The Super Bowl draws millions, but many of those people aren't sports or even football fans. So why is the big game so popular? As YNN's Erin Clarke tells us, it's because Super Bowl Sunday has become an unofficial American holiday.

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UNITED STATES -- Everyone knows what happens on the first Sunday of February, the Super Bowl.

The event draws millions of viewers. Most likely they're watching, while stuffing their faces at game day parties with family and friends.

"Super Bowl is no longer just about a football game. As a matter of fact a football game is just the background excuse for what has really become a successful American holiday," said Syracuse University Television and Popular Culture professor, Robert Thompson.

Think about it. Super Bowl Sunday has all the fixings for a holiday, despite the fact that our bosses and school officials don't recognize it.

"They should give off from school on Monday because you really have to recover from it because it's such an experience. You get together with all your friends, you eat a whole bunch of food and the next day you're just dead," said Casey Kulik.

Another reason Super Bowl Sunday is like a holiday, there's something for everyone. Let's face it. The game is for sports fans, but we all know people who watch the big game, but could care less about what's happening on the grid iron.

You've got playing at the same time a game and a film festival, and the film festival are these ads. And once you convince the population that this film festival is important, you throw a bone, a pretty significant one to all those people who are in the room who don't really care about the game."

"They're really funny and normally I like to talk with people during the game, but as soon as the commercials come on I tell people to be quiet," Robert Bacaj.

Transforming the once highly anticipated half time show into the break to reheat a meal or do other things. Proving that Super Bowl Sunday continues to evolve. An evolution that Thompson has some pretty interesting thoughts about.

"We are still going to be celebrating a holiday on a Sunday in late January or early February where we eat crummy food and all the rest of it and the NFL will be long gone by this time and then people are going to do feature stories about 'does anyone know the origins of Super Bowl Sunday?'"