NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It's the one night a year when the staff at Scoreboard Bar and Grill has every TV on the same channel — either for the action on the field or the spectacle that comes with it.
"Everybody watches football," said Rick Hembrook, a manager at Scoreboard. "We’re three deep, we’ve got 50-60 TVs."
But the day after the Super Bowl is a whole different ball game. "Most of the people are either hungover or they just don’t want to come to work because the Super Bowl runs way into late hours," said Hembrook.
That's why Rep. Joe Towns and Sen. London Lamar, both Democrats from Memphis, have written up a gusty play: making the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday the state's newest holiday.
"I think it’d be great," said Hembrook.
"Well, I would participate in any day off. If you’re going to give me a day’s vacation, I’m probably going to take advantage of it," said Randy Sutton, a customer inside Scoreboard.
The idea seemed to receive nearly universal acclaim until we revealed the catch — the bill establishes Super Bowl Monday by giving up Columbus Day as a recognized state holiday.
"Oh ho hold on now. Hold the phone here," interjected Sutton when we told him the caveat. "It almost seems like a back door way to cancel a real holiday to put something else in place."
We figured, in all of Nashville, if there was one place where there might be, let's say, flavorful opinions about getting rid of Columbus Day, it might be at Coco's Italian Market.
"Columbus Day — you know, being Italian, it’s important to me," said Chuck Cinelli, Coco's owner.
Cinelli is a descendant of Italian immigrants so he thinks it's important to have a day to celebrate his people.
"Italians were so instrumental in building America," he said.
However, he says he could take or leave the actual person the day honors.
"Well Columbus Day has kind of fallen out of fashion, so I actually think it should be Amerigo Vespucci Daym," said Cinelli.
But don't be mistaken, Cinelli still has a big appreciation for the big game.
"The Super Bowl really is a holiday for us because we sell so much lasagna and cannolis on Super Bowl weekend," said Cinelli. "We actually have time slots so we can cook them all in time."
So should Super Bowl Monday be our newest holiday? Just like the game itself, everyone seems to be rooting for a different outcome.
"It’s something that really kind of brings the whole nation together, more so than Columbus Day does," said Debi Back, a customer at Coco's.
"We have enough holidays right now as it is," said Joe Hobbs, who was eating lunch at Scoreboard.
Don't start plotting out your Super Bowl Monday plans just yet. More than a thousand bills have been filed for the Tennessee General Assembly to consider this year. Only a handful will actually become law.
