You know, when I was growing up in the early ’90s, I honestly thought it was customary to see the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl. Fact is, when Jan. 30, 1994 rolled around, the Bills were embarking on their fourth straight Super Bowl and I was six years old, likely not fazed with the Bills remarkable run in the least bit.

Most likely, I didn’t know how sports worked yet, but certainly this Super Bowl thing can’t be too tough to reach if the Bills have done so four years in a row.

Fast forward 18 years and the same Bills have won all of one playoff game since, and another Super Bowl Sunday awaits us all with no sign of that charging Buffalo.

But, that’s enough for a Bills-are-really-bad argument. Besides, Sunday is one of those days of the year to sit back and watch football with a group of friends and not think about why the Bills aren’t playing. Maybe that’s just because — now at 24 years old — it ironically doesn’t seem humanly feasible for the Bills to actually qualify for the game.

But what we do know is we’ll see a rematch of Super Bowl XLII, really one of the more entertaining Super Bowls we’ve had over the last decade, which actually says quite a lot.

Granted, I hate both teams — a lot. But when it comes down to it, Sunday has become as true of an American holiday as you can imagine. Capitalism, stuffing-your-face with every snack known to man, and of course, gambling. Mixed in there are family and friends and probably a lot of booze.

Remarkably, I find it interesting that I’m the only human being that is not involved in a square’s contest this year. Even my mom, who strange enough was complaining about the same thing, managed to find her way into some numbers.

Regardless, the Super Bowl must be Las Vegas’ equivalent to Christmas shopping for said holiday. Apparently, everyone has to do it. According to the Nevada Gaming Commission, $87.5 million was wagered on for the Super Bowl last year, easily the highest-wagered game on the sports calendar.

Never mind the New York Giants are three-point underdogs. Who the heck bets on that? Want to be on the coin toss? Great, pick your poison: heads or tails? Giants or Patriots? Coin toss winner win or lose the game?

Who scores first? What will the first score be, a touchdown or a safety/field goal? My personal favorite — which team will call the first timeout?

Will the Giants score first or punt first? Will the first Patriots first down come via the pass or run? Will there be more or less than 4.5 sacks in the game? (Degenerate Gambling Alert — that has to go over, right?)

Anyhow, there’s a literally hundreds more involving the game and not (even what color Madonna’s hair will be).

Of course, what makes this possible and is perhaps the most important part of Super Bowl Sunday is how far the game has come since 1967. It’s really no longer about football.

Commercials have become to steal the Monday headlines, at least on every other network besides ESPN, of course. And with an estimated 100 million people watching, Super Bowl ads are about the only thing that hasn’t heard about the global recession.

According to MSNBC, a 30-second commercial slot now costs an average of $3.5 million. Just last year alone, the average 30-second slot was $3 million. The aforementioned Super Bowl 18 years ago, when the Bills lost for the fourth straight time, still had an average 30-second slot of less than $1 million, at $900,000.

It doesn’t take a math major to see this year’s price has just about quadrupled since then. Do the ads pay out in long run? Honestly, who has any idea, but I don’t think anybody is running out to grab a case of Bud Light sometime during the third quarter.

That is, unless of course you’re all out. According to TurboTax, Americans spend about $49.3 millions dollars on beer for the Super Bowl, comparable to about $54.3 million for Christmas. It’s the eighth-highest beer-consumption day in America behind some obvious warm-weather holidays of Fourth of July, Labor Day and Memorial Day.

But what are we washing down? According to L.A. Times, About 1.25 billion chicken wings are consumed on Super Bowl Sunday, or just about 100 million pounds. In addition, another $1.02 billion will be spent on snack purchases.

Regardless, enjoy your food, enjoy your commercials.

As for the game itself — I know, after all that, what game? — I actually like the New England Patriots. I’ve gone back-and-forth with this one and convinced myself the Giants pass rush was just too much to contain.

But, I’ve wavered. I think we’re in for a good one and I see a Hollywood ending in favor of the Patriots this time. Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski for a game-winning touchdown under a minute. Giants run out of time in search of a tying field goal — Patriots 27 Giants 24.