Recently I have heard people use the expression “jump on the bandwagon” a lot (thanks to the undefeated Kansas City Chiefs).  Literally a bandwagon was a wagon that carried the band in a parade, circus, or other similarly silly event.  Supposedly, the idiom, “to jump on the bandwagon,” was coined in 1848 when Dan Rice, a clown, used his bandwagon to attract attention for his political campaign.  Other politicians saw the attention he was getting and also wanted to “jump on the bandwagon.”

This seems kind of odd to me.  You would think a clown aspiring to be a politician would try to downplay his clownliness.  Not ride around on a wagon blasting clown music.  

Clownliness.

In honor of the Super Bowl, I figured I should do a football fact. We always hear about the line of scrimmage, but I really never hear the word scrimmage used outside of sports.  Scrimmage is related to skirmish- a contest between disputing parties.  Scrimmage and scrum (in rugby) are also related, as scrum is just a shortening of “scrummage.”  It’s pretty straight forward.  More straight forward than why we call it “football.”  Actually, it’s pretty much the same reason-  American football derived from rugby, where “football” is a much more fitting name.  What doesn’t make sense is that the New Orleans Saints are actually in the Super Bowl.  Or the fact that we may see more of Peyton Manning on commercial breaks than actually during the game.  Over/under 10— how many times will we hear the commentators say that Peyton Manning is a “student of the game”?

From 1960 to 1969, the NFL had an additional game at the end of the season.  The Playoff Bowl, officially named the Bert Bell Benefit Bowl, featured teams playing for 3rd place.  The game is named after Bert Bell, who was the NFL Commissioner from 1946 until his death at a Eagles-Steelers game in 1959.  Why did they feel fit to name the 3rd place game after him?  I can imagine the eulogy.  We will always remember our good friend Bert Bell.  Not a best friend, or even a great friend.  But a pretty decent friend, who we would call if everyone else was busy.