I’ve been back in the Western Hemisphere for, let’s see … 16-plus hours now … so I’m back to being an expert on all American sports.

Thus, I can speak authoritatively on the Super Bowl, which begins in only XLIII commercials from now.

Which reminds me of something else:

Being an expert on American sports … doesn’t have much value outside this country.

I referred to this a time or two while in Hong Kong. But I’m struck by it, anew, as I fell out of the sky above LAX — and into a society fixated by the Super Bowl. Having just left one where 95 percent of the people have no idea the game is even being played.

What I know about American sports, a topic I was paid to cover for 30-plus years? Well, it’s not a transportable body of information. I suppose I knew that on an intellectual level, but it takes time outside the country for it to be hammered home … relentlessly.

Not only can you not make a living off a knowledge of American sports — in any place that isn’t America –  you can’t even get into many good sports discussions/arguments about American sports outside America.

Unless you’ve found another American.

Our Big Three?

NFL?

Most of the world sees our football  as ridiculously complicated and horribly slow. And all that strutting and celebrating and the worship of naked aggression and power, and all the commercial excess. I mean, how American is that? “No wonder they love it,” the rest of the world thinks. And no wonder the rest of the world doesn’t.

NBA? Gaining acceptance. Moving up. You see it played on the streets, here and there. But not a big deal anywhere yet, really. Individuals, such as LeBron James (especially) and Kobe Bryant are known internationally, but there is little connection to specific teams, so the NBA has a lot of work to do. Foreigners will watch the NBA for its athleticism, but overall? Not so much. NBA acceptance is about 25,000-miles around — but an inch thick.

MLB? Forget about it. Aside from places Americans went and left behind the game  (Japan, Cuba, the Dominican, Nicaragua), the world doesn’t understand this. At all. It is considered our cricket. Just as impenetrable, too, to people who aren’t Yanks.

(And if non-Americans think football is slow, you can guess what they would think of baseball, if they ever were exposed to it.) Put it this way, you might have to do a lengthy pub crawl through the expat bars of the Mid-Levels District in Hong Kong to find someone to talk baseball with. Because the Brits, the Aussies and Kiwis don’t care.

Hockey? The would-be No. 4 of a Big Four? Again, extraordinarily exotic to every place that isn’t Canada and Eastern Europe. Which is 90 percent of the world. A non-starter.

So, just saying … if you travel the world, and you know oodles of stuff about the aforementioned (American) sports, or their college or prep incarnations — the rest of the world cares not at all. It will not gain you invitations to parties. It will not make you friends or influence people.

They will talk sports. For sure. But for them that means soccer, first, second and third, fourth and fifth. Then maybe track and field and motor racing. Tennis and golf, maybe.

That being said, back to the Super Bowl.

Two weeks ago I wrote it would be 27-14 Pittsburgh, and I’ve changed my mind — but only incrementally. I see the Cardinals scoring a late touchdown and the game  finishes 27-17.

Remember, I’m a sports authority. In this country, anyway.