Tradition of Advertising

Lindquist mentions alot of things in his paper about the traditions of football and how it relates to the identity of Americans as a whole. Everything from the marching band of the university paralleling the marching bands of the military to the specialization of players on the field paralleling specialization used in the American corprate world. He mentions things like how teamwork and rules are thought to help build good Americans. One thing I think Lindquist missed in his paper were the advertisments. All the commercials that play during the superbowl and such. These have become just as much a part of the tradition as the superbowl itself. In fact, I know several people who watch the superbowl for nothing more than the commercials that will air during. If you are going to say that the marching bands are tradition, that buckeye bracelets are tradition, then you have to mention the fact that the commercials themselves during the superbowl are considered tradition too.
Something else that caught my attention was the idea that football creates identity as a group. Especially college football in certain areas. I think this makes a great deal of sense, people identify with the team, they feel pain when their team loses and joy when their team wins. Not only that, but this feeling of group, of identity, can extend to the individual as well as the group as a whole. For example, look at the 40 year old man who played quarterback for his college football team. He sees that expierence in his life as part of his identity, part of who he is and was. He is the guy who played quarterback for the Buckeyes. From this he could start a tradition of his own, maybe every year on a certain day him and his family celebrate the day he won the game for his team (I'm getting entirely off track here, I know). Bringing it home, people create tradition in many ways, one of which is through their group identity. All the ohio state fans share in the traditions of Ohio State's football team.
Last thing I would like to mention is the idea that many Americans saw football as a way of bringing structure to younger americans, which is true in my opinion. Any organized sport teaches kids/younger adults to learn key concepts like playing by the rules, time management, and teamwork. Some of the things I talked about may not relate to folklore entirely, but they were brought up in the paper and I think it was a good idea to mention them.