The Super Bowl was this weekend. The Baltimore Ravens. The San Francisco 49ers. Beyonce. Advertisements that cost about $4 million to air for 30 seconds. A power outage. A game that went down to the wire. Super Bowl XLVII was one for the books. I cannot believe anyone would miss such a game.

But for the first time that I remember, I did.

To most of you, that probably does not mean much. I have never been a go-to source on sporting events.

But the truth is: I love watching sports. On any given day, you might see me watching the Blackhawks play, yelling at the television because the Cubs wasted another inning with the bases loaded or cheering on the Chicago Bears while wearing my Robbie Gould 8 jersey. Sophomore year you might have even seen me cheering for our Fighting Illini as a member of the Orange Krush. And of course, I love the Olympics.

So why did I not join the 108 million viewers on Sunday? Is it because I only like Chicago teams? Is it because I had nowhere to watch it? I would say it is more like for the first time ever, I had no interest. The thought struck me this year, why do we care so much about Super Bowl Sunday? What about it causes millions of Americans to flock to their televisions every year? It cannot be just for the commercials. You can find them on the Internet weeks before they air. It cannot be that everyone suddenly loves football. You never hear about any other game getting that kind of ratings.

Plus, it was the Ravens and the 49ers. So why do we care?

Events like this allow us some quality time for family and friends — and a six pack. It allows us to eat as much pizza and wings as were bought. It gets our adrenaline going.

But what does it not do? No outcome of the game ever directly affected me. I have never been, nor do I ever plan on being, a 49ers or Ravens fan.

The point? We will never see these kind of numbers for a presidential debate or percentage share for a local debate.

On Oct. 3, approximately 67 million people at some point tuned in for the first presidential debate. But by the time the third debate rolled around, not even 60 million tuned in. And that number might have been higher had there been no Monday Night football (10.7 million viewers) or game 7 of the National League Championship Series with 8.1 million viewers (the final game before the 2012 World Series).

And how many people actually tune into watch local debates or even attend one? Nothing affects us quite like local elections.

As a nation, we will shell out hundreds of dollars to go to a sporting event and get the best seats in the house — behind home plate, on the fifty yard line or courtside — but we won’t know who is running for Urbana mayor on April 6. 

I would never say we should not sit back, relax and watch our favorite athletes wow us with their talents. But as a culture, we tend to care much more about Lance Armstrong’s doping then we do about how Congress plans to fix the budget.

However, I am not dense: I realize this is not about to change. I really do not want it to. I even jumped for joy on Jan. 6 when I heard hockey would be back. And even happier that the Hawks are the only team yet to lose in regulation time.

What I do want is for you all to be aware. We just need to realize that we are more aware of Tim Tebow’s religious affiliation than the budget problems. We know more about Peyton Manning than the state of the union. These athletic superstars can’t raise or lower our property taxes and they can’t stop our ever-increasing tuition.

Being aware is the first step to being able to make a change.

But, with that said, if any of you are willing to give me tickets to Super bowl XLVIII for free, don’t expect me to turn them down. Even if it is the Ravens and 49ers again. I’d find a way to endure it.

Joanna is a senior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].