Following last year's racial tensions this year the NFL have decided to do an Obama and go full civil war.
More accurately they've decided to focus on that period at the end of the American civil war where white Americans left the southern, Confederate states en mass to establish the "North Western Front" and escape the newly freed black slaves.
So in the Black & Blue corner we have the Carolina Panthers!
Representing both North & South Carolina you may remember these most southern of the southern states from such recent stories as;
- The February 10th (10/2/15) Chapel Hill Shooting.
- The April 4th (4/4/15) killing black felon Walter Scott by white police officer Micheal Slager.
- The June 17th (17/6/15) shooting of nine Black Lives Matter activists by North Western Front rejectionist Dylann Roof at a Church in Charleston.
- The Black Lives Matter campaign to have the Confederate flag removed from a civil war memorial outside the South Carolina state house.
In the always unpopular Orange corner you have the Denver Broncos!
The Broncos are based in the state of Colorado. Although sitting on the south-eastern edge of the North West Front Colorado was one of the first states to be populated at the end of the civil war.
The Broncos main attraction though is ancient, creaky star quarter-back Peyton Manning who is sometimes known as; "The Sheriff."
One of the leading voices in the campaign to have the Chapel Hill shooting wrongly labelled as an Islamaphobic hate crime was the news network Al Jazeera America. Recently Al Jazeera America made some wild claims accusing Peyton Manning of being a drugs cheat. Weeks later Al Jazeera America announced that it was ceasing operations.
As if it were needed it in a effort to spice things up on January 30th (30/1/16) there was a big shooting at a motorcycle rally in Denver. This was intended to invoke memories of the May 17th 2015 (17/5/15) shoot-out between motorcycle gangs at the Twin Peaks restaurant in Waco, Texas
You may remember that Black Lives Matter seized upon this as evidence that while America's racist police brutalised black people they treated white people with kid gloves. What Black Lives Matter seemed to fail to notice was that in breaking up the Twin Peaks shoot-out the police shot and killed at least three white men.
Unfortunately the NFL then decided to ruin it all for everyone by booking Coldplay for the half-time show.
They will be joined by Beyonce who of course performed in the 2013 Super Bowl half-time show in New Orleans which heavily referenced 2005's Hurricane Katrina when the power failed. In case anyone had forgotten about that last night Beyonce made the surprise launch of the single "Formation" supported by a video set in New Orleans that references the Black Lives Matter campaign.
Unfortunately that video is currently only available to "Tidal" - I'm going with the word - "Morons."
Coldplay and Beyonce are expected to perform their new single "Hymn For the Weekend." Inspired by Indian culture the video supporting this has been accused of that particular bete noire of the Black Lives Matter movement - cultural mis-appropriation;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykjpeuMNEk
However that has largely been made-up to promote discussion about the much less culturally sensitive video for "Lean On" by "Major Lazer," "DJ Snake" and "Mo." which was apparently the most watched music video of 2015;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqeW9_5kURI
However there are probably few things more culturally offensive than the video for DJ Snakes "Get Low." After all even the French have been forced to bear the eternal shame of admitting he's one of theirs;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8fGiHvf7ZQ
Coldplay have of course also released a song called "Princess of China" with Rihanna. We are supposed to wait with baited breath to see if Rihanna will join Coldplay on stage or whether they will perform Princess of China with Beyonce replacing Rihanna. After all the rumour is that Rihanna was offered Lean On but turned it down;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uw6ZkbsAH8
It is also a big weekend in India's immediate neighbour China where they are celebrating New Year and the start of the Year of the Monkey.
So using India as a proxy the US will be trying to pile pressure on China during the Super Bowl. To this end China's other immediate neighbour - the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK/North) - have been instructed to conduct an missile test - sorry 'satellite launch' - during the show. Fortunately they seem to have opted to bring forward that launch to last night.
Seriously. If we ever got the moment it would be nice to enjoy China's CCTV's New Year's Gala. From a western perspective it's certainly 'different.'
On Friday (5/2/16) 2012 Super Bowl half-time show performer Madonna was dispatched to fly the flag of independence in China's Taiwan Province.
Even the ground seems to have shaken in protest at that one.
17:30 on 7/2/15 (UK date).
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