So why the bad taste? Well, I'm not sure where to begin. I would say it started early in the week with the coverage from Dallas. Most of it was about the weather. Since I live in New England and we are getting one of the worst winters here in a long time. I felt pretty disinterested about a small storm in Dallas and how inconvenient it was for people to get there. Welcome to my world folks. Then we move on to the pre-game. I'm not picking on any particular network because it seemed that anyone who was covering the game was doing this. They were just repeating the same things over and over. All they said was, 'How hard it is to bring Big Ben down" and "How well he can scramble to keep plays alive" vs. "Roger's quick throw to avoid the pressure" and "How he is filling Farve's shoes." Wow, enough with these insights that have been beaten like a dead horse. Then we eventually get thru the introductions and onto the National Anthem by Christina Aguliera. Yes, I'm sure you all know she messes it up and it's a shame. I'm not going to harp on it. It's a hard song to sing and I'm guessing there is a lot of nerviness when performing it in that setting. So I will cut her some slack. I don't think anyone intends to screw up the National Anthem in a setting like that and I would venture to guess she feels bad about it. But people like Dieon Sanders don't need to tweet bad excuses for her.
After what felt like forever we get to the game! It was great to watch and I actually prefer to see them on FOX because I think they have a much better handle on the technical side of the game than any other network. The camera work is always spot on and their graphics flow and blend into the game which make it easy to watch and get the information you want while not disrupting the overall vision of the game. That being said, there was some crazy audio stuff happening throughout the game and I was not sure if it was FOX or Comcast or even something with how my friend had set up his system. It was only marginal annoying since most of us were talking during the game. The 2 announcers (Troy Aikman and Joe Buck) did a decent job. I'm not really fans of either of them and they did basically what I expected of them. One of the things that I was a bit bothered by was a graphic FOX put up in the 1st half about Ben Rothlisberger's off field issues. I'm no fan of the guy, but all myself and my friends sitting around the TV could say is, "Why put that up?" I mean really, what was the point? We all know what happened. Was it necessary? It seemed poor in taste as if FOX was trying to smear Ben even more during the game. Hey guys, get a clue. This is the Superbowl. It's not about one guy it's about 2 TEAMS. If you want to go after the guy do a special on him or something, don't do it in the middle of the game. It's poor taste.
So the 1st half ends with what was looking to be total dominance by the Packers. The players clear the field and we get some nice analysis on the game before the halftime show started. FOX probably should have stayed with the football guys and not shown us a half time show. Without going too much into it. It was just bad. The whole Tron thing was a visual nightmare and the music was terrible. Don't get me wrong, I like the Black Eyed Peas, they just sounded like crap and the way it was mixed was bad too. I also like Slash and that version of Sweet Child was just not good. He probably was the best part. Those box top costumes, I don't even know what to say about those...geeesh. There are more than enough blogs and reports out there for you to read so I will just end it early like they should have.
The Second half rolls in and what a half it was. For a bit there it really looked like the Steelers were going to pull off the upset and make an amazing comeback. Everyone at my friends house was on their edge of the seat for most of the 4th quarter. With the Steelers slowly closing the gap I was really excited. The 2 point play to bring them within a field goal of a tie was amazing. It was just a great play to watch. You could see the whole thing develop as it was happening. A few minutes later Green Bay comes back to put another 3 points up and now they are ahead by 6. With less then 2 minutes to go and one time out I though I was about to see another amazing march down the the field by Ben and the Steelers. Could he do it in another Superbowl?? Take his team down the field for a last second touchdown to win it? For a moment there I thought it would happen. If you watch the game you saw. The only thing that did happen was the Green Bay defense stepping up to seal the deal. Great job and very exciting. The Packers then stepped onto the field and ran one more play in the old victory formation and the confetti dropped. Congratulations to the Green Bay Packers for a fine job. In the future tho, I think the stage for the trophy presentation should be much larger. Big enough to hold the entire team, since it was a team effort that got them there they should all be up on the stage not just a select few walking up and down some stairs. It just looked odd.
Finally, to wrap up my ramblings lets touch on the commercials. This years offerings were pretty poor overall. I think only 4 of them made me laugh out loud. Most of my friends were sitting around with an obvious blank expression as they whizzed by between the too long breaks from the game. Too many car commercials, too many stars I don't really care for, and too much trying to be funny. Some of the commercials were so bad I don't even remember what product they were pushing on me. As I sit here right now and this about it, I know a Kardashian was in one of them but for the life of me I can't remember what the product was. Also, Ozzy and Beiber were in one for a phone I think but I'm not sure on that either because I can't remember the company it was for. I think it's pretty bad when you run a commercial and people can't even remember your product. I do remember the Chevy Transformer one, which was a riot and the Doritos one where they brought everything back to life was funny. The beaver one was great as well but again I forget that one's product. Tires I think.
Overall a great game to watch. It was like that awesome present you get wrapped in newspaper. Not much thought on the outside of the gift but open it up and there is a great thing to be seen inside. Thanks for another great season of football and I hope we have football in in 2011-2012 right before the end of the world. Congratulation to the Green Bay Packers and their fans.
Back to shoveling snow because that's Life in New England
Geoffrey D
