Super Bowl actions spoke louder than words

For some rather strange and unknown reason, I enjoyed this year's Super Bowl more than any other that I can remember. Other than baking cupcakes (pictured above), I didn't do anything particularly special. We didn't attend or throw a party but instead Adam and I sat plopped our our couch bordered with bulldogs throughout the entire game. I didn't miss even a single commercial!

Speaking of commercials, the Pepsi pre-game commercial featuring a popular joke in the Deaf community was beyond awesome. Here it is incase you missed it:

Yes, my amusement was slightly self-centered since my first thought was, "I knew there was a reason I incessantly drink Pepsi and have at times considering buying a Pepsi patch if it was available." My immediate second reason for celebrating this small moment of disability history was to recognize the true inclusive nature of the advertisement. The actors in the commercial playing Bob's friends are Deaf and have been long-time employees of Pepsi. Bob is not Deaf, but the man responsible for pitching this concept to Pepsi for several months outside of his usual job responsibilities and securing their commitment to run it on Super Bowl Sunday. The story behind this short silent clip shows how people with and without disabilities can work together in virtually any market for a better result.

Beyond this advertisement's symbol of inclusion in the workforce, I was so grateful to actually enjoy a good laugh and know that the rest of the world could finally get a taste of appropriate disability humor. It's hard to remember the last time I got to see people with disabilities featured without the overpowering and overused flavor of inspiration and determination. For once, we were finally beckoned into the same realm of the other light-hearted jokes. There we were right amidst the talking babies, dancing lizards, and pig pinching crabs. I loved it!

While I wasn't alone, apparently not EVERYONE loved the Pepsi commercial. As I learned from one of my favorite fellow Disaboom bloggers, DeafMom, one organization has protested the commercial because they fear it "perpetuates the myth that  all people who are deaf can only communicate using sign language." I don't really follow the logic of how a short clip will generalize with only such a negative focus. I'm not concerned that commercials featuring wheelchair users pushing their chairs somehow indicate that we can't get out of them (which is a commonly held misconception about us). I think we have to choose our battles and in a world where it seems we have much more to complain about than to celebrate in regards to disability rights, we shouldn't miss the opportunity to laugh together.

And on that note, I do have one teensy bit of complaining to do but it's actually not so much disability-related at all. I was outraged/appalled/flabbergasted by the Patriot's coach, Bill Belichick's showing of not bad, but horrible sportsmanship. I'm usually the last to protest about game etiquette in professional sports because I believe players are paid to be athletes and entertainers to a degree. If they are also role models, then it's a bonus but shouldn't an expectation. When Belichick stormed into the locker room with time still on the clock, he abandoned his team. I found it rude that he didn't congratulate the other players, but completely unacceptable that as the leader of a team that did so well throughout the season, he couldn't muster another second's worth of character to support the team that plays for him day after day. While I know many a child enjoyed the realization of an underdog's win last night, I also hope a few missed this leader's demonstration of how to quit. Character isn't only shown in winning, but in losing too.

I'm looking forward to wider weekends now that Sundays are free from football, but I'll definitely be ready for kickoff mid-summer. Lucky for me, I have my fantasy football obsessed boyfriend, a high school coach brother, and a equally fanatical football mother to keep me occupied with X's and O's until then!