The Silence of the Super Bowl

It has been suggested the day after the Super Bowl is one of the least productive work days in the US. My office would prove that theory in anecdotal evidence alone, with half the staff calling in "sick". Thus is life in upstate NY on the day of disbelief.

Last night I was invited to an Elk Lodge. Don't laugh, I am a self proclaimed computer geek, which means I live with an innate social disadvantage, but before last night if someone asked me what an Elk Lodge was I would have answered it is what Yankees call a hunting lodge. For those like me who hadn't heard of an Elk Lodge, basically it is a social club both men and women can join. At $15 a head at the door, the final tally was 359 paid to enter. I was impressed, the bar was first class and there were big screens everywhere, even though I didn't drink more than soda it was an excellent atmosphere for the game.

In the end, it was one of the strangest feelings I have ever been apart of. As a life long Cowboy's fan, I have no love for the Giants, although I preferred them to the Patriots. As the game finished, it was like the fourth of July with one exception, it was noticeably quiet. A cloud of disbelief had hit this congregation of sports fans, with a competition of who was more stunned in disbelief, the Patriots fan for losing or the Giants fan by winning.

I left quickly after the game, and stopped at a coffee shop on the way home. The coffee shop is near a bar and a hospital, and as I pulled up there was a sea of people in the streets, but again nearly 20 minutes after the game had finished I observed a quiet hum with an occasional shout from a college aged man. Everyone was celebrating, but it was tempered by the same cloud of disbelief that apparently was not unique to the lodge. As I drove the 7 miles home, I observed small pockets of people who felt drawn into the chilly night in neighborhoods as I passed. I would roll down the window to listen when sitting at a stop light, and yet despite hoards of people, there was silence.

In losing the Patriots had done what no human who observes Albany could ever do, they left the the capital of communication, rhetoric, and big talk for New York State lost for words, probably for the first time in centuries.