With Super Bowl LV set for Sunday, Boston University students on campus are gearing up to watch the NFL’s Championship game — with some slight adjustments.
In an email to the BU community Friday, Dean of Students Kenneth Elmore wrote students should be cautious when making plans to watch the game.
“With the temptation to gather offered by this weekend’s Super Bowl, now is a good time to take a time out,” Elmore wrote. “Pause and plan to curtail or significantly reduce any personal gathering and socializing with friends and family this weekend.”
Elmore noted while he recognized the significance of the event for many people, the potential for gatherings to spread the virus was a concern.
“The first Sunday in February is, de facto, an unofficial American national holiday,” Elmore wrote, “and I am worried that, this year, the novel corona virus uses it as a human extinction event.”
Jason Campbell-Foster, senior associate dean of students, said BU had been considering its messaging to students ahead of the big game.
“Our internal tagline has been, ‘How do you have a Super Bowl that’s not a superspreader?’” Campbell-Foster said.
At the same time, Campbell-Foster said the University hopes students enjoy watching the Super Bowl this year.
“We know that it’s an experience,” he said. “We’re really trying to push the envelope to say yes, you can’t have a typical Super Bowl party, we don’t want you to, but we are going to make a very unique COVID experience for students who want to participate.”
John Dooley, a freshman in the Questrom School of Business, said the Super Bowl is an event he is “very excited” for.
“The Super Bowl is just, it’s a great time to come together with friends and just enjoy good food, watch some commercials, enjoy the halftime show,” Dooley said. “There’s something for everybody.”
He said he created COVID-safe plans with a small group of his friends to watch the game together Sunday.
“I hope to bring in a couple friends from my household,” Dooley said. “Hopefully I can get one or two friends on the floor to come in and watch the game and maybe order some wings.”
Dooley added his plans this year are far from his usual Super Bowl tradition with friends from his hometown.
“Usually at home, we’d get 20, 25 friends,” Dooley said. “We would all get in somebody’s basement, throw the game on a projector and get a ton of food.”
Similar to Dooley, Questrom sophomore Dennis Wang’s Super Bowl viewing experience will look very different from last year when he and his friends screened the game in Warren Towers.
“Without COVID protocols, we would probably have a bigger friend group,” Wang said. “Last year, we had a group of eight, nine, 10 people, but this semester we’ll probably at most cap it at four.”
Wang said he started watching football in high school, and players’ different storylines make the sport entertaining.
“Football is so ingrained in American culture,” Wang said. “The Super Bowl is a once-in-a-year experience.”
However, for other students on campus, Super Bowl Sunday is just another day of the week.
College of Arts and Sciences junior Nirmiti Naik said she doesn’t have much of an interest in football but has seen the fan base on campus.
“Just from being here, I can tell a lot of people are super passionate about it, which I think is cool,” Naik said. “It’s more about community and supporting your team.”
Although Naik said it’s unlikely she will join in on any Super Bowl festivities this year, she is still looking forward to her own Sunday plans — sans pig skin.
Katrina Tremaglio, a freshman in the College of General Studies, said she also won’t be tuning in to the football game this weekend, but her family at home might.
“I have very minimal plans,” Tremaglio said. “I think my family is going to watch the Super Bowl. Actually, I don’t even know if they will, they’re pretty fed up with football stuff.”
