On a typical Sunday, junior history and peace studies double major Ryan Klein and his roommate are planted in front of the couch. As die-hard football fans, their analytical brains are working overtime in preparation for their Chapman Radio show Good News Bad News More News Sports, where they cover the week’s biggest plays and storylines on Thursday nights. 

For them, the Super Bowl marks the end of five months of dedication. Nearly 300 games have culminated into a single match-up between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles and that deserves a celebration. 

This year, they commemorated the occasion by opening their home to their friends, soaking in every second of the last bit of football for seven months and making Klein’s famous artichoke dip — with a secret recipe that may or may not include paprika. 

“I spent (the Super Bowl) how I would want it to be in this part of my life, which is with my friends, with some good food and in the comfort of my own home,” Klein said. “The Super Bowl has something for everybody, which I think is really great about it. You can look at the halftime show. I had a pool of friends who were just like, ‘I can’t wait to see Rihanna.’ There’s also the football fans who know about the stakes and really love the dynamics of it. And then there’s people like my mom who just really love the funny commercials.”

Super Bowl Sunday has become an unofficial holiday across the world that unites lifelong football fans with those who aren’t sure how many points a touchdown is worth. The Panther sought to find out what aspects Chapman students looked forward to the most and find out how they celebrated on Feb. 12. 

For junior communication studies major Katie McKinley, the Super Bowl consisted of a potluck and board games as friends gathered in her home.

“(My Super Bowl Sundays) are pretty food-centric,” McKinley said. “My mom has a famous sausage dip, so my friends were begging me to make it. My roommate made her chicken enchilada dip, too. I think (the Super Bowl) is nice because you can expect the same environment every time regardless of what teams are playing. I like hosting or going to parties, and I wouldn’t really change anything about it.”

Between playing Anomia and watching commercials, McKinley eagerly awaited the highly anticipated halftime show from Rihanna, whose last album was released in 2016. When her performance started, viewers began speculating whether the star was pregnant with her second child. Before the news was confirmed, McKinley and her friends immediately came to Rihanna’s defense, combatting unrealistic body standards for women. 

“I was watching with all women and non-binary individuals and when we saw Rihanna’s pooch, men kept texting us being like, ‘Oh my gosh, is she pregnant?'” McKinley said. “I was going to bat for Rihanna saying, ‘Women have to work so hard. She’s not pregnant, she just had (her first) baby.’ Then the news came out and I’m like, ‘Well, she just did a whole halftime Super Bowl pregnant.’ We were all fighting off comments from men the entire time.”

Despite “Disturbia” not being played, McKinley and her party were enamored with Rihanna’s performance and were reminded just how much they love her music. Junior film production major Eric Rustum echoed McKinley’s sentiments towards Rihanna and was stunned as she sang atop the suspended platforms. 

“The whole thing looked amazing,” Rustum said. “The choreographed dances were awesome. It was cut really well too — unlike The Weeknd where he was shaking the camera."

Rustum, who was a guest at a friend's party, told The Panther he doesn’t care for football despite originally being from Pennsylvania where the Eagles are located. However, you don’t have to be a fan of the game in order to win $20 off of a Super Bowl Square — where participants place bets on the second digit of each team’s score after each quarter. 

Much like the Chiefs, Rustum walked away a winner after enjoying the Super Bowl theatrics and star-studded commercials.

“All you're going to see is just like a bunch of celebrities and a bunch of companies and you might as well just have fun with it,” Rustum said. “(The broadcast) is going to do some ridiculous stuff, so it was pretty fun watching the commercials. Even the bad ones were kind of fun to watch like the Tubi one where it switches to their menu.”

Tubi broadcasted some of the more memorable commercials of the night including several where a giant, mute rabbit kidnapped people and threw them into holes. Their tagline? “Find rabbit holes you didn’t know you were looking for.” They also tricked millions of households across the nation into thinking someone turned off the game by cutting to their on-demand menu and selecting a movie to play in another commercial. 

For McKinley, her favorite commercial was Jennifer Coolidge sticking to everything around her to advertise a new primer from e.l.f Cosmetics, although she feels Coolidge sold herself short working with the cosmetic brand and could have collaborated with a more popular line of makeup. Klein cited Ram’s Premature Electrification ad that was cleverly filled with sexual innuendos as his favorite of the night along with the tear-jerking The Farmer’s Dog commercial titled “Forever.”

Between the halftime show, commercials and theatrical elements of the Super Bowl, Klein loves that these elements can come together to create a massive spectacle that highlights the importance of the event.

“The theatrics are the future of football, frankly,” Klein said. “A lot of people will assume it's a bunch of men hitting each other and it’s just very violent, but in football, the stakes are tangible. You have a whole group, a whole city, a demographic riding on that one team. You know that the Chiefs winning the Super Bowl has given so many people joy, not just because they got to see Patrick Mahomes throw a ball really far, but rather what that means. I think it’s the nuance, the tangibles, the theatrics — what many people would call it — that are doing the game well.” 

With a close game ending in a final score of 38-35 in the Chiefs favor, Super Bowl Sunday was a perfect storm for everyone except Eagles fans. The only thing Klein would change is giving everyone the next day off, since nearly 19 million Americans called off work in what is known as “Super-Sick Monday.” 

Although the season may be over, fans will have the memories and the memes to hold themselves over until September where they can do it all over again.