Was anyone fooled by Donald Trump’s Super Bowl advert?

Between 15-second bursts of play, Holly Baxter watched transfixed as the president and Michael Bloomberg aired the most expensive commercials in the world

Head coach Andy Reid of the Kansas City Chiefs gets an ice bath (Getty)

I’ve never been an avid sports fan – I was the kid at school who ran away from the ball and considered myself the only rational person on the pitch for doing so – although during my adult life, as PE-induced trauma slowly recedes, I have become more amenable to watching people kick around a ball on TV every so often (I appreciate your thoughts and prayers at this difficult time.) I might even say that on some (extremely rare) occasions, I enjoy being a spectator at such events. An NBA game, for instance, is always fun by the final quarter. Similarly, supporting England during the World Cup at the right pub in London can be electrifying.

What I never imagined I’d be able to get into was American football, the mysteriously named game that never employs anybody’s feet and, as far as I can tell, is essentially rugby in costume. The rules are obscure, even to Americans, the head injuries are well-documented, the fans seem slightly scary and you can never really tell where on earth on the field the ball actually is. Add to that the fact that each game can drag on for about six hours, with each 15-second burst of play immediately followed by two or three minutes of adverts, and you can see why I haven’t become a superfan during my short time in the US. But there’s one thing even I wouldn’t miss out on – the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl falls on a Sunday night each year, with the following Monday morning notorious for being the most popular sick day in the States. It’s a big deal, even if your team isn’t playing or you don’t follow football at all. Pizzas are ordered by the dozen, snacks and beers sell out from bodegas and people take bets not just on the players’ performances but also on what’s going to happen during the half-time show. How will the mascots behave? What colour will the Gatorade which is ritualistically dumped over the coach of the winning team at the end be?