Super Bowl 2012: 4 Reasons Even Casual Fans Should Watch

The Super Bowl is the most-watched television event of the year, period. It thus stands to reason that a great number of viewers don't have a vested interest in the game or the two teams playing, but watch it for the commercials, the halftime show and just the spectacle of the whole event.

If you're on the fence as to whether or not Super Bowl 46 is must-see viewing for you tonight, the following four slides may give you a convincing reason to watch.

This Is It

The Super Bowl is the culmination of what the two teams competing in it have been working for all season long. But if you're not a fan of the New York Giants or New England Patriots, it can seem like an exercise in self-punishment.

Your team isn't playing—maybe your team didn't make the playoffs at all. But what does it matter—this is football, after all, and it's the biggest, most important football game of the year.

And once it's all over, that's it until September (or August, if you're into watching preseason games). While there isn't a lockout looming over our heads this year, we still won't be seeing a football game for over six months.

Get your fix while you cam because, after tonight, that's it for live, NFL action. If you don't watch the Super Bowl tonight, then don't complain next Sunday that there's nothing worth watching.

It's an Epic Rematch

Super Bowl rematches are even more compelling than first-time meetings because they have that extra element of revenge running through it.

The New England Patriots want to defeat the New York Giants, to be sure, regardless of whether the teams had played each other in the Super Bowl or not.

However, the fact that the Giants already have a Super Bowl victory over the Patriots, won just four short years ago, its a huge motivator for New England and a very real reason you should be watching this game.

Good Football Is Guaranteed

The Super Bowl is a meeting of the two very best teams in the league, which means that poorly-played football is likely not an option in today's contest between the New York Giants and New England Patriots.

Not only are the Patriots and Giants legitimately talented teams, the fact that they've been preparing for two weeks to play their very best practically guarantees that whatever happens on the field this evening, it will be done at the very highest level a team can perform at.

With all due respect to the Jacksonville Jaguars and St. Louis Rams, this won't be a mistake-filled groanfest. Instead, the Giants and Patriots will be trying to one-up each other on the league's very best and biggest stage.

All That Other Stuff

If the promise of good football, for the final time this season, isn't enough to convince you that the Super Bowl is worth your time, then perhaps you can be enticed by the other, non-football components to today's game.

You know, the expensive, overwrought commercials. The expensive, overwrought halftime show. The celebrities, the bright lights and the whole being-part-of-a-national-event thing that draws in an unprecedented numbers of viewers year after year.

The Super Bowl is a football game, first and foremost, but it's also a show, an entertainment extravaganza and an unofficial national holiday.

Even if you hate both the New England Patriots and New York Giants, divest yourself of some of your sour grapes and turn on the game. There's likely something you'll enjoy.