as the halftime act for the first time since he made a boob out of Janet Jackson. Americana in full throe.

Opening Night at the Excel Energy Center had serious talk and not-so serious talk. The public could buy tickets to watch journalists at work. There’s a way to put bums on seats. Or not. Patriots linebacker James Harrison was asked trivia questions by a Minneapolis television crew. What’s the state flower of Minnesota? Harrison did not know. The fine print: he did not care. What’s your ­favourite Prince song? Harrison did not have one. Belichick was in more decent spirits, funnily enough, and the name of the game for ­reporters was trying to make him smile and/or laugh. One reporter asked, “Can I tickle you?”

Which should be the first ­question directed at Wayne ­Bennett when the NRL season ­begins. Belichick replied, “No. We’ll skip that.” Another journalist leant in and said, “What did the football coach say to the pay phone?” Belichick indicated that he did not know what the football coach had said to the pay phone. The reporter told him, “I want my quarter back.” Belichick laughed and it was later reported that he smiled 33 times in an hour. They love their stats here.

The show rolled on to the ­Philadelphia Eagles player taking questions in a Halloween-style dog mask. Brandon Graham spoke quite earnestly about executing the game plan and the scale of the occasion … while disguised as a British bulldog. When he was asked to howl to the moon for the cameras, he did it. Who’s a good boy, then? Eagles owner Jeff Lurie explained: “This team has had the best record in the NFL all year. To go into a game as an underdog is really weird. It’s a lack of respect, and why not use that as fuel?”

Eagles coach Doug Pederson said: “We’ve been the underdogs. I think that’s the mentality of our football team. I think that’s the mentality of our city, and I’m OK with that, I’m fine with that. I’ve been an underdog my whole career, my whole life. Everything I’ve done, I either haven’t been good enough or something negative has been written or said, and I just blow it off. I have confidence in these guys and this team.”

The dog masks have become the Eagles’ trademark since Chris Long and Lane Johnson wore them in the locker room after the 15-10 playoff victory against the Atlanta Falcons a fortnight ago. Johnson wore his while walking off Lincoln Field to both mock and embrace the underdog tag the franchise has been unable to shake. Long wore his for his post-game interviews. Why the long face? “I don’t know if you heard, there was a little narrative this week that the media was pushing, that evidently we were, like, not favoured?” Long said. “So, I got this mask. Someone was like, ‘What’s up with the wolf mask?’ First of all, it’s a German shepherd. And it’s the underdog mask. I wasn’t going to field any questions but I decided I would field them in the dog mask. People are terrified of them. You guys are scared right now. You’re shaking all over.”

Long and Johnson’s plan to walk off Lincoln Field in their masks had failed. “I couldn’t find his scent,” Long lamented. “Look, we’re just having some fun. We were called underdogs all week so I figured we needed a good dog mask. I had it hidden in Jason ­Peters’ coat. If we hadn’t won the game, that mask would never have been seen.”

Passing fad? Nope. Long and Johnson said they bought the masks for about $10 each through an Amazon retailer called CreepyParty, which has turned out to be a couple of Chinese mates in the industrial city of Dongguan who cannot believe their luck. When one of the owners, Jason Lee, woke the morning after the Eagles-Falcons game and checked sales, he was a bit surprised to see that every German shepherd mask in the inventory had been sold … to people in Philadelphia. They might normally sell 10 masks in a day. They’d sold 230 German shepherd masks in a ­couple of hours. They’re still selling them as fast as they can produce them. When German shepherd masks were unavailable, the other breeds were snapped up. The CreepyParty owners knew virtually nothing of the NFL. What’s American football? But they knew their ship had come in.

Eagles officials relaxed security measures for the NFC playoff against the Minnesota Vikings so fans could wear the dog masks. The Eagles were underdogs again. They won again in front of a 70,000-strong audience that ­appeared to be made up entirely of German shepherds, huskies, ­basset hounds and black poodles.

“Everybody’s just starting to label us underdogs since we got in the post-season,” Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins said. “But to be honest, we felt like underdogs our entire lives and all season. Most of the guys who’ve come here have been cut, traded or drafted too low, and everyone’s had a chip on their shoulders. Really, we’ve been given the short end of the stick the entire year.”

Jenkins has given one of his complimentary Super Bowl tickets to a convicted murderer who’s just been released from Philadelphia’s Graterford Prison after a 30-year-term. Having been thrown in the slammer as a 15-year-old, Kempis Songster has walked back into a world of mobile phones, laptop computers, the internet … and tickets to the big show.

“I wanted to do something special for him,” Jenkins told ESPN. “I wanted to make sure that we celebrate those who have made that transition, who have come back home. I thought he’d be somebody who’s deserving because it’s not something that you always hear about. We always give them to children and people who may be sick, who are well-deserving, but a lot of the times we just forget about those people who are trying to change their lives around or trying to give back and are looking for platforms. And I figure, what bigger stage than the Super Bowl?”

Songster said: “I know that I’ll never be able to shake this burden of guilt, and I know that no matter how good I do, how much I serve, how much I try to contribute … I understand that some people may feel as though I shouldn’t be given this opportunity to be in the wide-open world. I recognise that I’ll ­always be a murderer in that sense in a lot of people’s eyes. But when someone like Malcolm reaches out ... when he extends himself that way and he advocates for someone like me, I interpret it as him saying to me that I am more than my worst act.”

Meanwhile, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady wore black gloves but his mood had brightened since he walked out of a radio interview when the host called his daughter an “an annoying little pissant.” “I certainly hope the guy is not fired,” Brady said of WEEI host Alex Reimer, who’s been ­suspended indefinitely. “I didn’t hear too much about it. I didn’t get into it. I just know everybody is real protective of their kids. I never stayed away from criticism. I understand that criticism is part of sports. But I ­certainly don’t think that my children or anybody else’s deserve to be in that. I’ll obviously evaluate whether I want to come on this show again. It’s very disappointing when you hear that with my daughter or any child. They ­certainly don’t deserve that. But I think we all go through our life and sometimes we say things we shouldn’t say, or make mistakes. That happens … and you move on.”

Will Swanton travelled to Minnesota courtesy of ESPN. The Super Bowl will be televised live on ESPN on Monday morning. SportsCenter Special at 9.30am (AEDT). Live coverage from 10am (AEDT).