There's been a lot of fanfare in the build up to Super Bowl Live (BBC One, Sunday, 1 February, 11pm). No wonder. It's a ludicrous, wonderful and crass spectacle. Before the match had even started, there'd been jet planes shrieking through the sky, a hysterical (and as it turns out, mimed) national anthem, and Jake Humphrey pointing out a full size pirate ship in one of the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. A. Full. Size. Pirate. Galleon. Now compare all that to our FA Cup final, which sees us all singing 'Abide With Me' and not much else, and you've got a stark contrast between the English and American way of doing things. Super Bowl XLIII is not your average sporting event.

The Arizona Cardinals were taking on the Pittsburgh Steelers. From what I could gather, the Steelers are the Man United of American football and the Cardinals were unfancied, like Bolton Wanderers. The final was talked up like the Liverpool and Wimbledon cup final of the late '80s. For the record, non-sports fans, Wimbledon won that one.

The coverage of American football is absolutely insane. The match itself, stopped/started, which gave TV producers the opportunity to really pull the stops out. Each stoppage was greeted with bursts of heavy metal and animated, talking graphics. Some floating head of a player comes on screen and says "Hi, Titus Weissheffer, Offensive Skull Hurtler" while referees got on the mic and talked to the crowd. So interrupted is the game that it seemed at some points, that the match itself was second fiddle to analysis. It seemed like there was analysis of other bits of analysis.

That fact, in itself, perfectly illustrates one of the main points about American football. As a sport, it's incredibly basic. Throw a ball to someone in the 'end zone' and if they catch it, it's like scoring a goal. However, between that, there's 'downs', things called '2nd and 20' and cheering at seemingly random events. I figure that, because there are so many occasions to stop for a chat, over the years, Americans had invented a load of impenetrable phrases through a lack of anything to do between passages of play.

All the chat does enable some rather lovely cinematography though. Super slo-mo shots of people clattering into each other, people randomly flexing their muscles on the pitch and quarterbacks doing really quarterbacky things in high definition, super slo-mo gorgeousness.

As for the game itself, well, you shouldn't be looking to a TV blog to tell you about that. All I'll say is that it was kinda exciting and had a more than dramatic close. Last gasp touchdowns, staggering comebacks... all that good stuff you ought to get from a big sporting event like this... and that's what this is. It's a real event. Hell, this was a sporting fixture that even found the time to have a Bruce Springsteen gig on the pitch at half time, with all the fans dancing around on the playing surface. It was crazy!

As an Englishmen, I'll never truly understand the fascination with American football. However, I completely understand the fascination and rapture that accompanies the Super Bowl. Really, there's nothing like it on earth and, while it may be crass in places, no-one does crass like the Americans... and we should all join in the baseness of it once in a while.