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When the NFL parties, fans pay price

Workers get Levi's Stadium ready for Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots in Santa Clara, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026.  (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Godofredo A. Vásquez
/
AP
Workers get Levi's Stadium ready for Super Bowl LX between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots in Santa Clara, Calif., Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026.

This week marks the nation’s Bacchanal, the annual festival of food, festivities and frizzante otherwise known as Super Bowl Week.

From now until roughly midnight next Sunday, Americans will give their thinking caps a rest andzero in on what is important: which multi-million dollar 30 or 60-second TV ad will folks be talking about Monday.

The Super Bowl, you know, the game itself, has over the years become secondary to the hoopla that surrounds it.

Milton Kent hosted the weekly commentary Sports at Large from its creation in 2002 to its finale in July 2013. He has written about sports locally and nationally since 1988, covering the Baltimore Orioles, University of Maryland men's basketball, women's basketball and football, the Washington Wizards, the NBA, men's and women's college basketball and sports media for the Baltimore Sun and AOL Fanhouse. He has covered the World Series, the American and National League Championship Series, the NFL playoffs, the NBA Finals and 17 NCAA men's and women's Final Fours. He currently teaches journalism at Morgan State University.