A Super Sunday of mythical proportions

Super Bowl Sunday -- an unofficial national holiday --celebrates two cherished American virtues: consumption and nationalism. It also gets a dose of super-hype from the media, which (helped along by the NFL) continue to exaggerate its importance to the rest of the world. Although at least 100 million people in the U.S. are expected to tune into at least part of the game, its global viewership likely won't get anywhere close to the 800 million cited by many news accounts. If you're looking for the sport with a real global audience -- it's soccer. Audited research puts World Cup viewership at about 28 billion.