1. My heart said Colts; my head said Bears. Should have listened more to my heart. (Story of my life.)
2. How do you get to the Super Bowl with Rex Grossman as your QB? He was beyond bad in this game. His passes were only good if you’re a skeet shooter.
3. Great job by CBS. Loved the HD, even though the foggy camera lenses diminished the clarity some. Was nice not to have to endure Terry Bradshaw and Jimmy Johnson on FOX (along with their consistently bad camera angles). Madden is still the best, but aside from him (now NBC), Jim Nantz and Phil Simms aren’t bad at all. Really loved their observation that Abilene, TX is highly represented in the Super Bowl with three players (two from Abilene Cooper and one from ACU).
4. One unfortunate aspect of CBS carrying the game: you have to watch endless promos for mindless television programs. We now have seen more than we want of Criminal Mind, CSI, CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, and CSI: Topeka.
5. Love Tony Dungy.
6. Below average commercials, though Bud/Bud Light and Coke commercials were decent. (My favorite: the auctioneer at the wedding.)
7. Peyton is well on his way to establishing himself as the second greatest QB of all-time (behind, OF COURSE, Montana).
8. Who chose Prince for halftime? Where’s Bono?
9. Was great to get to watch it with my Dad.
I was about to write about the Super Bowl, too, but am too tired! So I’ll just comment on yours.
And you said what I wanted to say anyway about those endless promos for those shows. We were watching with our kids, and I got tired of having to hit “mute” and saying “okay, cover your eyes now” while another murder or cadaver was shown.
Love Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning.
Loved the Bud Light commercial with the hitchikers (axe and chainsaw).
Glad you got to watch it wiht your dad!
Absolutely loved Tony Dungy’s statement about the significance of winning the SB “The LORD’s Way.”
My thoughts…
Go Cooper High! Good for Rhodes and Snow. And great job by Lance Barrow producing that game. I wish so badly that the Bears offense showed up even just a little bit. Take away the opening return for a TD, and that game is out of control the whole way. Rex put the Gross in Grossman tonight, and I think we have seen the final NFL start for him. That sounds weird to say for a superbowl quarterback, but the Bears coaches had to handle their offense with training wheels because of him. How good could this team have been with an AVERAGE quarterback? Where is Jim Harbaugh when you need him?
And CSI:Lampasas is going to be a great show, I guarantee it. I really think America has a problem when we are addicted to shows about cadavers. It is some weird death cult thing going on with us.
Best commercial: Paper Rocks Scissors. Rock wins!
Two black NFL coaches who are Christians, who seek to please the Lord, and now they have a Super Bowl win!
Take that liberal America!
Royce Ogle
What do you mean, “Who chose Prince?” What are you, like 50 or something?
As for the commercials, the “connectile dysfunction” ad from Sprint seemed worthy of becoming a classic.
Go Colts! Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning are certainly class acts that handle winning with grace and poise. Ya’ll really need to give Rex Grossman a break though- how old is the kid? Remember it took Peyton 9 years to get here and his first years weren’t the best either. Having a coach like Lovie Smith believing in him- Grossman’s game will get better and he’ll be back. By the way- the Bears didn’t just pay their way to the Super Bowl, Rex had to do something good to help them get there. I also like to remember Theodore Rosevelts quote about it being better to have tasted the agony of defeat and the thrill of victory than those poor souls who know neither ( ie: the arm chair quarter backs) : ) It’s fun to be Indianapolis- we’ll be celebrating in the streets tomorrow!!!!
I can’t help but think that the unrelenting rain magnified the experience of Manning and the inexperience of Grossman. qb’s no QB, but it looked as though there were lots of balls that sailed and floated as if the wetness had moved the release point back in the arc a degree or six. Safeties were having one of those “easier than shooting fish in a barrel” days, just camping out on both QBs. Perhaps Manning made the technical adjustments, and Grossman did not. And nearly 200 yards rushing by the Colts? We can’t lay that on Grossman, can we?
Dungy and Manning acted like they belonged there…no gloating, no showboating, no garbage. What would really do my heart good would be if Manning were to decline his next invitation to the H*fn*r Man*ion. He should have declined the first one, but alas, his visit to B&nn%l*nd made the Sabol NFL films a few years back.
qb
Amen on everything… Especially Grossman and the Halftime show. Prince only did one of his own songs… How lame.
Theodore Roosevelt never blogged. It sure is better than the agony of the victory or whatever.
Yes, a lot of that 200 yards rushing was directly attributed to the Bears Offense’s inability to sustain a drive. Every time they went four and out or turned the ball over they put their increasingly weary defense on the field and they allowed Indy to take over the grinding ground attack. The offense’s troubles exposed the defense.
Maybe Rex is too young and should be given more chances. I started to compare him with other guys who won superbowls with four or less years of experience and realized that the names I was coming up with are Aikman, Montana and Tom Brady. I do stand by and say that he is one of the absolute worst QBs to play in a superbowl. And yes, I freely admit that he can throw a HECKalot better than I ever could!
Great comments on the Super Bowl. Surprised you haven’t commented on the “Mayhem at Harding” issue. One observer called it Footloose 2007!
“Take that liberal America!”
I can’t even begin to make sense of this comment. Do you think that we have black head coaches in the NFL because of the tireless efforts of conservatives? Maybe you meant “way to go, liberal America!” and just mis-typed.
And, anyway, do we really want to politicize the Superbowl? Does everything get filtered through red and blue now?
My favorite commercials were the ones that pointed out the significance of both coaches being black. The fact that both are Christians and love each other is something I hope is not lost in the minds of the billion or so that watched the game. It puts an exclamation point on the lives of William Wilberforce and John Newton and reminds us there is much left for Christians to do in the world.
Yes, I don’t believe I would have chosen Prince either (I’m 51, don’t ya know), but at least he got rid of the dew rag before he was done. I don’t even want to discuss the sterotypical image that popped into my mind when he was wearing it.
Ahhhhhh…it’s nice to be right!!
Bono? Please!!
I am really tired of hearing about the “first 2 head coaches to be in the Superbowl” as it diminishes their talent a little bit. Can’t we just acknowledge that and then move on to the fact that both these guys have a TON of talent and THAT is what makes them great, not the color of their skin?
“Do you think that we have black head coaches in the NFL because of the tireless efforts of conservatives?”
Oh yeah, I forgot, conservatives are all racist.
BTW, I think that “Take that Liberal America” was meant about Tony’s comment about the Lord.
Glad you got to watch it with your dad. I love reading this blog, but I’m always puzzled by how Rush Limbaugh devotees make such mind-numbingly irrelevant comments just to get their shots in: “Take that, liberal America”? What has that got to do with anything Mike wrote about? Is it because Tony Dungy made a profession of faith? Faith in God is something that is strong in America with many conservatives and many liberals. How that faith is lived out often looks quite different. But it’s not like Dungy drove some stake into the heart of “liberal America.”
JM, loved the Harding videos at youtube. My favorite was this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nF4lFFo18Lg. Also like this: http://malibulibrarian.typepad.com/books_beaches_blather/2007/02/mayhem_at_hardi.html#comments.
Can someone confirm if Jim Nantz is cofC? (sorry to sound so denominational ‘-) ) Jim’s friendship with Lance Barrow always brings out the Abilene or cofC connections. Am I the only to think most commercials were overly-violent/borderline - morbid this year?
jay leno on super bowl performers
“Billy Joel singing the national anthem and Prince at halftime, we’re going to party like it’s 1984.”
I just liked it that even Dungy set the race issue somewhat aside to make the most mention of the fact that he and Lovie (I can’t even type that name without a chuckle!) are Christians. Pretty awesome. Our favorite commercial HAD to be Letterman and Oprah! We kept rewinding it and just dying laughing! As for Grossman… bless. He was truly tragic. I feel sorry for him. The entire room of people we were watching the game with let out a collective squawk on that air lifted hurl that went sailing through the air for a perfect interception. Good grief. Finally, good for Peyton. I’m happy for him even though I can’t picture him driving a lipstick red Caddy.
Ugh - how can a Super Bowl worth team not have a plan B at quarterback? Admittedly, they didn’t get to play offense for most of the 2nd and 3rd quarters, but they should’ve at least asked to borrow a QB from Indy at some point.
Bright side - the offseason will be spent talking about Grossman instead of Romo’s bobble.
Jim Nantz seems to be a good guy/broadcaster - Phil Simms acts as if the game is rudely interrupting his one-sided conversation. Wish they would invent a mute button that would single out a person…
Commercials - the winner of the Chevy contest to make your own commercial (the carwash) was the worst of the ideas that made it to the finals. If you saw that special, you would know that the other ideas were infinitely better, but that one was the cheapest to produce.
I thought Prince was a decent choice considering the sordid history of SB halftimes — what impressed me was that he had the guts and the talent to actually play and sing in the pouring rain. Someone mentioned that he only sang one of his songs - but you can’t really know… He’s written a surprising number of the songs that other people sing.
When the dynamics shifted to the Colts in the second quarter, an expression in Spanish came to mind, Esta arroz ya se cocio iow, the destiny and outcome of the game was set and my attention wandered to other thoughts and activities. I’d be pulled back in full attention to the game only by the mention of Danieal Manning, Dominc Rhodes and occasionally of Jason Snow. The three did Abilene proud.
It was my pleasure to inform my family and friends outside Texas and the US that this little town, my new home, was so well represented in the SB! Fun!
Prince sang two of his own songs: “Let’s Go Crazy” and “Purple Rain.”
Super Bowl was good. Article Mike linked us to in NY Times is better.
I thought Price put on a good show and played some wicked guitar. Thought that the Stones were also great last year.
Which quarterback do you feel most sorry for?
1. Rex Grossman failing to make a good show in the Superbowl.
2. Tony Romo fumbling the game winning kick hold (I just made that word combination up) to get into the playoffs.
I was pondering this thought last night as the camera panned on Rex and he looked quite dejected, the same exact face Romo was sporting after the infamous ball drop. What do you think?
I’ve got to disagree on the Nance/Simms team. Phil wore thin on me before the first quarter was half over. For my money, the emerging best coverage team is Joe Buck and Troy Aikman.
I, too, liked the Rock, Paper, Scissors commercial, but I have to love the idea that the Doritos commercial was made by a group of friends for the price of four bags of chips and made it into the first quarter time slot.
As far as the liberal/coservative smack talk, all I have to say is:
TONY DUNGY FOR PRESIDENT!
One more thing, the over/under for Billy Joel on the national anthem was 1:46. I really thought he would play it pretty straight and go under. At least I was right about that (even though I ws still rooting for the Colts). My other favorite commercial, by the way, Letterman and Oprah. Classic.
What about the face slap commercial?????
Here at church we pound fists, actually in Scufflegrit Alabama we call it giving taters, after every service. I can’t wait until Wednesday to start slapping faces!!!!!!!
Madden is the best?
CBS High-Def was great! First time to experience it in High Definition was awesome.
Prince ROCKED that place. It was awesome!
2 late minute thoughts on the SB.
First, now that Payton has won the big one, who does that leave as the best qb never to win a sb? Marino or Jim Kelly (who lost 4)?
Second, I liked Prince … I’m an 80’s child.
I agree…Tony Dungy is a class act and such a great guy. Yay for the good guys!!!
Bono….?
Maybe he was trying to explain his hypocrisy to poor African children…
http://www.bloomberg.com/
apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aqdKjGJi9cHc&refer=home
Good Game, average commercials, better than average half time show. Add to that the fact that I spent the evening with my life group and it made for a great day.
I thought the Super Bowl provided a great avenue to see the importance of faith in a man’s life. Hopefully, we can see how it helps Tony Dungy deal with success after he has shown us so well how it has helped him deal with adversity and tragedy.
I am glad that our church has seen a way to include the Super Bowl in our church life instead of finding a way to act like it doesn’t exist and then wonder why our attendance drops in early February. Whoops, did I just violate the patent on the copyright “Super Bowl” by mentioning it with my church? Shame on me!
Michael, I remember growing up when our church would cancel Sunday Night church sometimes due to the SB. Back before home churches.
On Super Bowl Sunday where I grew up, I recall being in a half empty auditorium, singing the first and third stanzas of each song, short prayers, a rare ten minute sermon and service that lasted a total of thirty minutes. Of course, we did follow the traditional two songs, prayer, two songs, standing to sing before the sermon, sermon, invitation song, announcements, closing song and closing prayer with the almost scriptural, “Guide, guard and direct us until our next appointed time together.”
Then, we would race home to watch the last two quarters of the game. Obviously, I was not a part of group as progressive as Roland. HA!
I used the halftime performance of the Prince to run. I would rather have had Prince lipsync the N.A. and BJ do the halftime, but that’s just me. Championship couldn’t have happened to a nicer man on the planet than Dungy. This won’t be Peyton’s last SB trophy. He’s a machine.
Brian,
Interesting article about Bono. When do you suppose we should all explain our hypocrisy? Or I guess it’s not hypocrisy for most of us who do absolutely nothing to help the poor.
I don’t know you, so this is not a personal attack. It’s just that I do know Bono never claimed to be a saint, but he has helped a lot of people. Unlike so many who claim Jesus, but do nothing. I know because I’ve been in that group many times.
I think I’ll rejoice that he cares at all and does use his influence for good instead of doing nothing and avoiding criticism.
But hey, how about that Super Bowl, huh?
Bono should have been the Bears quarterback
Speaking of Super Bowl and church. Super Bowl VI (Dallas 24, Miami 3) was played, over and all post-game interviews were over well before our 5 pm evening service at University! Those were the good ol’ days.
It wasn’t all Rex’s fault. Someone needs to ask Ron Turner what the heck he was calling on offense. Pass on 2nd and 1? What?