What Time is the Super Bowl?
A serious question
It’s Sunday, February 9, at 6:30 p.m.
I have cast the traditional magic spell for SEO this time of year. But as someone with more questions than answers about the Super Bowl, I’d like to stay with this one a little longer.
What time is the Super Bowl?
A union of chronos and kairos. Chronos: each glorious second played, witnessed, counted down. Kairos: the eternal present of sportswatching. Replays are plays because all time is now and now is the Super Bowl.
What time is the Super Bowl?
A great time to do anything else. I have watched two full Super Bowl games in my life, and otherwise I have done a lot of going to less-than-usually crowded public spaces and hung out in the kitchens of houses in which other people are watching the Super Bowl. I have felt the tacit camaraderie with other opt-outers—an underrated bond! The briefest interaction carries a shared understanding: not your thing either, huh?
What time is the Super Bowl?
A pop culture smorgasbord of a time. A time for all the people who care about the game and also all the people who care about Taylor Swift (and a lot of both).
What time is the Super Bowl?
An expensive time. Blah blah, ticket prices. Blah blah airtime spends. The commerce story I’m into is nonprofit Good360, which is on hand every year to donate the celebratory merchandise produced ahead of time by the losing team to NGOs overseas. Teams are happy to take a loss to make sure you can’t easily score a jersey commemorating the Niners’ historic 2024 victory on eBay.
What time is the Super Bowl?
A dangerous time. We’re watching young men sustain brain damage that no paycheck can ameliorate. Sorry?
What time is the Super Bowl?
Two halves of time with a third unrelated time in the middle. As a young teenager, I turned on the TV during the 2004 Super Bowl seconds before the infamous “wardrobe malfunction,” watched the rest of the halftime performance, had no idea anything unusual had happened, turned the TV off, and only later found out that I had witnessed history. My bafflement arrived by the way it was spun in the aftermath—why was Janet Jackson getting criticized? And Justin Timberlake wasn’t? Not that either of them should have been? It was an accident??—was formative in my dawning awareness of the treatment of women in popular media. It was a different time (jk).
What time is the Super Bowl?
A trademarked time. Of the many implications of this, none delights me more than watching sitcoms in which all the characters call it “the big game,” because the Super Bowl can only be alluded to like a god whose hush-footed pilgrims dare not speak its name.
What time is the Super Bowl?
It is timeless. There is everything to play for, and forever to play it in. When I think about the eternal horizons of the Super Bowl, I think of Jon Bois’ sci-fi epic for SB Nation (yes), 17776: tl;dr, the real Super Bowl was the friends we made along the way. There will be a winner this year, and next year, and so on. As much as we can be certain about the persistence of anything in America these days, we can be certain of our superlative bowl. In a time of mis/disinformation and eroding democracy, it’s at least nice to know we can agree on what’s happening at 6:30 p.m. Eastern Time on February 9th.
Contrarians, please share your thoughts on this urgent question: What time is the Super Bowl?
After The Puppy Bowl!
The 2025 Puppy Bowl takes place Sunday, Feb. 9. It begins at 1 p.m. CT, and will last three hours.
The Puppy Bowl will air on Animal Planet, Discovery, TBS and truTV. It will also stream on Discovery+, Max and Fubo
The dogs will compete across two teams -- one named Ruff, the other one Fluff -- with the winning one taking home the coveted "Lombarky" trophy.
The game, which raises awareness and donations for shelters and rescues across the country, also features a special honor for MVP, or Most Valuable Puppy, along with an "Underdog Award," which goes to the pup that "surprises viewers the most with an outstanding performance."
WHEN DEMOCRACY IS RESTORED.