Detroit In The Dead Of Winter: A Super Hangover

No Jimmy Kimmel at the Gem Theatre. No hordes of people in the Campus Martius area, enjoying ice skating and basic fellowship, rarely seen downtown. No "dress to the nines" parties sprinkled throughout metro Detroit. No live sports shows setting up their cameras and lights in area venues.

We're in the dead of winter here, and there is no warmth of a Super Bowl to help with the thaw. Not this year. Maybe not ever again. Certainly not anytime soon.

I don't know what it's like in other big cities, this Super Week, but in the city where all the pomp and circumstance occurred last year, I feel a twinge of sadness.

It hit me, oddly, while watching the NFL Network the other night. The trio of Rich Eisen, Marshall Faulk, and Steve Mariucci were chatting up former head coach (and should-be president of the Lions) Don Shula. Makes sense. Shula. Miami. Trot out all the guests local to the host city. It was the same tact used last year, when various Detroit sports icons found their way on various sets.

But as I watched the NFL Network guys talk to Shula, with the conspicuous palm trees in the background, it hit home with me: we're not hosting the Super Bowl this year, are we?

No. Very much no.

The city is experiencing the usual bitter cold, stark winter that blows into town every year -- the Tigers still a month away from spring training games, the Red Wings and Pistons still three months away from playoffs. The kind of weather that makes you want to stay inside and watch ... Super Bowl hype.

The same feeling as last year, really, but knowing that the hype you were watching was a 20-minute car ride away made it more compelling, somehow. And you might have brought along your ice skates, too, for good measure.

I guess I'm a little forlorn. Call it a Super Hangover. Post-hype syndrome. Whatever. But this Super Bowl has the feel of some other city taking what should be ours -- even though we've only played host twice in 41 years.

I wonder why that is.