Lowell Cohn: South Bay gets raw deal in hosting Super Bowl 50

SANTA CLARA - The NFL has a bad case of South Bay Shame.

The Super Bowl will be in Santa Clara. The Denver Broncos are staying in Santa Clara. The Carolina Panthers are staying in San Jose. As in South Bay. As in Santa Clara County. As in NOT in San Francisco, city or county.

But the NFL keeps pushing the San Francisco angle like it's embarrassed by the South Bay. Which it is. The league wants America to think this is a San Francisco Super Bowl. The reason is obvious. From the NFL's point of view, San Francisco is big league and the South Bay strictly minor league: no cable cars, Nob Hill, Lombard Street or the Ferry Building.

Me, I like the South Bay. San Jose is a fine city with a grand old tradition and beautiful architecture downtown. I taught freshman English at San Jose State decades ago and had a wonderful time with smart, eager students. But San Francisco is the big draw. It's one of America's two great cities. I won't insult you by naming the other one.

But the league keeps glossing over the difference between San Francisco and the South Bay, pretends there is no difference, pretends they're just about the same. Forget that it takes an hour to drive down 101 or 280 from San Francisco to Santa Clara if traffic allows. Forget that San Francisco is often foggy and chilly. Forget that the South Bay is comparatively warm and dry. Forget all that.

For the NFL, the South Bay and San Francisco are contiguous. It's worse than that. The league wants to pretend this whole event is San Francisco, that San Francisco swallowed the South Bay. If the South Bay could get lost or hide under a rock, that would be just fine.

Bad case of South Bay Shame.

Kind of a fraud.

Super Bowl City, whatever that constitutes, is in San Francisco, although the real Super Bowl city is not.

The league has endorsed several official Super Bowl posters. My favorite - the absolute living end - shows the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge next to the bay, a liquid emerald. And just below all that, what do you see? Levi's Stadium, that's what you see - where AT&T Park is in real space, in real time, in real life. Levi's Stadium right next to the bay with a great water view. You could take a sailboat from the bay right to the playing field.

True, a few hills separate downtown San Francisco from the Levi's Stadium-AT&T Park on the poster, but the impression, I would say the intention, is to suggest Levi's Stadium is one Hail Mary pass away from the glitter of downtown San Francisco.

Is this truth in advertising? I mean, if I lived in say, Davenport, Iowa, I might look at that poster and say to my wife, “Gladys, they sure can put on a Super Bowl in Northern California. You get the beauty of San Francisco with the game just five minutes away.”

Then there was the Golden Gate Bridge Caper last Monday at Media Night, which took place in San Jose at the SAP Center where the Sharks play. Except it wasn't quite San Jose. Overlooking the floor, they had constructed a mini-Golden Gate Bridge. Before the players walked downstairs, they had to promenade across the phony Golden Gate like fashion models. It's like the Golden Gate Bridge ended in San Jose. It's like the organizers had transported the bridge to San Jose for the evening.

Except they painted the bridge gold, probably for all the out-of-towners who actually think the bridge is gold instead of that deep orange we love.

The NFL Network was broadcasting from San Francisco, pushing the San Francisco idea of the Super Bowl, although there is no San Francisco idea of the Super Bowl.

The commissioner held his annual state-of-the-league news conference in San Francisco.

And get this. When I picked up my credential - in San Francisco, of course - the league gave me a complimentary reporter's notebook. Payola? On the bottom of every page, in gold, are two Golden Gate bridges and the San Francisco skyline including the Transamerica Pyramid.

Where do Santa Clara and San Jose figure in all this? Nowhere. That's where.

Which means, for the NFL, the South Bay is an afterthought, or worse, an embarrassment: the cousin you invite for Thanksgiving dinner but hope he doesn't show because his pant legs are too short and he picks his teeth with a toothpick. The South Bay hosts the Super Bowl but the NFL can't admit it. Hopes the country can't tell the difference. Counts on it.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.