Monday, February 02, 2009
Random Thoughts On Super Bowl XXXJRQOIII
For you sports fans out there...1 comments
Just a few things that have crossed my mind tonight.
***I blissfully missed every second of the overly saturated Pre-Super Bowl coverage. Because I just didn't care, obviously.***Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers on a well- and hard-fought game. And to the Arizona Cardinals on an heroic effort that unfortunately fell just short—you were truly valiant.
***Out of the what seems like hundreds of Super Bowl games that have been played, IMHO this one is in the top ten. Close, exciting throughout, not the dull, lop-sided, anticlimactic blowouts most of them have been.
***John Madden is still the best there is at what he does.
***The Steelers—to a man—produced one of the most classless, amateurish post-game celebrations I've seen to date: From Dan Rooney, the owner, on down through the coach, Mike Timlin, to Santonio Holmes, the MVP receiver and on through to the star QB, Ben Roethlisberger, this is the first post-championship game award ceremony I've ever seen in any sport where the victors never—not once—showed the sportsmanship and the simple good taste and breeding to acknowledge and tip their hats to the losing team. This usually starts with the owner. But not once did these gloating Rust Belt warriors offer what respect they had for their worthy opponent, note how valiantly their opponent fought, say the Cardinals gave them "all we could handle," etc., etc., along with any other cliché proper for these occasions. So, obviously it wasn't true; they had no respect for Arizona. It was all-Steelers; all-the-time on that podium: How great they were; how much they loved each other and were proud of each other. All of those are fine, after a quick hat tip. After such an incredibly close game, that they had every right to have lost, against an opponent who wasn't supposed to even be on the same field with them and was only 2:31 from snatching this game away, this snub was incredibly bush, and ten times worse than what Joe Torre has caught crap for all week from the sports world. Torre's was just lousy judgement; this was bush, and unprofessional.***Even the coverage caught the fever. The Arizona coach was caught for a moment after the game for a few, understandably depressed words. The next sight we got of anyone from this valiant team on either NBC or ESPN was QB Kurt Warner at the 12:09 am mark.
***I want to applaud Steeler linebacker James Harrison on his amazing TD run. I was gassed just watching him.
***Kudos to the Cardinals on that play, for not having any of 11 guys on the field—each of which we can assume is in shape and capable of catching the big load of James Harrison—be able to catch the lumbering, 280-odd pound load during his fateful rumble down the length of the field. I don't get that no one could tackle him over the course of 100 yards, as slowly as he was running or, at least, push him and his protectors out of bounds.
***Harrison, later in the game, however, proved to be a punk and a goon, forfeiting any good will aimed at him from his classic run when he was spotted repeatedly belting a Cardinal player in the back with a closed fist when the play was away from them, the play was over and the Arizona player was down on his knees on the ground, and helpless. John Madden called it correctly—Harrison should have been ejected immediately. That he wasn't is disgusting. What horrible officiating throughout the game.
***My favorite commercials were two: the Get A Dog one at the beginning (mostly for the elderly lady chasing her ostrich out the door, calling "Bruno, come back here!" as the bird is chasing the mailman. The second is the CareerBuilder ad towards the end, where you got to identify with sitting next to "that guy." Both for content and execution, this was my favorite. Very, very funny.
Career Most Thoroughly Shredded and Trashed During The Super Bowl:
***John Turturro—for those insipid, worst-commercial-ever-made Heineken ads. Stupid, pompous and lame with the absolute worst script I've ever seen in a commercial, dating all the way from early B&W TV. Then, John mumbles half the rotten text, until it's gibberish, then keeps a straight face while saying your beer (?) is a SWORD (???). WTF, may I ask? The only real problem John faces aside from obviously being broke enough in this recession to sign on to appear in this piece of crap, is that THIS IS A SUPER BOWL AD!!!!! As such it will only be seen by, what? ... a few BILLION people worldwide? "No reason to worry, John; no one will ever know, it'll just be shown locally..." I guess John is about to add the kindly, old "Helen Hayes" parts in his films now, because his storied career is toast. The only upside possible in this crap is a good payday for the Village Vanguard, which acts as the set for this thing, with fully visible logo, awning text, and bandstand. That'll help the venerable joint stay open for a while longer, we can assume.
***Do you think Calvin Pace is rethinking that contract he signed with the Jets, jumping from the Arizona Cardinals this year?
***J-E-T-S! J-E-T-S! JETS! JETS! ... oh..., never mind...
Next year in Jerusalem, as they say.
posted by Gotham 12:46 AM
1 Comments:
Not a football fan; last year's SB was the first I have ever watched. (And that was due to the young lady in my company wanting to watch her hometown team. Thankfully, they lost. So, did my libido.)
Anyway, back to my point: Last night I was having dinner at a friend's and watching the Roberto Clemente PBS doc--worth it--and the Joe Torre interview on Larry King via DVR. Afterwards, we checked to see the SB results and caught what seemed like one of the Steelers, congratulating the Cardinals for the hard fought battle. No?
By 
Kiko Jones, at
February 02, 2009 2:29 PM
