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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and now we will wrap up our week with a call in for anybody who's planning to watch the Super Bowl on Sunday and how you're picking a team to root for, or root against (646) 435-7280. If you're not a huge football fan or just a New York football fan without a dog in this fight because it doesn't include the Jets, the giants, or even the Buffalo Bills, the two teams playing are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers featuring the now 43-year-old and still making it to the Super Bowl, but known to have won a MAGA hat in the past, Tom Brady, their quarterback. The MAGA hat was before Trump's election.

The defending champions, the Kansas City Chiefs led by their young quarterback, Patrick Mahomes, who among other things took part in a players call for the league to acknowledge that black lives matter. I realized I'm putting this in a political frame because that's a lot of what we do on this show, but is politics a reason for you to root for or against a Super Bowl team? What about extended quality despite aging? If you know who you're going to root for and why a sports reason or a non-sports reason, give us a call, (646) 435-7280, (646) 435-7280. While your calls are coming in, this is of course the first and we hope the only Super Bowl of the COVID era, Dr. Anthony Fauci has some safety tips for you.

Dr. Anthony Fauci: Watch the game and enjoy it, but do it with your family or with people that are in your household.

Brian: Right. Hopefully you're not attending a super spreadable party. Don't make it the super spreader bowl. How are you celebrating? Anyone have a special menu of apps for dinner or something like that that you want to shout out? (646) 435-7280. Asked who he favors for Sunday and he is a big sports fan, here's how Dr. Fauci responded.

Speaker 3: Who do you got? Chiefs or the Bucks?

[laughter]

Dr. Fauci: Oh, dear.

Brian: Oh, dear. Politician. The other voice you heard was Savannah Guthrie, co-anchor of the Today show on NBC. Of course he's not a politician, but when it comes to something like that, maybe he needs to be a little political. Listeners, who are you supporting if you're in the majority of Americans, not from Tampa Bay or Kansas City? Why? Or will you be as mum as Dr. Fauci and just mutter under your breath, "I don't care until the Giants or the Jets make it back."? (646) 435-7280. We'll take your calls right after this.

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Brian on WNYC as we're about to take your calls on who you are going to root for if anybody in the Super Bowl on Sunday. I'll throw one other gridiron on the fire here. That is, how are you feeling about professional football in the year 2021 at all? The league finally got on board at least somewhat with support for racial justice advocacy so far behind the NBA. I think a lot of people feel like it's been too little too late. For a lot of the owners and the powers that be in the league, it just never felt as much as a priority, like as much of a priority as it has in the NBA.

Of course, there's Colin Kaepernick who has not played in the NFL since he kneeled to protest racism and police brutality. Are you fed up with the NFL for that reason? Are you happy they've taken a step in the right direction on that? There's also, of course, concussions. A lot of people think football should cease to exist, at least in its current form because of the health toll that it takes.

One more thought about Brady. Little surprised to see Frank Rooney write a pro-Brady column in The New York Times, Mostly celebrating continued excellence at age 43, never brought up the fact that he had prominently won a MAGA hat, had one hanging in his locker anyway a few years back or was friends with Donald Trump. It was before he was president. He's tried to stay mum, Brady has during the presidency, from what I understand.

USA Today columnist, Nancy Armour wrote that Brady has gotten an undeserved pass for his past support of Trump. There is that. Maybe you feel as strongly as W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu do here from their podcast Politically Re-Active this week. We've edited this clip for brevity. They said this.

1. Kamau Bell: You're basically storming the Capitol if you support Tom Brady.

Hari Kondabolu: Are you going to watch?

1. Kamau Bell: Probably.

[laughter]

Brian: Marty in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marty. Thanks for calling in.

Marty: Hey, Brian, how's it going? First time caller. I have been a Giant fan my whole life. As I was growing up, I was in middle school and high school when they won twice over Tom Brady. Any opportunity for him to fall flat is for me a cause for celebration. With his deafening silence, it's like the NFL is clearly a political landscape. When you're definitely silent and being accused of things like this, like he has such a close relationship with Trump, it would be really nice to see him implode a little bit. A great career, I can't deny that, but I'm looking forward to seeing him fall.

Brian: Marty, thank you very much. Of course the name of the other team, if we're talking politics is still Kansas City Chiefs. They did not do what the Washington Football Team did and remove that offensive name. They even play at Arrowhead Stadium. You can't take that out on Pat Mahomes and his teammates, but there is that for the franchise itself. Sally, on the Upper West Side, you're on WNYC. Hi Sally, thanks for calling in today.

Sally: Thanks for taking my call. As I told the screener, for more than a decade, I have watched the Super Bowl with several people affiliated with the opera who know nothing about the game. In fact, the very first time we did it, they were watching it because they were trying to hear any tunes from opera that appeared in commercials. They came up with quite a few. In any event, it was a lot of fun for me to be able to tell them what was going on. Of course, I will not be doing that this year.

I grew up in the South where football was the only cultural event in town. I loved the passing game. I just can't watch it anymore. The violence scares the daylights out of me. I will follow what's going on with the Super Bowl toward the end, but I just can't watch a full game. I love a passing game. I do not like Tom for a whole variety of reasons, so I do hope the Chiefs win. It'll be a different Super Bowl.

Brian: By the way, I love the idea and here's something that certainly never came up on the show before playing Super Bowl opera riffs bingo. That's amazing. You did that. Super Bowl opera riffs bingo, but it is a passing game more than ever in the NFL, less of a running game where they crunched bodies in that way. Do you find it more violent than in the past?

Sally: Well, yes I do because it seems to me the players are bigger. The times that I've watched made myself stick with the game because I was interested in the outcome. It just seems like there's a lot of unnecessary tackling that doesn't have to happen, a lot of unnecessary violence. I'm also very disturbed by the older players who have the problems with the brain having had concussions.

Brian: Sally, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Sally: Thank you. Bye.

Brian: Daniel in Bay Ridge, you're on WNYC. Hi, Daniel.

Daniel: Hi Brian. I am not watching the Super Bowl this Sunday because I will be working. I'm also a Cowboys fan but hate Jerry Jones. It's a love, hate relationship with the Cowboys. I'm the founder of the Delivery Worker Project, and I just want to remind everyone that when you order your takeout this weekend for the game and there's still time to order things like catering trays from the fantastic local eateries like Pasta Louise in Park Slope that does that kind of thing, remember to tip your delivery driver, treat them well, treat them with patience. It's going to be a messy Sunday from all-weather forecasting.

Remember to just treat people well and to tip well because we're all skipping the Super Bowl so that you guys can stay home. Thank you. Thank you for letting me say that.

Brian: Then you should call every day and remind people to tip they're delivery drivers, super Sunday, and the other 364 days of the year. Thank you for that. Anna in Manhattan. You're on WNYC. Hi Anna.

Anna: Hi Brian, how are you?

Brian: Good. How are you doing? You're going to watch?

Anna: Great. I don't have a dog in this fight this weekend, but I love the Super Bowl primarily for the food. It's just going to be me and my husband and my two kids. We'll probably make a full day of just making and eating all of our favorite game day foods.

Brian: Such as?

Anna: I love a Buffalo chicken dip. That's the one I'm looking forward to the most. Nachos for sure, which I've been craving for a while, that I needed an excuse to make. Maybe we'll do some sausage and peppers, some stuffed jalapeno peppers. I love a bacon-wrapped date, which is not necessarily a game-day food, but any excuse.

Brian: You make your own nachos?

Anna: I've never done it before, but I've been seeing some great photos of nachos on Instagram and I'm going to give it a shot.

Brian: Enjoy it, Anna, and thanks for calling in. Kathy in Rye, you're on WNYC. Hi, Kathy.

Kathy: Hi. I'm in it for the Kansas City Chiefs because I'm a Philadelphia Eagles fan and wherever Andy Reid, he goes, we go.

Brian: The coach?

Kathy: Yes, he's the coach of the Kansas City Chiefs. I think chief can mean anything, so I don't find it a problem [crosstalk]

Brian: Now, you could be a chief of anything, but they do display it in Native American context so there is that. Andy Reid, there are two ways that people think about the person from their team who then leaves and goes to another team. They can follow the person, like it sounds like you do, and continue to root for the person or like, "Oh, that traitor." You don't have that?

Kathy: Yes, that's true, but we all love Andy.

Brian: Yes, when he was coaching the Eagles successfully. Thank you very much. Grace in Brooklyn, originally from Kansas City. Oh, Grace, I think I know who you're rooting for.

Grace: Hi Brian. Thanks for taking my call. Yes, I'm going for the Kansas City Chiefs, but you mentioned about the name of our team and I'm one of the many people in Kansas City who think our name should be changed. There's actually a joke that we want to change the name to the Kansas Chefs and make barbecue, our mascot. I'm on that team.

Brian: [laughs] That's great. It would probably not cost them very much money because all they knew needed to do is remove the letter "I" from all their advertising, right?

Grace: Exactly. Yes, easy fix.

Brian: I like it. The Kansas City Chefs. How about Al in Brooklyn, you're own WNYC? Hi Al.

Al: Good morning, Brian, how are you?

Brian: Good, how are you?

Al: Good. I don't believe that when you're watching a game, you really should think of it as politics because in my opinion, when a team scores, the players get together and celebrate, they don't distinguish between them. It unifies the team. It unifies the persons that are watching the game. You don't watch it with just Republican or just Democrats or just liberals. You watch it with people and you all cheer together. I think the game brings everybody together. I don't understand why politics in sports belong in sports. Period.

Brian: Who supported what candidate? Or who stood up for racial justice, or not? Just tune it out when the game starts.

Al: Tune it out. Watch what happens when a team scores, they run and hug each other and congratulate each other, whether it's football or baseball or soccer, which is more your opinion than here, but they don't separate each other. They congratulate each other.

Brian: The unity is displayed across races within the teams. That's largely true in sports as I understand it. Al, thank you very much. Adrian in Brooklyn might have a different take on that same question. Hi, Adrian. You're on WNYC. Thanks so much for calling in.

Adrian: Hey, Brian. I'm a huge fan, longtime listener, first-time caller. I would agree with Al. Overall, most folks watching the game, politics are at front of mind. That said, it does color your experience, and part of the reason why I'm rooting for the Tampa Bay Team is that most of their coaches, defensive coordinators, all of their coaches are Black. Your viewers probably know about the NFL has a huge problem hiring head coaches, hiring African-American head coaches. This would be the first Super Bowl where all the primary assistant coaches, defensive coordinator, office coordinator, so on and so forth are all Black, and I think that's huge.

Brian: It's amazing how slowly that has gone in a league where the players are so disproportionately Black. Even Patrick Mahomes, he's not the first Black quarterback, but he's only the eighth or something like that. It's unbelievable these, what are considered the leadership positions, including quarterback on the field.

Adrian: Exactly. I think there's only two or three Black head coaches, but when you look behind the scenes at the number of assistant coaches that are Black, it's also abysmally low. I think it's a great thing that the coaches on the Tampa Bay team are all Black.

Brian: Adrian, thanks for calling in. Call us again. Kelly in Manhattan, your own WNYC. Hi, Kelly.

Kelly: Hey, how are you?

Brian: Good and you?

Kelly: I'm hanging in there, thanks to you. I've been with you since March. I discovered you and you pretty much saved me through this period.

Brian: Oh, [unintelligible 00:16:16] for a little bit. You are too kind.

Kelly: You're amazing. I used to be into the Steelers, the Giants, Dallas when I was a little kid and I'm not really into either one, but I'm probably going to go with Tampa.

Brian: Did you tell our screener something about Brady?

Kelly: Yes, I said Brady has had a lot of brain damage and so you could give him a wide berth on the MAGA hat. [chuckles]

Brian: Oh, interesting. Okay. Football brain damage and Brady's MAGA hat coming together to form the last thought in this segment and we will leave it there. Kelly, thank you very much for calling in. Thanks to all of you who called with all your reasons for not watching, for watching, for how you are going to be watching the Super Bowl. I would take Daniel in Bay Ridge's advice very much to heart here. Don't forget to tip your delivery drivers really well if you are ordering food on Super Bowl Sunday.

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