You might not associate sports with the common conception of "pop culture" (celebrity gossip and such), but the truth is that no culture is more popular in our big, beautiful United States of America than the great game of football. Superbowl XLII, held Sunday at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., had the numbers to prove this sentiment. With a frightening 97 million viewers, the 42nd Super Bowl landed a comfortable spot as the second-most-viewed television event in history, following the final episode of the TV series M*A*S*H, "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen," which drew 106 million people when it aired in 1983.

That said, it's not easy being a New York Giants fan (like I became sometime during the fourth quarter) here in Massachusetts, where the near-perfect-season Patriots are held in such high regard. Giants fans who had not already secluded themselves for the game's duration found themselves quietly edging out of the room to avoid physical confrontation.

Undefeated until Sunday, the Patriots' were about to complete the first perfect NFL season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins until Eli Manning and the Giants snatched it away in the final quarter.

With the Patriots defeat imminent, their fans sat comatose, staring at their televisions like soldiers who have just seen their whole platoon immolated before their eyes. Well aware of the unpredictability of extreme grief, Boston police lined the streets of the city in full riot gear and sporting some adorable but ill-tempered canines (though I'm sure they were prepared to contain an equally violent celebration).

Yet in many ways, the Super Bowl, though it may divide two teams and their fans, is a great tool of cultural unification. For weeks to come, a third of our country will be united in common interest, conversation and cultural reference, a rarity in this vastly diverse nation. Even those of us who couldn't really care less about national sports get to put on their hometown colors and descend into some good old-fashioned, beer-swilling, sectarian fun. Here's to football.