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Super Bowl 2015: You think it’s only for Americans, but here’s why you’re wrong

The Vince Lombardi Trophy is displayed between the helmets of the Seattle Seahawks (left) and New England Patriots.
The Vince Lombardi Trophy is displayed between the helmets of the Seattle Seahawks (left) and New England Patriots.

The Super Bowl is a massively bloated, over-exposed, advertising-driven behemoth that takes at least four hours to play and drags on into the wee small hours.

It is also the greatest sporting event of the year.

While the NFL in all its gaudy glitz and glamour check out the Super Bowl rings given to winning players – may seem as far removed from the Corinthian ideal of sport as it is possible to get, it’s actually the opposite that’s true.

Underneath all the helmets, pads and over-produced halftime shows, the NFL is one of the most genuinely competitive sports on the planet with drafts, revenue sharing, salary caps and scheduling all used to keep a level playing field.

It means that, unlike with our version of football, there is no vicious circle where the richest clubs buy the best players, win more trophies and become even richer.

This means that it is impossible for teams to spend their way to success and allows teams from smaller markets, like Green Bay in Wisconsin, stand toe-to-toe with those from cities like New York.

On Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks will become the first defending Super Bowl winners to reach the championship game again the next year since 2005, which shows how hard it is to dominate the sport.

In fact, nine different teams have won the Superbowl over the past 10 years.

And while there is the perception the game just drags on and on, that is not really the case: clock management is just as much a skill as the ridiculously complicated offensive and defensive schemes teams employ.

Tactically, each down in the NFL is like high-speed, high-impact chess crossed with poker while on a timer.

Each season is only 16 games long so the idea of playing for a draw doesn’t exist. Every win is vital.

Even when a team seems to be winning comfortably, games and entire seasons can turn in a single play.

The difficulty of getting to a Super Bowl means that the stakes for both teams are impossibly high and the games are impossible to predict.

Yes, the ad breaks may be annoying but that just means you don’t need to miss any of the action a bomb of a pass, a churning run through despairing tacklers or a linebacker steamrollering a hapless quarterback – while getting yourself another beer.

* Super Bowl 2015 between New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks kicks off at 11.30pm UK time. There is live coverage on Channel 4 and Sky Sports.