Does the NFL think the Super Bowl is being played at the Grand Canyon?
Evidently. Spoiler alert: It’s not.
On Sunday, the NFL’s official Twitter account posted a tweet promoting the AFC and NFC Championship games. It was a drawing of the four starting quarterbacks in the game — Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers, Jalen Hurts of the Philadelphia Eagles, Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs and Joe Burrow of the Cincinnati Bengals — in uniform looking toward State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
That is, of course, the home of Super Bowl 57, played Feb. 12, with kickoff scheduled for 4:30 pm Again, it is located in Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix that looks like, you know, a suburb of Phoenix.
Some saguaro:Goofy by day, glowing by night: Why you really should see the Super Bowl Experience cactus
No, the Super Bowl is not being played in ‘a post-apocalyptic wasteland’
Not in the NFL’s tweet. There it seems to be perched on the ledge of the Grand Canyon, surrounded by a desolate, barren landscape. Of course the occasional cactus shows up here and there.
“This year’s Super Bowl is to be played in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?” one person tweeted.
“Where on earth is this supposed to be?” someone else tweeted.
Geez, of course it wasn’t great for business in the area when the Arizona Coyotes bolted nearby Gila River Arena for Tempe, but it wasn’t this Bad.
The Grand Canyon is great. Iconic. It’s one of the few things that lives up to however high your expectations of it are — exceeds them, even. If they wanted to play a football game there, that would be interesting.
But it’s not happening, not now.
Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the country, remember. NFL broadcasts have moved beyond showing a saguaro and a barrel cactus and a cowboy on a horse during games when they’re trying to illustrate where the game is played.
And this is the third Super Bowl played at the stadium.
Why not stick the stadium in the middle of a strip mall, with a “for sale” sign being pounded into the ground by an election denier? That’s more accurate than this.
Super show:John Madden showed him the ropes. This Arizona man makes the Super Bowl more than a ‘show’
Reach Goodykoontz at [email protected]. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk.
Subscribe to azcentral.com today. What are you waiting for?