I feel like my sissie maybe might have did some struggling on Monday (I didn’t see no gym story on Monday, boo? Did you make it?) because she was definitely celebrating VERY HARD when I slid out of there because I was tired of being outside.  I can only people for so long, yannow?

Anyway. Congratulations to the winners* My team did not play, but I’m a Cali girl, so my default team was in fact SF: Please translate that to I had zero skin in this game. And yes! I actually DID watch the game this year. It’s been a minute, because I like to get on my soapbox about things. In fact. ISN’T IT FUNNY HOW (Hope you’re prepared for me to say something that is definitely NOT going to be funny) Kaepernick kneeling is A BRIDGE TOO FAR, but spending millions of dollars for religious ads (paid for by such “christian” hate groups like Hobby Lobby) AND THEN showing ads talmbout “stand up to hate” while STILL bombing TF outta…you know what, lemme get back on track making sure that Kaepernick never played Football again FEELS V political.  

But what do I know? All I know is MY HIGHER POWER don’t like ugly, so maybe that’s the reason the 49ers lost.  AND Kaepernick STILL won because he sued TF outta the NFL (as he shoulda) and then his Frat was up on stage with Ursher showing out. NO. This isn’t THE fact, but it is A Fact and I feel confident in saying that this is the first time that a Black Fraternity was doing their thing ON A STAGE AT THE SUPER BOWL. That Fraternity was Kappa Alpha Psi and baybee. I know that shoulder shimmy anywhere.

Also, while I’m talking about the halftime show (and I am because I get to lead into the facts however I want), just when I think the Halftime Show could not get any blacker than Snoop Dogg wearing a whole blue bandana outfit and taking a little *clears throat* walk on the big stage, Usher has roller skates, Stripper Poles (Magic City is an African American Performing Arts Center), Lil Jon, Alicia (beautiful gowns) Keys and an HBCU Marching Band. He really said “ATL, HOE” without saying a word. (I haven’t said it lately, but it’s true every day and in every way: I love us.)

That band, by the way, was the Jackson State University Sonic Boom of the South (I’m assuming you say it as one word like A Pimp Named Slickback). And they are the latest HBCU marching band to play a Super Bowl halftime show.

THE First HBCU to play in a Super Bowl halftime show was Grambling State University, who played along with University of Arizona (a predominately white institution) at the Very First Super Bowl in 1967 (called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game. The name did not become “Super Bowl” until the third game was played in 1969), at the Los Angeles Coliseum. Yes. That (sonic?) boom was the sound of me getting to the point.

That first Super Bowl performance came during a time of much racial tension. Riots broke out in cities like Detroit and Los Angeles. The racism-confronting “In the Heat of the Night” won Best Picture at the Academy Awards that year, and Thurgood Marshall was named the first Black Supreme Court Justice. And here is a Black band from Louisiana where segregation was still much alive and well, performing in front of millions in america (that’s not a typo. The u.s. does not deserve the respect of capitalization).

Super Bowl I launched the Grambling marching band’s legacy. They later starred in commercials, played the Super Bowl four more times and even inspired the 2002 film, “Drumline.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

And there you have it folks! The obligatory Super Bowl BHFOTD. Blackity Black black black. Black Football players, Black QBs, Black Halftime performances. But I’d trade all of it, if the police would stop killing Black people.

* Seriously tho. Do we gotta get some Kansas City Slurs t-shirts before they change their name or? Because I am definitely on board with giving them the Washington Football Team™ treatment until they rebrand.