Super Bowl Monday should be a national holiday.

At least one company, Heinz, gives their employees Super Bowl Monday or “Smunday” as a paid holiday.

I found out about “Smunday” when I was writing a blog post in 2017 about an eclipse that became a de facto holiday in Nebraska. The thesis of my post was that the eclipse was a way for hard-working Americans to take some time off work.

That post cited studies showing Americans worked the most hours of any industrialized country. Americans even worked about two weeks a year longer than the Japanese who coined a word, “karoshi” which means death by overwork.

The link to the study I cited in the post disappeared but I found more studies that confirm how Americans work much longer hours than citizens in other wealthy democracies. But not only do Americans work longer hours they work without guaranteed paid leave and with less job security under the employment at-will doctrine.

So yeah, Super Bowl Monday as a paid national holiday is the least we could do. Next month there will be stories about how the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament costs business billions in “productivity.” Why not make March Madness a holiday too? Even if we did that, the average American would still work an average of 45-50 hours longer than their Japanese counterpart.

The so-called Great Resignation shows that many workers are fed up with their jobs. Lincoln Public Schools gave teachers Fridays off in January in part to give teachers and school staff a mental health break due to the stress of teaching during the pandemic. Time off is good for worker and physical health.

Nebraska has the second highest labor force participation rate in the country. This is a hard-working state, but even in Nebraska events like the state high school basketball tournaments in March and the College World Series in June become de facto holidays. People need a break. Super Bowl Monday as a paid holiday is the least we can do.