There were no masks in sight at Super Bowl LVI, even though LA County is under an outdoor mask mandate.
Summary
Super Bowl LVI ended with an incredible touchdown drive from Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford and receiver Cooper Kupp. Pittsburgh’s own Aaron Donald sacked Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the final seconds of the game, sealing the Rams’ 23-20 victory.
Super Bowl LVI looked like the first normal Super Bowl since before the pandemic. Virtually no spectators, game officials including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, celebrities, half-time show performers, team members or public officials in attendance wore masks at the Big Game last night.
- LA Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer gave a masked pre-game interview from SoFi Stadium. She said, “I’m glad people are trying to be sensible and protect themselves” – even as every spectator behind her was unmasked.
- LA Mayor Eric Garcetti was pictured mask-less two weeks ago at the NFC Championship game, and he defended himself by saying “I hold my breath” when he takes his mask off for pictures. Garcetti was once again caught mask-less at the Super Bowl. Evidently Garcetti has mastered the difficult feat of holding his breath with his mouth open.
- Garcetti’s hypocrisy comes just days after Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was forced to apologize after her campaign published photos of her visiting an elementary school mask-less, surrounded by masked elementary school kids.
- Days before the Super Bowl Los Angeles health officials “believe[d] it’s still too early to take… masks off” and emphasized LA County’s outdoor mask mandate would be in effect at the Super Bowl.
- The widespread refusal to follow LA County’s public health guidelines by LA’s mayor is especially jarring when juxtaposed with LA County schools. LA students don’t get to just ignore LA’s public health guidelines when they feel like it like their mayor.
- Kids were forced to wear surgical masks to school today, like they do every day, even though kids face minimal risks from contracting COVID-19.
- Bloomberg reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has decreed Biden’s State of the Union speech will have limited attendance, a strict mask mandate and social distancing. So according to California Democrats, masks don’t matter for a sporting event but the US Congress has to act like its April 2020 when performing a constitutionally-mandated obligation. Got it?
- The New York Times covered Biden’s Super Bowl interview, where he said lifting indoor mask mandates was “probably premature.” I wonder if he’ll have anything to say about Garcetti’s behavior at the Super Bowl? Somehow, I doubt Biden will pull Garcetti’s nomination to be his Ambassador to India.
- The Joe Rogan witch-hunt continues over at CNN. In what has to be one of the most deranged opinion pieces your correspondent has ever read, CNN’s John Blake called years-old jokes resurfaced as part of the campaign to remove the popular comedian’s podcast from Spotify – that Rogan has since apologized for – “another January 6 moment.” Seriously. CNN stealth edited the piece’s headline after it earned a considerable backlash on Twitter but even edited it’s still so looney-tunes it needs to be read to be believed.
- Breitbart tracked the numerous celebrities mask-less at the Super Bowl.
- Fox News covered the fan reaction to the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, featuring performances from hip-hop legends Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. The five musicians have a combined 44 Grammy Awards between them, and it showed.
- Kevin Williamson diagnoses “why progressives can’t quit their masks” over at National Review. Williamson writes that masks have become “a matter of cultural identity, not a matter of policy or science.” Evidently, they just need to go to the Super Bowl and they’ll get over their cultural identity real quick!
Author’s Take
Unmask our kids. If the politicians who force six-year-olds to mask all day at school can’t be bothered to follow their own mandates – even though kids are more at risk of dying in a car accident on the way to school than dying of COVID – then the mandates need to end, TODAY.
Parents who want to mask their children should still be able to. However, parents who make a different risk calculation for their children absolutely should have their wishes respected by the state. More kids die of cancer every year than have died of COVID-19 during the entire pandemic. Kids with cancer will always have to take extra precautions, whether we’re in a pandemic or not. Your correspondent can confirm this from personal experience.
We should not continue to reorient society to protect a small minority who faced higher risks under the status quo. Not when the costs of child masking for all kids are so clear, and so detrimental to all children.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
