one in a billion

About five minutes into the broadcast of the Super Bowl Monday afternoon, it dawned on us.
There would be no Commercials.
The game was televised live in New Zealand, no problem. Apparently the game is televised live everywhere, because I heard about the "billion" people who were watching. I was one of them, watching with a small group of displaced Americans and New Zealanders.
On south Pacific ESPN the Super Bowl has a few differences. It's not easy to tell exactly what they are at first, other than the game kicking off around noon Monday (which conveniently happened to be a national holiday here). But after a while, it begins to dawn on you.
Watching on the International feed, the Super Bowl is just a game of American football.
I didn't watch the same Super Bowl you did. I saw the same action, saw the same camera angles, saw the same graphics, saw the same close ups of Bill Cowher.
I didn't, however, hear the same announcers. I don't know who you heard, but I listed to Dick Stockton and Daryl Johnston. As they called the game, they were mindful of viewers who might not know the intricacies of the sport. I was told at least 15 times the yellow, computer-generated first-down line was "not official."
Both men tended to stop and interrupt themselves to explain the game and terms they used in the commentary. I can only imagine there was someone on the crew whose job it was to yell into Stockton and Johnson's ear every time they mentioned any football-exclusive term.
(Actually, this might not be a bad idea for the U.S. broadcast. There's probably just as many non-football fans watching there as anywhere else).
I didn't see the same commercials, the backbone of any Super Bowl viewing experience. I don't think I saw any commercials. Advertising breaks were filled by promos for other events carried by New Zealand's ESPN feed - apparently they think the World Baseball Classic will be a big deal. At other times, ESPN filled space with short commentary on the other football.
While you were watching the newest Budweiser commercials, I was watching an old bald guy with a Scottish accent sit in a studio in Bristol, Conn., answering e-mails from viewers in Australia asking about English soccer.
(I think when ESPN was looking for a soccer commentator, they started with a picture of Dick Vitale, and ended up with an old bald guy. It appears when the guy didn't talk with the energy and enthusiasm of Vitale, they just turned his hearing aid off so at least he'd talk as loud.)
I didn't see five hours of pre-game shows talking about the Super Bowl and showing all the ancillary events from the week in Detroit. I certainly didn't see or hear the weeks worth of pre-game analysis and feature stories leading up to the game.
And without all that, I didn't really see the Super Bowl, not as I would have seen it back home. I noticed the absence of all the hype and glitz, and I'm not sure if I missed it or not.
The Super Bowl as a game may be confusing to the International crowd, but it translates fine. The Super Bowl as An Event doesn't translate at all. That might be for the best.