The NFL is four years away from its 50th Super Bowl, which means it is already trying to plan around a peculiar self-inflicted marketing nuisance: How can the world's most powerful sports league get around putting a big, fat "L" on hundreds of thousands of souvenir T-shirts?...I predict they will change to conventional numbers. Even if they do a workaround for "L", they will soon have to face "Super Bowl LI" and (even worse) "Super Bowl LIX."
But come 2016, the Roman numeral for Super Bowl L happens to be the lone letter that most connotes losing....
Even more unlikely than the Super Bowl's ascent to the top of the annual TV ratings chart is the fact that the league is dealing with a problem that's been made infinitely worse by a show about a high-school glee club. In the 2003 book "Field Guide to Gestures," the "loser gesture" was referenced as forming the letter L on your forehead with your index finger and thumb. The book offered a five-step primer that ended: "Say 'loser' with derision, generally elongating the first syllable." The sign has perpetuated in movies and TV shows since at least the 1990s.
02 February 2012
2016 would bring "Super Bowl L"
From a Wall Street Journal article cleverly entitled "The NFL Has an 'L' of a Problem":
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I don't care about football, but I suspect they will simply use XXXXX.
ReplyDeleteWanna bet?
Good choice for the "loser" photo. LOL.
ReplyDeleteRon
It will be marketed as "Super Bowl: 50 Year Anniversary" or "Celebrating 50 Years" or some such thing. They'll drop the number as part of the title for a year and incorporate a banner/subtitle that mentions the 50th year anniversary.
ReplyDeleteHey, here's an idea, how about "Fifty" or "50" or "Golden Jubilee"?
ReplyDeleteHa! That's what they get for being pretentious.
ReplyDeleteOn the bright side though, I'm really looking forward to wearing my Super Bowl 54 teeshirt sporting a picture of LIV Tyler.....
ReplyDeleteOdd timing on this post: I was mulling this very fact over last night when a Super Bowl commercial came on TV, complete with giant XLVI splashed across the screen.
ReplyDeleteI would hope they'd carry on with the Roman numerals (awkward though it may be), but I also agree with Doug above that it's more likely the 50th anniversary game will probably have an altogether different logo in celebration of the milestone.
It's about time somebody noticed & reported on this... I've been annoyed at the whole Roman Numerals thing ever since SB40 - as in, "XL". What the hell was that, a F*kg T-SHIRT SIZE?
ReplyDeleteIt was all fine & good through years 20-30's. Lots of X's in the number, RAHRR it's FOOTBALL we're eXtreme; and the X's were sooo great for marketing. But now, "L"? Priceless[ly pathetic] with or without its association to the whole 'L oser' thing.
So face it, super bowl Powers That Be, it's time to let the Roman Numerals thing drop. Just let it go, you've squeezed all you can out of it.
My $0.02 -