The McDonalds Apple Turnover Bowl

So yesterday was that great American event, the Super Bowl. This 3 hour game has become more than an all day event...the run up lasts 2 weeks and has carryover for quite some time after. Day after day papers, radio, television have content related to this one game. After it is over people wisely talk about the "disappointment" the game itself provided.

Really? You build something up to greater levels than say....Martians landing in the middle of Times Square then are disappointed when the game plays as a normal game? Wow...sheer genius right there.

Be that as it may, I was indeed looking forward to this game. I enjoy watching the Colts play as they are a high octane offense that is fun to watch and I have a tremendous appreciation for their coach, Tony Dungy.

Here is a man in the testosterone fueled world of the NFL who once said he would appear on The Best Damn Sports Show. When the PR director asked him to repeat it he said, "No, that is the last time you will hear me use that word, even in the show title." Dungy does not curse, does not rant and rave and rail at his players, does not scream in anger when things don't go his way or a player demonstrates human frailty by missing a play...he is a gentleman in every sense of the word, a man who treats his players well, has courtesy, discipline, and an extremely high standard of ethics.

To all those ecstatic because "a black coach won the Super Bowl"...take a lesson from Dungy. He said, and this is pretty close to if not a direct quote, "I might be the first to have the opportunity to do it, but I know in my heart I am not the first with the talent to do it." That sort of statement takes an appreciation of history, an appreciation of the improvements we have made, and a humility that is seldom seen in the coaching ranks. Somehow I cannot picture Bobby Knight being the first to do anything and saying, "I might be the first to have the opportunity to do it but not the first with the talent." Most coaches are so full of self-aggrandizement that they are the best who ever lived, know more about the game than anyone else and are quite full of self importance. More to the point, now that Dungy and Smith reached the pinnacle...maybe we can stop pointing out their skin color and start pointing out their talent. And hopefully there will be Asian coaches, Native American coaches, etc. and we can just talk about "Running Tree Nighthorse, the talented coach of the Cowboys" instead of having to point to ethnicity as if they somehow "rose above" their race or something. Enough already. People are people and of equal talent regardless of race. It really boils down to opportunity.

The game itself was...well, fun. Entertaining. Sure, you can point to the ridiculous number of turnovers (as I did in my hilarious title :-) ) and say it was not well played...but the truth is it was, while slightly more turnover prone, fairly akin to most regular season and playoff games. The import attached to it is just so much higher that the lens of scrutiny is magnified to outsize levels. But the bottom line is it had everything you would want to see...plenty of scoring, lead changes, tension with an unclear outcome for the vast majority of the game, momentum shifts, opportunities for either team to take control, tremendous individual plays (the continued showing of Reggie Wayne flying backwards through the air, somehow cradling the ball to retain possession on what was ultimately just an incomplete pass had me laughing every time they showed it....surely the Largent like foot-drag by Harrison that was actually a completed pass would have been more apropos and just as spectacular?)

The one thing that really gets to me is part of the build-up. The build-up is more about the commercials than the game itself. This year was particularly stupid with some woman renting space on her pregnant belly, one company building an advertising campaign around trying to get an ad pulled with thong wearing guys because it might be thought offensive, and many, many people advertising having "fan-created" commercials...uh...peeps, you are working to give them something to show you to get you to buy their product...you DO realize this, yes? Retards.

News flash; commercials are....wait for it...COMMERCIALS. They are attempts to vend products to people who pretty much don't need them. No matter how funny they are (the "I threw paper....well, I threw a rock" got me to chuckle) or unfunny (the Doritos checkout line comes to mind as a waste of 30 seconds of my life), no matter how sexy (Candice Michelle swiveling her hips in a wet t-shirt for Go-Daddy comes to mind) or unsexy (the career builder ones), no matter how technically proficient (the car company talking about starting and stopping with death-defying "real demonstrations" or lacking in same they were....they are still....commercials.

And no, they are NOT more entertaining than the game. No, I have not and never will reach the point where "Cheetohs runs" are done during the game so I can watch the commercials. Enough already. There is no need to analyze and rate the commercials. I actually find the "Best Superbowl Commercials of All Time" Television commercials even lamer than "All Star Celebrity Amazing Race"s with losers who spend their life participating in as many reality shows as possible. In my humble yet accurate opinion...it doesn't get much lamer than that.

All told, I enjoyed the game, ate a lot of food I shouldn't of, but enjoyed the company a lot. Hopfully next year we can get two more fresh teams that either have never been there or have not been there for a while. Good times.