When the Lights Go Out

It is hard to imagine our lives without technology let alone that basic thing discovered by Thomas Edison called electricity. So when the lights go out , our lives just grind to a halt.

Even live sport is not immune to the odd power outage. In fact, we have seen some quite high profile sporting events delayed because the floodlights went out - thus making a case for more afternoon sport when we're not so reliant on electricity, although such occurrences are rare that people just accept that it's one of those unavoidable things in life.

The most talked about power blackout at the moment is of course the one that halted the Super Bowl for 34 minutes in the 3rd quarter. Half the lights went out in the Mercedes Superdome but while the action on the field came to a crashing stop, the activity on social media was massive - cue the puns, jokes about the blackout and requests for Beyonce to fill the downtime. 

In fact, the blackout in New Orleans wasn't the only one to affect a high profile game. Yes, Fulham's televised game against Manchester United on Saturday also fell victim to the unforseen circumstances of a power failure - the power went out just before half-time. 

Manchester United are no strangers to power failures during big games - they actually got caught in the middle of one during their Champions League encounter earlier this season at Braga.

New Zealand hasn't been immune to high profile power blackouts either. The New Zealand Rugby Union has often asked for New Zealanders to "Blackout" the stadium for its Adidas ad campaigns but they didn't expect Westpac Stadium to go so far as to cut the power during the All Blacks' game v Argentina last year. 

Mind you, that power outage could be blamed on inclement conditions that night which forced a generator blowout and a blackout of the surrounding Thorndon and CBD area. 

  

While the cynics will say that this is exactly why we should be playing all sport in the afternoon, many others will probably say that the blackouts often trigger far more interesting debate and publicity than the game itself. 

Whatever the case, sometimes we just have to pause and take stock - even if it's in the heat of a game.

And it's not as if the NFL and the San Francisco 49ers are new to this - in fact given from this last experience with the electric company, one wonders if the 49ers have their own electrical engineer for these occasions.