SOME SUPER THOUGHTS
Super Bowl XXXCICIXXXIVIVVIXXXL is over and…
What’s that you say??? The Roman numerals are incorrect?
First, I ain’t Roman. Second, football ain’t a gladiatorial sport. When they talk about lions and Christians in the coliseum, they aren’t talking about a playoff between the western part of the empire versus the eastern; although a match between the Thracians and Abyssinians may have been more entertaining than the yawner that played itself out in Jacksonville last night.
The whole concept of numbering Super Bowls using Roman Numerals is un-American and should be abolished. In fact, why use numbers for the game at all? When we watch the Rose Bowl, an arguably more entertaining game albeit with less entertaining commercials, we don’t have to try and remember “Now…is this the 103rd or 104th game in the history of the Rose Bowl?” To find out, you have to go to the official Tournament of Roses web site:
In 1902, the Tournament of Roses® Association decided to enhance the day’s festivities by adding a football game. Stanford University accepted the invitation to take on the powerhouse University of Michigan, but the west coast team was flattened 49-0 and gave up in the third quarter. The lopsided score prompted the Tournament to give up football in favor of Roman-style chariot races.
Maybe the Super Bowl could have those chariot races as halftime entertainment next year. I mean, don’t get me wrong. It was swell to see Paul McCartney lead us in a sing-a-long of “Hey Jude,” and all but, c’mon! WTF! Does it bother anyone else to see a 60+ year old man prancing around on stage and gyrating like a teenager? I love the Beatles and Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger and all the ancient rockers who to this day sell out arenas at $75 bucks a pop so that we can wallow in nostalgia, but there comes a time when we should “become a man and put away childish things” as the good book says.
God! We baby boomers are a horrid lot.
As for the game, let’s get serious. The first half was forgettable and proved the point that the extra week between the league championship games and the Super Bowl should be abolished. Both QB’s looked nervous and rusty. New England especially looked out of sync on offense. McNabb looked a little lost.
The second half was better. Philly especially seemed to find a rhythm. McNabb stepped up big time. Both teams moved the ball more consistently.
The difference was turnovers and coaching.
To me, the turning point of the game occurred at the end of the third quarter when, with the scored tied at 14, Belichick took New England RB Corey Dillon out and put in Kevin Faulk. The brilliant move paid immediate dividends on the next three plays as the fresh legs of Faulk rushed for 8 yards, 13 yards, and then took a swing pass and raced to the Philly two yard line setting up a first and goal. The Pats went in 2 plays later for the go ahead score.
As for turnovers, McNabb had a lot of problems reading the Pat’s coverage. Two of those interceptions were killers-including one at the goaline-with the last pick the result of a poor route run by the Philly receiver.
Philly time management is the talk of the sports pages and talk radio. I’m not so sure that criticism here is justified (I’d probably feel different if I were a Philly fan). It looks to me like Coach Reid decided that they would have to try an onside kick anyway to win the ballgame and they might as well take their time moving down the field and make sure they got at least one score. Was he right? He’s certainly getting a lot of criticism for the decision.
One note on the commercials; evidently godaddy.com’s hilarious commercial featuring a busty young lady whose spaghetti strap on her t-shirt breaks in the middle of a Congressional hearing on indecency was too much for the NFL. They demanded that Fox pull the second airing of the ad. C’Mon people! We’ve got to learn to relax a little! While its true the media may have gone too far occasionally in the past, this swing of the pendulum is way too much to the other side. Let’s all take a deep breath and pull back a little so that we can examine what’s going on without hyperventillating everytime some bible-thumping nitwit like Dobson opens his fat yap.
I’m all for standards…but NOT at the expense of free expression. What’s going on now is having a deadening affect on that expression. And I don’t like it.
All in all, an enjoyable evening of football, pageantry, and hype. All American fun in an all American venue.
Couldn’t ask for anything more.