Super Bowl, A Super Dud!

While I focus most of our content and stories on Missouri sports, I can’t help but comment on Superbowl XLII. After all, it is the biggest sporting event of the year, so I’d like to make some general observations. Tony LaBelichick

I’m still trying to figure out why Belichick decided to go for it on 4th and 15 from the Giants 31 in a 7-3 game? With a very makable 48 yard field goal (in a dome) it makes the game 10-3 and when Manning hits Plaxico Burress in the endzone late in the game, it’s actually would have tied the game up at 17 rather than go ahead. An uncanny bonehead coaching decision by Belichick. With that type of decision, for a moment you would have sworn Tony LaRussa was running the Patriots!!!

I also knew New England would lose when I noticed that Patriots head coach Bill Belichick dressed up for the occassion by ditching his normal grey hoody with the sleeves cut off in favor of a sleeker looking red hoody with cut sleeves. Never, ever change your wardrobe when a good thing is rolling. That’s the number one Cardinal Sin of sports superstitions.

Did anyone else notice Troy Aikman’s hair? It looked like he took a nap 10 minutes before the start of the broadcast trying to sleep off a hangover. The right side looked flattened down and the back was sticking up. I thought it was pretty hilarious. I was waiting for Joe Buck to lick his hand and smooth out Aikman’s bedhead!

Also, didn’t you find it odd, that injured Giants tight end Jeremy Shockey was not on the field with his teammates, but rather in a luxury suite with what looked like two beer bottles and two mixed drinks in his "general vicinity?"

As far as the game, the fourth quarter was the type of game I expected to see the whole game, with exciting plays and great catches. I’m sorry, but a 7-3 score with just 11 minutes to play, in a dome under perfect conditions to me is not what I call an exciting Super Bowl. Why, all of the sudden were both teams able to put up a combined 21 points in 11 minutes? I think play calling was conservative and each team’s offense lacked ingenuity.

Halftime Show. Not a big fan of Prince or Tom Petty, but I’d rather see a flamboyant Prince over middle aged men playing mellow rock tunes to 20 year olds pretending to know the words to songs that were popular before they were born!!! Three of the last four years we’ve had Tom Petty, The Rollings Stones, and Paul McCartney. All coming after the wardrobe malfunction, but this is getting ridiculous. However, I shouldn’t complain, at least we didn’t have Carol Channing like the Chiefs and Vikings did for halftime entertainment in Super Bowl IV.

Commercials. Even those were lame. Bud Light, fire breathing and men getting sucked up in airplane engines? What? Outside of the baby talking E-Trade and the Bridgestone ads with the screaming squirrel and the guy swerving around Richard Simmons, I was disappointed.

This will go down as one of the best Super Bowls because the underdog led by Peyton’s younger brother stopped the Patriots and stopped history of a perfect 19-0 season, but just because a game is close in scoring doesn’t make it a great game. The Super Bowl is an event and you hope for action, good commercials, an lively halftime show. I just didn’t get it this time around.

Share your comments with me. E-mail me at [email protected]

Perhaps my opinion on this game is based on my Super Bowl experiences growing up. How many close SB’s were there once we were old enough to appreciate them? Not many. Given that history, I’m excited when ever it’s close. I’m not a "three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust" lover, but I was just really intrigued by the way the Pats line got pushed around and how Brady got assaulted. I’ve watched almost every Pats game this year and haven’t seen anything like it. David, Massachusettes

David, I’d take watching Marcus Allen’s remarkable run in a 38-9 blowout, or Steve Young’s 5 TD passes in a 49-26 blowout over a 7-3 game for 49 minutes anytime. It’s too bad I had to sit through three hours of no offense, lousy commercials, and Tom Petty to get to a good finish.

Thanks for hitting some nails on their proverbial heads! This was indeed a VERY DULL Super Bowl. Karen, Alabama

Short and sweet. I like it Karen!

The watchability of a Super Bowl has always been about the stories going in. Take the average Super Bowl viewer’s understanding of what’s going on: Mr. and Mrs. Jones have just arrived at the Schmidts, bowl of chili-cheese dip and bag of tortilla chips in hand, and they sit down to watch the game; well, at least the commercials. Mr. and Mrs. Jones have better things to do with their lives than watch football all the time; so, naturally their knowledge of what’s going on is limited and they ask the Schmidts to tell them who to root for. Luckily for the Schmidts (who know as little as the Jones do), their teenage sons pipe up and explain the situation: the Patriots are undefeated this season and they have virtually destroyed all opponents, running up the score without pity. The Schmidt boys might even mention the whole cheating debacle (which cost the Patriots their first round pick for next year). They also explain that while the Giants were the team closest to beating the Patriots in the regular season, they have really only been a decent team this season. So, what do the Jones and Schmidts do? Naturally, they root for the underdog. And what do the underdogs do? They play the Patriots close, bottling up the Patriots’ record-setting offense. Come fourth quarter, guess who’s still watching: The Jones and the Schmidts. The Schmidt boys might have scarfed down all of the dip, but everyone is still watching and now they’re taking their bathroom breaks during the commercials instead of during the game. That’s the main reason why this game was watchable: It was a battle between David and Goliath, possibly even Good vs. Evil. That’s why the game made TV rating history. Jon, Missouri

Jon, your response took longer to read than Tom Petty’s boring halftime show, but I appreciate your thoughts! However, I think guys like you and David from Massachusettes are hypocrites. The same fans that bash soccer for their 1-0 games are going to call a 7-3 Superbowl with 11 minutes to play the best Super Bowl ever? Are you kidding me? It may be one of the best 4th quarters in Super Bowl history, but not the entire game. Don’t be fooled by this being the highest rated game in history. Remember, both teams are from the east coast and one is from the biggest city in the country. People didn’t tune in because they heard there was a defensive battle going on in during the Super Bowl.

I’ll chime in on the half-time show. Tom Petty was miming his vocals to a pre-recorded vocal track, otherwise known as "lip syncing". Scott, Nebraska

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