A few random thoughts on the Super Bowl....
:: This was the first football I've watched since week four or five of the regular season. I haven't watched this little football in a single season since the mid-1980s, and in all honesty, I didn't much miss it. I've also pretty much stopped listening to sports talk on the radio, even as little as I did that (mostly to and from work, and rarely on weekends). I'm just increasingly meh on the whole thing. I find the fans' mad rush to re-embrace hockey after a completely pointless and avoidable work stoppage pretty disheartening, and I find a lingering unpleasant aftertaste in football each time we learn a little more about long-term brain injuries. And I really find something distasteful and sad every time I hear a fan basically blow all that off on the basis that "They knew they were signing up to play a violent game."
:: As for the Super Bowl itself, it was a weird game, definitely one of the stranger games I've seen. It looked like a blow-out at first, and then there was the power outage, and then the comeback. Ultimately it was decided by four mistakes, all made by the 49ers a fumble and an interception (both of which led to Baltimore TDs), one of the worst instances of goal-line play-calling in history, and the single worst coverage afforded a kickoff in all the time I've watched the game. Weird that the game ended up as close as it did.
:: Ray Lewis, when asked about the murders in which he was involved: "God doesn't use murderers to do His work." Note to Ray: open your Bible and read a little. Especially the part about Barabbas.
:: The commercials: I was amused by the M&Ms one and the goat eating the Doritos. Other than that, as usual, I paid little attention. The idea of willingly sitting down to watch advertising strikes me as a giant waste of time.
:: Alicia Keys did a wonderful job on the National Anthem. I loved her simple, understated performance.
:: The halftime show nearly gave me a seizure, what with all that flashing of lights. Hated it.
:: Phil Simms is really annoying.
That's about it. Next up...well, who knows. Like I said, I care less about sports in general each year. The only thing on the sporting horizon to which I am looking forward is actually next year's Winter Olympics.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
2 comments:
I liked the Oreo commercial, but I'm a librarian.
The Super Bowl is not really the game by which to evaluate football, but this one was kind of exciting, when they were actually playing. The playoffs, and particularly the Conference championships, are the games to see. In recent years my NFL watching pattern has been similar to yours: I watch the Bills until I can't stand it any more, then I spend my Sundays doing something productive. It is always a shock to come back during the post season and see what an exciting sport football can be when it is played well.
I worry about injuries as well-- it may be that ours will be the last generation that enjoys this sport as a mass spectacle, just as my father's generation was the last for which boxing was a major sport. Sports are important-- every culture has sport, and it is an area of human endeavor that reliably celebrates endeavor and accomplishment. That said, sport evolves, and it may well be that the technology of football has outrun the ability of the human body to participate.
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