Well, that was a football game.
The Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots 41-33 in a game that set a record for yardage in a playoff game, with the teams combining for 1,151 total yards. Tom Brady accounted for 511 of those yards while Eagles backup quarterback Nick Foles threw for three touchdowns and caught one more en route to winning the MVP. If that wasn’t enough the Patriots were inches away from connecting on a Hail Mary which would have given the Patriots the chance to tie the game with a 2-point conversion and send it to overtime. But alas, the legend of Brady wasn’t enough to stop Philadelphia from capturing their first Super Bowl.
Who can go to work after handling all that drama?
Not the long-suffering Eagles fans who immediately took to the streets of Philadelphia to engage in joyous celebration, along with dubious activity including climbing light poles, setting fires, and performing questionable trust falls.
Not the Patriots fans, who engage in far less property damage when their team wins or loses, and who will have a hard time getting to work after watching their beloved quarterback lose his third Super Bowl, even with the help of their beloved Dunkin coffee.
Even if their favorite team wasn’t involved in the outcome, the estimated 108 million who tuned into the Super Bowl may find it difficult. After all, they spent approximately $2 billion on alcohol for the big game and consumed 1.35 billion chicken wings. After that kind of consumption, Americans collective hangover is pretty rough.
Is it any surprise that nearly 40 percent of individuals who watched the game don’t plan to attend work today? And if they do, how productive are they going to be anyway?
The solution is clear: President Trump must declare the day after the Super Bowl a national holiday.
Under his powers as the chief executive, Trump can issue an executive order declaring a one-time national holiday, though he would need the approval of Congress to make it permanent. If Congress refuses to see the wisdom of making it a permanent national holiday (though the majority in a recent survey support this plan and presumably would let their representatives know) Trump can easily keep declaring the holiday for the remainder of his presidency.
As America becomes more and more fractured culturally, it’s important to celebrate the shared experiences we can all relate to. Abraham Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation during the height of the Civil War in 1863, at a time our nation had never been more divided. This was to give Americans a time to reflect on the blessings that had been bestowed upon our nation by God.
Those blessings have clearly continued. According to Twitter data, the vast majority of states were praying for the Eagles to pull off the upset last evening. Those prayers have been answered, and America continues to be blessed both off and on the football field.
The course from here is clear. Trump should announce a new national holiday on the Monday after the Super Bowl. We need it to rest and recover from the annual drama that grips on the nation on the first Sunday in February. Not just to recover from hangovers, but to clean our homes, and our streets (I’m looking at you, Philly).
Eric Peterson is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a native of Illinois and a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan.
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