Super Bowl Forty- BLAH!

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FEBRUARY 4, 2007

Super Bowl Forty- BLAH!

Every year after all the hype and all the pre game coverage and all the post game coverage, the same thing happens, everyone stops and says, “Wow, that Super Bowl was terrible.”

Well let me be the first to say so this year. Eights turnovers, four field goals and two non-offensive touchdowns, and these are the two best teams the NFL could come up with??? Last year was a pretty boring game too, but at least last year there was a story to be blown way out of hand, with Jerome Bettis returning home for his only Super Bowl appearance. That led to Jeremy Stevens starting trash talk with Joey Porter and it was fun. This year, the talk was about the first two black African-American head coaches coaching in the Super Bowl, and if that guy from all the commercials can win “the big game.” No trash-talking, nothing. Listening to the media day cover you would think that these were the two best teams to ever play the game of football. Not even close.

Super Bowl XLI consisted of 7 hours of pre game coverage between ESPN and CBS, only to then have CBS present the 30 minute Kickoff Show. What in the hell were we just watching on CBS for the past 240 minutes? Oh and that kickoff show. Let’s do away with all that garbage. I mean they had a circus, on the football field before the game. I know that these fans paid big bucks for their tickets and due to security issues they were encouraged to get into the stadium early, but does that mean that the rest of the country has to watch Barnum and Bailey too? Plus is the best thing for a wet turf 30 minutes before kickoff really to have people dancing and doing circus routines? Now, I like Cirque de Soleli, but there is a time and place for it, and the Super Bowl isn’t either. While we are on that topic, PRINCE at halftime?!?! Come on, I thought the NFL wanted to do away with the raunchy/sex driven halftime shows and then they go and ask this guy? The over/under for the football game was 48, the over/under for crotch grabs by Prince during halftime was 61. They might as well have brought back Janet and Justin. Next year maybe they will just have some little high school band from the Glendale, AZ area perform. It would last 15 minutes and then everyone could get back to watching the game. We can hope, can’t we?

Oh yeah, the game. Well, the first quarter was exciting. And yes, Rex Grossman DID deserve all the criticism that he got for the past 13 days leading up to the game.

Heck the commercials were even weak this year. There were a few that I’m sure did well, the Blockbuster On-line with the mouse and Rock, Paper, Scissors for the last Bud Light, and a few for Doritos, but other than those nothing really jumped out at me.

When it comes down to it, I’m glad the Colts won. I’m glad Tony Dungy won. And I’m glad that Peyton Manning won. It was a shame that the weather was as bad as it was, but I also think that weather is part of the game and from time to time you will have bad weather. It was the first Super Bowl to have any rainfall, so 1 out of 41 isn’t bad.

The Colts won, the Colts dominated, just as many people thought. The game wasn’t very exciting, just as many people, EXCEPT the television suits, thought. Just once I would like a big-time sporting event to go off as just that, a sporting event, not a show. Enough with the SportsCenters from South Beach and every other show and station possible having someone live at the Super Bowl. I swear as I was scanning through the channels this week I saw Dr. Phil sitting on a beach chair wearing a Hawaiian shirt and sun-block on his nose giving group therapy sessions. Who cares?

Here’s to Super Bowl XLII in Glendale, AZ next year to being normal. We can hope, can’t we?