Super Bowl Domination

Chapter 855 Hot Potato
"Defend the title, defend the title!"

“Los Angeles is the champion!”

"Chief, without a doubt, I support the Chief 100%!"

"A question: If Levi wins the Super Bowl again this year, will he be eligible to compete for GOAT in the future?"

"Cosmic sheep, please rise up!"

Noisy, boiling, and eye-catching.

The hustle and bustle, the excitement, it’s here, the annual Super Bowl is finally here, and it’s time for the entire North American continent to celebrate together.

"Within the league" is just the tip of the iceberg. Everyone is predicting the champion, and the two teams have also shown a huge fan base.

A craze across the entire network.

However, along with the frenzy, discordant voices are also growing louder.

Protest, boycott, fight back.

The negative voices reached their peak in the rising tide and finally evolved into a mighty movement.

Not against the Kansas City Chiefs, not against the Los Angeles Rams, but against the Super Bowl.

Or to be more precise, against the alliance.

Two things.

First, racial discrimination.

The story needs to be traced back to the 2016 season.

At that time, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick chose to sit on the bench on the sidelines to protest during the national anthem during the preseason game because he was dissatisfied with police violence and racial discrimination.

Later, at the suggestion of veteran and former NFL player Nate Boyer, Kaepernick changed his approach to kneeling during the national anthem, which better showed his respect for the military while still expressing his message of protest.

And, Kaepernick persisted throughout the season.

This incident caused a sensation throughout the alliance, with voices of support and opposition erupting everywhere.

Supporters believe that Kaepernick's action is a necessary protest against those violent acts and unfair treatment; opponents believe that Kaepernick disrespects the national flag and soldiers and chooses the wrong time to protest.

In March 2017, Kaepernick became a free agent at the prime of his career, but he never found a job. This was generally seen as a conspiracy by the league teams to exclude Kaepernick. Although the league has never publicly expressed support or condemnation, this action has made its position clear.

This also triggered wider protests, with more and more players joining Kaepernick's ranks. Not only the NFL, but other leagues also paid wide attention.

This incident lasted for two years.

Before the start of the 2018 season, the NFL issued a new decree that players must stand during the national anthem or can choose to stay in the locker room.

The decision that seemed to take into account the views of both sides turned out to be a disaster, and was instead subjected to concentrated fire and fierce criticism from both sides with different opinions.

In addition, not long ago, the NFL and Kaepernick finally reached an out-of-court settlement——

Kaepernick filed a formal lawsuit, accusing the league of colluding with teams to exclude him and not allowing teams interested in him to sign him.

The alliance chose to keep things quiet.

This solution stirred up a hornet's nest again, and both supporters and opponents were dissatisfied.

It is precisely because of this that the news event of "Gillette Stadium vs. Levi's" in the sixth week of the regular season this year has triggered such energy, just touching the sensitive nerves, and the bustling voices surged from all directions.

The matter has not been completely settled and is still continuing to ferment.

Second, player violence.

The Kansas City Chiefs are in the eye of the storm. The incident involving running back Hunter has not cooled down the focus on player violence, and the league has not yet issued an investigation result. Netizens said: We have not forgotten this incident.

Everything became noisy again after the Super Bowl.

There were even some indignant netizens who said that the NFL awarded the regular season MVP to Levi just to shut them up.

So, the boycott came -

Led by actors, singers, and public figures, and with the help of netizens, many people have expressed, explicitly or implicitly, that they will boycott the Super Bowl.

New Orleans: Seconded!
The controversial call in the final moments of the NFC finals sacrificed the New Orleans Saints' chance to return to the Super Bowl; what's worse is that the league has so far refused to respond positively, which has made the whole of New Orleans completely angry.

A city that called on fans to take practical actions to let the league hear their voices and see their anger, and to let the league feel the pain by refusing to watch the Super Bowl.

The decline in ratings will indeed directly affect the revenue of the league and TV stations. After all, if advertisers are not satisfied with the publicity results, they will put pressure on the league and TV stations to ask them to solve the problem.

A wave of boycott is rising.

In fact, truly smart people can see the big picture from the small details and immediately sense the direction of the wind. They don’t even need to wait for the wave of “boycotting the Super Bowl” to rise before they make their choice.

Five months ago.

Rihanna, Jay-Z, Cardi-B, the league invited them in order, hoping that they would be the performers of the halftime show. However, the halftime show that everyone once competed for has turned into a hot potato, and all of them were rejected.

Rihanna was the first to refuse and publicly stated that she rejected such a proposal because of her support for Kaepernick.

Jay-Z and Cardi B also expressed similar views in interviews. They saw through the alliance's tricks and hoped to use minority performers as a fig leaf to cover up their embarrassment.

Alliance: ...Just see it but don’t say it, okay?
The halftime show performers have been inexplicably delayed, with no news to date.

Later, it was rumored that Maroon-5 was invited.

White people.

It seems that the alliance has finally shifted its strategy.

After learning about this, fans even jointly wrote a letter to Maroon 5 urging them to reject the invitation and to distance themselves from the NFL with such behavior.

However, Maroon 5 still agreed.

In addition, the league invited new generation black rapper Travis Scott to perform together.

It is rumored that Jay-Z persuaded Scott to withdraw, but Scott decided to perform after careful consideration, on the condition that the league and he would donate $500,000 to the charity Dream Group.

The alliance agreed.

There is no doubt that this was the most chaotic and noisy Super Bowl in 20 years.

On the one hand, negative off-field news was rampant and the "boycott Super Bowl" movement was in full swing, which even Goodell found difficult to handle.

On the one hand, the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Kansas City Chiefs itself has many highlights. Not only is it a head-to-head confrontation between the young storms for the second consecutive year, but it is also a powerful collision between the two most entertaining teams this season.

As a result, all kinds of voices broke out on social networks.

There was an outpouring of anticipation, opposition, excitement and anger, rubbing one's hands in anticipation and speaking righteously, and those who insisted on their own opinions and tried to convince others.

Different events on and off the field converged on the Super Bowl, igniting a fire that caused a strong collision of opinions and stirred up huge waves.

Also, don't forget that Levi made history by being crowned the regular season MVP for the first time, which attracted the attention of people from all walks of life.

Then, the passers-by who knew nothing about football and the Super Bowl were stunned -

So...lively?

(End of this chapter)