CBS’s Super Bowl 2024 broadcast needs to meet fans halfway

Advance to the rear!

Back before television was overly medicated with the excesses of technological achievement, it was never a worry. TV would make good on its goal to provide “the best seat in the house.”

Now that’s more of an oddity than an expectation.

My strongest hope for genuine football fans Sunday is that CBS meets us halfway. Play around all it wishes with whatever, post all the misleading stat graphics it can muster, but pay attention to game circumstances.

Super Bowls have become known for muted crowds, as teams’ regular customers have largely been supplanted by those with team and NFL corporate connections, indiscriminately wealthy make-the-scene types and those who know a guy who knows a guy who can get tickets.

I once pressed every button to buy two tickets at face price for the son of a good friend. It was Super Bowl XXIX, in Miami on Jan. 29, 1995. My one request was that he send me the ticket stubs (to prove he attended the game rather than scalp them). In the end, he said he lost the stubs.