Random thoughts on Super Bowl XLI...
I have never been happier to watch a football game from home than tonight, thinking about all those suckers who paid hundreds (or thousands) of dollars to sit and soak while trying to see the game through the constant downpour.
This was the sloppiest thing I've seen on TV since Courtney Love's last on-camera appearance.
I liked the Bears +7 (a loser), but the bet of the day was the under at 49 (final total: 46).
Nice of them to make Billy Joel play a wet piano for the National Anthem.
Coolest CBS graphic: after one Colts TD, showing the span of the drive with the final play on a huge virtual widescreen TV on the field. Runner-up: the spinning intros of each team's offense and defense was a nice effect.
The new definition of ego: Devin Hester watching himself on the Jumbotron as he was still running back the opening kickoff for a TD.
Don't any of the CBS cameramen have a towel they can use to wipe off their lenses? At times, it looked like they were shooting an old romantic movie actress through cheesecloth or vaseline. Since we don't have HDTV, I wonder if the raindrops looked better in high definition.
Best question asked by my wife, who is not an NFL fan at all: "How heavy does the rain have to be before they stop the game?"
Best CBS promo: David Letterman and Oprah Winfrey on the couch together as a couple, shown only once. Worst CBS promo: all the rest, repeated ad nauseum.
All those 20-somethings on the field going crazy for Prince must have been paid to be there. He hasn't had a hit since they were in diapers, and he was in butt-less pants.
Speaking of halftime, nice effect to add the fake lightning over the stadium before Prince performed, as if the real weather wasn't enough of a factor for an outdoor performace. I bet the screaming, stomping crowd and the marching band didn't help the condition of the field in all that rain, either.
Speaking of marching bands, they have never improved a rock song by their presence. Didn't we learn anything from Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk"?
I'm not a Jim Nance fan. Give me Dick Enberg anyday. He's the greatest play-by-play man ever for any event, bar none. Nice to see CBS use him for a well-done profile of Bill Walsh during the endless pre-game show.
It's been said that you can either live up to your reputation or down to your criticism. Rex Grossman proved you can do both at the same time.
Did Tony Dungy think it was redundant to have the bucket of Gatorade dumped on him when he was already soaking wet from the rain?
"Tank Johnson, you've just lost the Super Bowl! What are you going to now?" "I'm going back to being under house arrest!"Labels: television