If you have been living under a rock -- a chilly, snow-covered rock, mind you -- you have no clue about this weekend's festivities.

Or, if the sporting world or the advertising world or the need to attend a really good party with all your friends (and some relatives) doesn't rank high on your needs list, you have no clue about this weekend.

Or, if you are a fan of the other teams that did not make it to Super Bowl XLI in Miami (sorry Kansas City and St. Louis), you may choose some other endeavor Sunday, Feb. 4.

However, if you fall into the category that I do -- sports fan of all seasons (everyone has to have a hobby, right?) -- this Sunday is another red-letter day on the calendar.

My wife has always told me that I kind of roll from one sports season to another -- Super Bowl (football), March Madness (college basketball), to World Series (baseball). In between, if I have time and an inclination, there is NASCAR and professional basketball.

I still have trouble figuring out hockey and tennis has always left me kinda cold. As for the extreme sports -- well, they are too extreme for me.

The Super Bowl has become much, much bigger than a football championship.

It has sort of become an official holiday, when family and friends gather to share a common experience. Sometimes, the common experience isn't the football game. Sometimes the common experience is the television counter-programming to the game.

Many networks choose to take a popular series that they have been running on television and run several consecutive episodes. And then, there's the women in swimsuits counterprogramming and just about everything else.

Rest assured, however, that CBS television will garner huge ratings for Super Bowl XLI, since most people will tune in to some portion of the broadcast.

In recent years, a main attraction for those who watch the Super Bowl is the commercials. They were really lame last year as my Pittsburgh Steelers were polishing off the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL. Let's hope that there is some improvement this year.

Remember the cowboys herding cats? Or, several years earlier, the really edgy Apple Computer commercials? We really haven't had a memorable Super Bowl commercial for some time.

Thankfully, CareerBuilder.com has already told television viewers that it is about ready to give up on the chimpanzees in an ad campaign. I mean, really, the same joke for several years? Those Madison Avenue advertising executives have been working overtime to show us the chimps in just about every scenario that can be thought of. Enough already with the chimps.

And, what about those Budweiser commercials? They definitely need an upgrade.

Which brings me to this year's game, the Indianapolis Colts versus the Chicago Bears.

This should be the coming-out party for the Colts' quarterback Peyton Manning and his wonderful coach, Tony Dungy. It's taken Manning too many years to reach this point. Up until two weeks ago, it was the New England Patriots who kept blocking Manning's first trip to the Super Bowl. Then last year, in a game that Indianapolis most certainly should have won, my Steelers edged Manning out again.

So Indianapolis, right?

Nope, I think the Chicago Bears should win their first championship since the crazy and talented 1985 Bears "Shufflin' Crew" destroyed the-then Boston Patriots.

Defense wins Super Bowls and Chicago has a fine defense. Indianapolis had been struggling in that area until it righted the ship against Kansas City, completely shutting down the Chiefs' fine running back Larry Johnson. The Colts' defense since the Chiefs' playoff game has been stingy, one of the main reasons Indianapolis finds itself in the Super Bowl in the first place.

Come Sunday, though, it will be the Monsters of the Midway all over again. Bears 27, Colts 13.

Enjoy the Super Bowl weekend, however you choose to celebrate.

Mason is the editor of The Marshall Democrat-News. Spectrum appears every other Friday.