The Super Bowl is upon us, and this year the NFL will be using the Arabic number 50 in place of the traditional Roman numeral. But why use Arabic numerals? Is this another example of political correctness? Aren’t we having enough problems with those people? For one thing they are not Arabic numbers. The numbers we use every day, including zero, were invented by the Hindoos of Northern India a thousand years before Rome stole the idea of using letters of the alphabet for numbers from the Greeks. The Hindoo numbers and notation system we use today was brought back to Baghdad by Muslim invaders and which over time infiltrated Europe, and ultimately led to my being told by my third grade teacher, quite erroneously, that they were Arabic numbers. I feel strongly that the Super Bowl should retain its Roman numeral marking, and refuse to refer to it as Super Bowl 50, for to me it is and will always be, Super Bowl L. Nonetheless, I will watch the game, along with Cs of Ms of other people.

A Roman number sure goes well
With Super Bowls, that’s why an L
Should go with Xs and those Vs
A simple L is read with ease
But then upon the other hand
It’s strung out letters I can’t stand
What’s with a scheme that you can write
A number many ways despite
The fact that there is only one
True number when all’s said and done
XVII is 17
But you will see just what I mean
Three Vs two Is, I mean what gives?
And still today great Rome still lives
So long her numbers raise on high
When V and X and L and I
Can be lined up in numbers whole
And used to mark the Super Bowl