RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:
Well, and there is, of course, one place where you might want to watch the commercials, and that's the Super Bowl...
STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
Oh, okay.
MONTAGNE: As for the game itself, commentator Frank Deford says don't mess with it.
FRANK DEFORD: Ah, but the Super Bowl constitution has been amended, too. When Commissioner Pete Rozelle - the General Washington of the pro football wars - found peace and created the Super Bowl, his guiding principal was that the heart of winter was no time to play important football games. No, the championship must be exported to more benign latitudes.
MONTAGNE: And sacrilege to the memory of Pete Rozelle: The 2014 Super Bowl itself will actually be played in New Jersey, a snow-covered land whose governor was pilloried for abandoning the state to take refuge in Disneyworld. Jersey? Not so sure.
NFL: The chubby governor who leaves New Jersey for Florida, or the fat-cat NFL which foists the Super Bowl on us right there?
NFL: But NFL ratings are sky high and winter is great for television, precisely because the frosty weather keeps many Americans inside, where they can gather round the high-definition and watch January from the safety of their homes.
MONTAGNE: Frank Deford comes to us every Wednesday from member station WSHU in Fairfield, Connecticut.