ФИФА-гийн зүгээс Дэлхийн аваргын тэмцээний финалд анх удаа Америкийн хөлбөмбөгийн лигийн (NFL) “Супер Боул”-ын жишгээр завсарлагын шоуг нэмэхээр боллоо. Энэхүү шийдвэр нь тоглогчдын тоглолтын хэмнэл болон биеийн бэлтгэлд нөлөөлж болзошгүй тул мэргэжилтнүүдийн анхаарлыг татаж байна.
ФИФА-гийн төлөвлөснөөр Жастин Бибер, Шакира, Мадонна зэрэг одуудын оролцох уг шоу болон завсарлагын нийт хугацааг 20 минутаас хэтрүүлэхгүй байхаар зорьж байгаа аж. Хэдийгээр энэ нь Олон улсын хөлбөмбөгийн холбооны зөвлөлийн тогтоосон 15 минутын хэвийн завсарлагаас урт ч, “Супер Боул”-ын 30 минут хүрдэг урт хугацаанаас харьцангуй богино юм.
NFL-ийн туршлагатай тоглогч Кристиан Фориагийн үзэж буйгаар, ийм урт завсарлага нь тоглогчдын бие халаалт болон сэтгэл зүйн төвлөрлийг алдагдуулдаг талтай. Тиймээс дасгалжуулагчид тоглогчдоо дахин сэргээх, биеэ суллах эсвэл бэлтгэлээ үргэлжлүүлэх замаар энэхүү нөхцөл байдлыг даван туулах арга барилыг эрэлхийлдэг.
Зарим тоглогч энэ хугацааг биеэ амраах, сэргээх боломж гэж үздэг бол зарим нь тоглолтын хэмнэлээ хадгалахын тулд өөрийн гэсэн дэглэмийг баримталдаг. “Супер Боул”-ын үеэр тоглогчид талбай дээрх тоглолтоос илүүтэйгээр шоуны бэлтгэл ажил, хөл хөдөлгөөнд сатаарахгүй байх нь чухал болохыг туршлагатай тоглогчид онцолж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
The World Cup final on Sunday will, for the first time, include a halftime show, mirroring the star power and spectacle of the NFL’s Super Bowl. With that addition also comes an extended break in action, which could force some adjustments to players’ typical halftime routines.
NFL players and coaches have been candid about how the Super Bowl’s extended halftime affects their recovery and game planning during the break. Super Bowl halftimes last about 25 to 30 minutes, including a 12-to-14-minute performance. An ordinary NFL halftime is 13 minutes.
FIFA’s halftime show — which is set to include Justin Bieber, Shakira, BST, Madonna, Burna Boy, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and PS22 Chorus —is aiming to be shorter. FIFA previously said the show will last about 11 minutes, and The Athletic reported this week that the organization is targeting no longer than 20 minutes for the entire halftime period. That could be five minutes longer than the International Football Association Board’s 15-minute halftime mandate, less dramatic than the NFL’s Super Bowl adjustment but still a change from the norm.
So, how have NFL players dealt with the added time?
Retired NFL tight end Christian Fauria certainly noticed the difference. Fauria, who won back-to-back Super Bowls with the New England Patriots after the 2003 and 2004 seasons, described a regular halftime as so quick, “You barely have time to go to the bathroom.” That wasn’t the case at the Super Bowl.
“It feels like an eternity, you’re bored, you are pacing, you’ve kind of already gone over any important issues, and now it’s really like you’re hurrying up and waiting,” Fauria, 54, told The Athletic this week. “And you’re probably a little bit irritated because now the lather that you got from playing in the game is gone. You have to basically restart your engine all over again — not only your body, but your mind.”
For the first Super Bowl win, Fauria was on a team of experienced players who had won a Super Bowl two years earlier, and he looked to the veterans to lead a slower halftime routine, which gave players time to refuel, relax and warm back up.
New England’s head coach, Bill Belichick, eventually took a novel approach to the longer break. As his team prepared to face the New York Giants in Super Bowl 46 in 2012, Belichick had his players take a 30-minute break during practice.
“It really gets into the whole restarting mentality,” Belichick told reporters at the time. “It’s not like taking a break and coming out in the second half. It’s like starting the game all over again. It’s like playing a game, stopping, and then playing a second game. It’s like a doubleheader in baseball, if you will.”
Other coaching staffs have also tried to prepare for the longer breaks; former New York Giants strength and conditioning coach Jerry Palmieri once explained his unusual message to players at the start of a Super Bowl halftime break: “Just chill.”
“We didn’t come back to them, as coaches, until 13 minutes remained” before the second half, Palmieri told The New York Times.
The extended halftime is just one of many timing adjustments at the Super Bowl. Players show up to the stadium earlier. The singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” is longer. Even the coin toss is treated with more ceremony.
Former NFL running back Brian Mitchell, who won Super Bowl 26 with the Washington Redskins, tried to stick to a regimented halftime routine during every game he played in. With 10 minutes left before game time, Mitchell would begin stretching and, as he walked back to the field, he’d get himself back into the game-time mindset. For him, it was all about pacing — no matter the length of the halftime break — and before the Super Bowl, he saw his teammates catch on, too.
“I did notice that as the game got closer, everybody went into more of this mental mindset where they had to go through their routine or their game plan to make sure everything is in place, everything is in order,” Mitchell, 57, said. “You’ve done everything right mentally, you’ve done everything you need to do physically. The only thing you can really control is when you start getting your stuff done. … I’ve always tried to make sure that the time I spent was exactly how it would be in any game.”
Extended halftime periods aren’t unique to the final game in today’s NFL. The addition of halftime shows during Thanksgiving and Christmas games and international contests has given more players exposure to such fanfare.
And having extra time to recharge isn’t necessarily negative. The Seattle Seahawks blew out the Denver Broncos 43-8 to win Super Bowl 48 after the 2013 season. A few weeks after the win, quarterback Russell Wilson revealed on “The Dan Patrick Show” that he spent the extended halftime taking a shower, “and a lot of guys did, too.”
“I retaped everything, got my arm stretched again,” Wilson said then. “That kind of restarted our minds again, so we came out of halftime, we felt like it was a brand new game. I think that’s why we played so well and everybody was clicking on all cylinders and we played a great football game.”
The World Cup halftime show, like a Super Bowl show, will take place on the field, meaning a stage will need to be erected and collapsed before and after the performance. Crew members of previous Super Bowl halftime shows have described the setup and take down as one of the most complicated parts of the production. James Coker, a technical manager who has worked on multiple Super Bowl halftimes, said the crew has seven minutes to set up the show — including stages, cameras and 3,500 feet of cable — but their real deadline is four minutes, leaving them three minutes of wiggle room to ensure everything is working properly.
Elaborate halftime shows at the Super Bowl, like Maroon 5’s performance in 2019, require time to set up and break down. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
From a player’s perspective, Fauria said, the most important thing is to not get caught up in the festivities. With performers and crew members streaming off the field, Faruia compared getting back onto the field after halftime to dodging swarms of people trying to leave a concert — while you’re trying to enter. He also remembered some teammates heading to the field early to get a quick glance at the show.
“To which I would say, to each his own,” he said.
Bengals kicker Evan McPherson was famously caught on the sideline during the Super Bowl 56 broadcast watching a halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and others. He was joined by Cincinnati long snapper Clark Harris.
“Normally, on a normal halftime, we will go in, pee, come right back out. That’s what I did,” McPherson said later. “I went inside, peed, came back out, and there just so happened to be the halftime show going on. I kept to my normal routine, there was just a show going on.”
Despite the extra downtime during a Super Bowl halftime, both Fauria and Mitchell said it’s important not to try anything radically different. Eating snacks, going over adjustments with coaches and stretching out body aches are par for the course, as during any other halftime break. And for the biggest game of your life, a few tweaks to the routine are just part of the experience.
“The World Cup, honestly, they’re very similar; it is the only act in town. The entire world, just like the Super Bowl, is watching you,” Fauria said. “So even though you’re being displaced, in a way, it’s something that you’re willing to give up for the stage that you’re on.”
