Confused by the Super Bowl? This 1/30 event is for you

Featured Events | Jan 28, 2015 | Gabelli School of Business

In the biggest football game of the year, you watch a running back go off-tackle for a first down, then hear your friends cheer wildly as the quarterback hits a wide receiver on a post bringing his teammates deep into their opponent’s red zone.

If you’re an international student unprepared for America’s most watched sport, this could have you wondering what madness this way comes (and we haven’t even gotten to the halftime show yet).

This is what has prompted Lonnie Kussin, assistant dean of advising for Fordham University’s graduate school of business, to organize “Football in America: Learning the Importance of the Super Bowl,” an event scheduled for Friday, Jan. 30, the last weekday before the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots on Feb. 1.

Kussin said his event is aimed at international students who want a primer on American football. The event, he said, is important part of culture and business in the United States.

“I don’t think people realize the impact that it has on business,” Kussin said. “I don’t think people are expecting that one day they actually have to go to a sporting event and talk with clients, or realize that on a Monday morning or a Monday afternoon, when their coworkers are talking about the game the day before, (they could have) some kind of input into that.”

The program is part of a series of explainers about American sports that Kussin and Matt Murphy, enrollment and reporting manager for the graduate school, have put on for international students. The idea for the events was spurred when Murphy took the time to explain baseball to an international student who was planning to go to a game with her employer and had no idea what to expect.

Then the two explained hockey to a group, and before the World Series they held an event to explain baseball again.

Now it’s time for the Super Bowl, and Kussin is handling this task solo. Students who attend will get a primer on the basic rules, plus an explanation of why the halftime show and the commercials are such a big deal.

“I just hope that when they’re watching the game on Sunday they at least have an idea what’s going on and what to expect,” Kussin said.

As for the game itself, Kussin knows where his loyalties lie and they are not with New England, the bane of the New York Jets.

“I’m rooting for Seattle because I’m a Jets fan,” Kussin said, “so I’m going to go with the Seahawks.”

Event: Football in America: Learning the Importance of the Super Bowl
Date: Friday, Jan. 30, 2015
Time: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Location: Room 619, Lowenstein Building
Register: To sign up, click here