Super Bowl

The yearly event of the Super Bowl occured yesterday. It has become such a cultural touchstone that when writing about it one must talk about not only the game but all that surrounds it.

Here are some of my thoughts on the game and the event in itself.

The pregame is too long. I watched none of it. I just think its silly to spend a whole afternoon watching pregame.

I saw Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert perform America the Beautiful. They are a cute couple. Good singers. I think she is better than he. Kelly Clarkson soon followed with The National Anthem. Not an easy song to sing and she did well. She is a cute girl, not model like and thus to me seems like she might be a real person. I will never know. Good voice though.

The first half of the game was strange. The Giants had chances to score more points than they did. They dominated the first quarter. Tom Brady got an intentional grounding call and gave the Giants a safety to start the game. Strange beginning. Still Brady got his groove on and at the end of the first half after a late touchdown by the Pats they were up 10 to 9. The Giants had to be feeling like they had let it slip away.

The commercials were good this year. Many of them were better than I had seen in the last few years.

The winning commercials for me this year were first and foremost the Chevy Silverado Apocalypse Ad. This won on all levels. Ford's complaints about the dependability claims made in the ad are silly. The ad was one of the best I have ever seen.

For me in my lust for the new Camaro the add with the man thinking his parents had bought him a Camaro and not a mini fridge for Graduation was strong as well.

Clint Eastwood's Chrysler ad was strong for me. It felt authentic although I have heard some complaints about it just being a redo of last years effort.

I also thought the Toyota reinvent ad was cute. I would like some of those new inventions.

The Coke Polar Bear ads were cute and the Seinfeld Acura ad with Jay Leno playing the villian was well thought out.


Each year it must be hard to put together a halftime show that meets all the requirements. Madonna was not on my list of people who should get the slot but in fairness to her she did a very good job.

The production was over the top which is to be expected. She sang well though I do wonder how much were backing tracks and how much she was actually singing. She made a little slip in step, she is in her fifties after all. She had good guests including C Lo Green who was very strong. I guess some singer put up her middle finger but I did not notice it. Why they would do that is beyond me. Inevitably there are some teenagers who now think she is cool.

The second half of the game was strong. The Pats came out and scored on the first drive and led by 8. It seemed like perhaps with Brady hot they would put it away. This is not what happened. The Giants methodically scored two field goals to bring them within two. In the interim the Pats could not move the ball.

Perhaps the most noticable part of the game is how fast the game went. Lots of completed passes, not many deep routes, frequent running plays and few penalties and the game flew.

The Giants drove at the end of the game and faced with the Giants scoring and leaving them very little time the Pats let them score. They did have a legitmate chance to drive. With Tom Brady anything is possible but it just was not to be . The Giants were my pick to win however I expected it to be higher scoring.

I thought the Pats defense would be the reason they lost but that was not the case. They only gave up 21 points. Simply put Brady and company did not score enough points. It is true that Rob Gronkowski might, if healthy, made a difference, but late in the season most all teams have someone missing.

The postgame was strong and for me a revalation came when I realized that Eli Manning now has two Super Bowl victories while his much heralded older brother Peyton has just one. Eli is Elite, of that there is no doubt anymore.