The Super Bowl is an annual American rite. Around the country friends gathertogether around the television with beer and potato chips and gear up for thegame of... » 

The Super Bowl is an annual American rite. Around the country friends gathertogether around the television with beer and potato chips and gear up for thegame of the season. A multimillion dollar event produced by the NFL corporatesponsors and broadcast networks the Super Bowl is a carefully craftedspectacle that seems more about revenue than football.But what happens to your town when the Super Bowl comes to visit? Dona Schwartzseized the opportunity to find out when Super Bowl XXVI came to her home townMinneapolis. The result is Contesting the Super Bowl an alternative nonNFLsponsored examination of the event and its impact on the host community.Since the Super Bowl is a visual spectacle Contesting the Super Bowl employsvisual means as part of its analytical arsenal. To cover the event a team ofnine photographers fanned out across the city in search of images that mighttell a different story than the photographs dispatched by the press or the NFL.Issues probed by the lens include visible manifestations of race class andgender divisions the roles played by local elites in marshaling the spectacleand the function of the NFL and the media as storytellers. It integratesnewspaper clips quotes from players both on and off the field NFL rules andregulations photographers firstperson accounts of their experiences alongwith photographs and a series of critical essays heading each chapter. Inaddition to offering an analysis of power patriarchy and professional sportContesting the Super Bowl critiques its own narrative apparatus and theprocess of representation.A humorous and at times disturbing portrait Contesting the SuperBowlprovides a peek at a different side of this enormously popular event. «