The Vince Lombardi Trophy Comes Home: My Final Thoughts on Super Bowl XLV

Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews, enjoying the moment.


Super Bowl XLV Final Score:
Green Bay Packers- 31
Pittsburgh Steelers- 25

Another great Super Bowl in the books, plain and simple. There was Aaron Rodgers taking the Brett Favre monkey off of his back and cementing him atop the pantheon of the league's best quarterbacks with a stellar MVP performance. There was Jordy Nelson acting as both the game's hero and its goat usually during the same Green Bay offensive possession. There was Pittsburgh, known for the past three or four years as the team to never give up on during a game, getting numerous chances at being the first team in Super Bowl history to take the lead despite being down by eighteen points, and blowing it every time. There was also Christina Aguilera infamously botching up the national anthem, the Black Eyed Peas continuing the streak of consecutive horrible Super Bowl halftime shows, fans being displaced from their seats in exchange for an even better reparation, Nick Collins taking it to the house for the third straight pick-six in Super Bowl history, the return of the CareerBuilder.com monkeys, Alex Rodriguez being fed popcorn by Cameron Diaz and so much more.

In other words, there are so many ways many water cooler talk moments from Super Bowl Sunday that I don't know where to begin! Overall, I would describe this thrilling yet exhausting Super Bowl XLV as the most competitive one sided football game in recent memory. One sided because the Packers never gave up the lead during the contest. Competitive because of how the AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers proved once again that they weren't a team that one shouldn't be able to count on giving up so quickly., especially if they are down 21-3 late in the second quarter in the most important game of the NFL season.

The Terrific Comeback That Wasn't (at least, that's how I will always remember this game) really began during the 2:18 mark in the second quarter, long after first points had been scored, the usual pregame festivities that featured the singing of the national anthem, the introduction of the teams by "The Stranger" from "The Big Lebowski" and the flipping of the coin were completed, the first $3 million commercials were broadcast on air and FOX's NFL salute to the Declaration of Independence (a fine one, by the way) had been aired. The Packers had just completed their second offensive drive for a touchdown, this time coming off an Aaron Rodgers 21-yard touchdown pass to Greg Jennings, to lead the game 21-3 (the first fourteen points, as you probably know, came off a Rodgers TD pass to WR Jordy Nelson and Nick Collins interception for a touchdown that occurred two plays after the first score), and the Steelers offense now had the football, looking for a touchdown to cut their already sizable deficit heading into halftime. It was a 1st down and 10 for the Steelers with the football at their own 23 yard line and the offense lined up in a shotgun formation On that play, QB Ben Roethlisberger, facing pressure, threw a pass twenty five yards to his intended receiver, Hines Ward, who was struggling to get into position as he was well covered by Sam Shields. On the last possible second, with the ball thrown by Roethlisberger speeding towards him, Ward was finally able to get into position to make a catch, grabbed the ball at the 48 yard line and then was able to get seven extra yard until he was finally brought down by Shields (who would get injured trying to tackle Ward).

From that play on, even though Green Bay had been basically dominating the majority of the game with its good play and because of the two interceptions the defense was able to get at the cost of the Steelers, you could sense that momentum had been shifted towards the Steelers. On the next play, Roethlisberger tried to go deep in a pass that was intended this time to speedy deep threat Mike Wallace. Although Wallace was unable to catch it, the play was able to do something positive to Pittsburgh's chances when the cornerback defending Wallace on the play, Pro Bowler and 2009 NFL Defensive Player of the Year Charles Woodson, suffered an injury that would put him out for the rest of the game (and making him the third Packers player to get injured during the game along with Shields and veteran WR Donald Driver). Then, six plays later, with Pittsburgh now eight yards away from paydirt, Roethlisberger threw his team first touchdown game, a slot pass to Hines Ward to cut the game 21-10 with :40 seconds left until it was the Black Eye Peas' time to shine. Knowing the fact that the Steelers just came off a playoff victory over the Ravens that had them down 21-7 and that this team under Mike Tomlin and Ben Roethliberger had been known to pull off better second half performance, you could kind of sense as an observer of this game that maybe, just maybe, this team could do it again, this time with an estimated 162 million people watching worldwide.

Things seemed to get much better for the AFC champions during the third quarter of this game. After the Green Bay offense was limited to a three and out, the Steelers offense scored their second straight touchdown in a drive that was highlighted by three big runs, one by Mwelde Moore for twelve yards and two by Rashad Mendenhall (the first one in which he crashed into a helpless cameraman after a big run and the other one being his eight yard run for a touchdown), to cut the lead to 21-17. Suddenly, you had the Pittsburgh defense playing as best as it had all game, the Packers offense actually struggling for the first time (with 4:30 left to play in the quarter, the team actually had more penalty yards than offensive yards in the second half) and the score as close it has been since the start of the first quarter. Sure, kicker Shaun Siusham (by the way, big apologies to Mason Crosby for me picking Siusham instead of him as my kicker of choice during Friday's Super Bowl picks column) missed a field goal to cut Green Bay's lead to one, but it was a 52 yarder, and for that I give him a benefit of the doubt. Besides, the quarter ended with Mendenhall (who should of been MVP had Pittsburgh won, by the way), running for nine yards to put the Steelers at the Packers 38 yard line with a good chance to take the lead. It still looked like a comeback was in session.

But then the fourth quarter began with Mendenhall (who isn't new to turnover problems during his tenure as an NFL running back) suddenly losing football after getting stripped by the duo of Clay Matthews and Ryan Pickett and Pittsburgh losing possession after it was finally picked up Desmond Bishop, and from then on this game was highlighted by the poise and charismatic play of Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers, a young and talented QB that had already proven himself to be one of the league's best players after three outstanding regular seasons and a 2010-11 postseason that had him throw a passer rating of 109, has always been faced with a series of critics that have tried to poke at every one of his flaws. This was the case from the 24 teams that passed on him in the 1st round of the '05 draft, and this was especially the case from those Favre apologists in the media who still felt that the Packers and GM Ted thompson, who were a kick away from Super Bowl XLII during the '07 season, should have kept Favre instead of moving on with the younger Rodgers. During the two drives that his team had during the fourth quarter, I'm pretty sure that he proved basically every remainder of his doubters wrong when he made Pittsburgh's terrific defense once again look average at best and looked as cool and without any pressure as "Joe Cool" Montana himself.

The first drive came following the Mendenhall fumble. In just eight plays, Rodgers drove the Packers down the field 55 yards in just eight plays to put Green Bay up 28-17. But the most interesting part of that drive was that, despite the fact that all eight of those plays were passing, Rodgers never had a pass completed during first and second down. No, it was only when Green Bay was on the brink of punting of the football to Pittsburgh, on third down, that Rodgers was able to find James Jones for twelve yards and then to Jordy Nelson (who bobbled the ball on second down in what must have been his fourth case of missing an easy catch and then making a big catch during the same drive) for thirty eight yards. The second came after Pittsburgh scored a touchdown (a Roethlisberger 25 yard pass to Mike Wallace) and a two point conversion (a sick Roethlisberger lateral to Antwan Randle El just as he was about to be brought down) to cut Green Bay's lead to 28-25 (the closest it has ever been), when Rodgers led the Pack 65 yards, this time with the team wisely taking out five and a half minutes off the clock, all the way to the Pittsburgh five yard line where Mason Crosby kicked a 23 yard field goal to put his team up 31-25. In it, Rodgers again made the relatively difficult Dick Lebeau defense relatively easy to deal with (to be honest, this was a completely different Pittsburgh defense that I had seen all season. It was as if they weren't playing with the same difficulty and toughness as they had all season long), throwing a 26 yard pass to Greg Jennings on third and ten with the team again on the brink of punting it, and a 21 yarder to James Jones that put Green Bay in great scoring position and also gave them the opportunity to run out the clock. A great way to end what had been a stellar night for him (24 for 36, 304 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs), probably the best performance by a winning quarterback in the Super Bowl since Kurt Warner's MVP performance in Super Bowl XXXIV.


However, despite the valiant effort by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense, the Steelers still had one last chance of completing the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history. It was a moment that I had predicted on Friday, with this close game coming down to how the team with the final possession does with the football. Turns out, it was the Pittsburgh Steelers, down by six and needing a touchdown to score, and with the perfect quarterback to have during this situation, too, in Ben Roethlisberger. Sure Roethlisberger may not be the best quarterback in the league, or even one of the five best (top ten at most). But when it comes to final second situations with your team desperately needing a touchdown to win, this is one of the guys that you want to have under center. After all, he was only two years removed from winning Super Bowl XLIII on a game winning drive and three weeks removed from defeating Baltimore in the playoffs on a 4th and really long pass to the end zone.

Of course, all 162 million or so that watched this game knew that it wasn't one of Roethlisberger's bests. Earlier in the game, he threw two interceptions (all of which were later turned into points). In fact, you could say that he was more of the Roethlisberger that we saw in Super Bowl XL than the Roethlisberger that we saw two years ago. And on a 4th and 5 with less than a minute to play and Pittsburgh at their own 38, the QB who only nine short months ago wasn't even sure if he was going to remain in Pittsburgh, threw an incomplete pass intended to Wallace that was almost intercepted by Tramond Williams, ending any remaining hope that the Steelers had. Rodgers kneeled down on the next play, putting Super Bowl XLV under wraps for good. Green Bay wins, good triumphs over evil (NO SUPER BOWL FOR THE ALLEGED RAPIST!), Rodgers wins MVP, veterans like Driver and Woodson finally win their first ring, young studs like Clayton Matthews and Greg Jennings get their first taste of greatness, Nick Collins and Jordy Nelson come out of it as unexpected heroes, Pittsburgh gets to wait another year to see if they can get title number seven, the fundamentals of football (defense wins championships, turnovers will cost you big) are proven once again, and the Lombardi trophy comes back to Green Bay as the 2010 NFL season is finally in the books.

Now, let's just hope that the damned owners and the NFLPA can finally get their act together and settle on a new CBA quickly. After all, I don't think that I'm the only one who hopes to see a scab free NFL season in 2011 as well as another opportunity at great game of the likes that we saw last night (with two of the smallest markets in the NFL battling out in an entertaining game for the biggest prize in American sports). And now, here are my thoughts on all of the other aspects of last night's game:

Christina Aguilera Singing the National Anthem: Well, the good news is that she helped get people a lot of money by singing "brave" for ten seconds, four seconds more than the over/under bett on Bodog this past week. And she didn't lip synch! That's good, right? The bad news is...well, where to begin? Look, I'm all for giving your own interpretation of the national anthem, as long as its good (like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock or Marvin Gaye before the 1983 NBA All Star Game). But that doesn't mean that one should vocalize to the point where its becomes a parody video of every other singer who has tried to over-do the anthem. And, yes, there was the part when she botched the lyrics, leaving out the "O'er the ramparts we watched" line and then trying to make up for it by combining two lines together to make "What so proudly we watched." Overall, a poor rendition of the national anthem. However, unlike a few members of FOX News nation, I'm going to respectfully forgive her.

"America the Beautiful" Sung by Lea Michele: Sweet, conservative, nothing too fancy...the complete foil of Aguilera's performance, and it paid off.

The Look Inside Jerry Jones's Luxury Suit: One of the most fascinating images during FOX's coverage of the game came not only from the field, but off of it, specifically when the cameras broadcasted images from the happenings inside Jerry Jones's luxury suit of importance, where some of the most famous names in Hollywood and politics joined the owner of the Cowboys in watching the game, from Michael Douglas to Roger Goodell to even the majority of the Bush administration. John Madden texting, John Travolta looking suspicious, A-Rod getting fed popcorn by Cameron Diaz...it had it all! Makes you wonder what was happening when the cameras were off.



The Halftime Show with the Black Eyed Peas: This halftime performance did not disappoint, in that it stunk as one would have imagined. It started out okay with the group playing "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow" as you'd expected them to, but things kind of started to fall from there, with the low point being Fergie singing the lyrics to "Sweet Child O'Mine" with Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash playing the song's famous riff. You kind of wish that she was replaced by Aguilera in the middle of her rendition (Ed. note: even I don't know if that's an insult). And then Usher fell down from the sky, which is pretty symbolic considering that it was he came out of the sky to save the performance like a divine intervention in your average old time epic story. If the Tron-like background dancers end up being more entertaining than the performers, then you know that this the Super Bowl halftime performance was awful.

The Seating Controversy: In case you haven't heard, some 1250 or so spectators (an amount that would have made the attendance for last night's game the highest in Super Bowl history) that had bought tickets to watch this game inside Cowboys Stadium weren't able to do so because their seats had either been considered unsafe by safety marshals (something that the league knew for almost a week leading up to the game) or because of incomplete installation of their temporary seats. The news was proclaimed by certain people to be one of the black eye of the Super Bowl (in honor of the Black Eyed Peas), and those thousand or so fans through a hissy fit. And while this may sound like a big issue, I would just like to say that I do not pity these poor souls one bit, mostly because of the "I'm sorry" gift given by the league that is at least 4X better than what the 100,000 or so people got that were able to watch the game. Here is a list of what they received because of the blunder by Cowboys Stadium and the league: One $2400 compensation per ticket, three times the value worth of the ticket that they purchased, free tickets to Super Bowl XLVI (which I assume they could sell for thousands of dollars if their teams don't get to play in it), free food and accommodations during the game, a chance to get on the field after the game (something that many at the stadiums couldn't have done), and (most importantly) their fifteen minutes of fame. As Barry Petchesky of Deadpin points out, their experience was a lot better than had they been able to sit down and watch the game from their seats. Their pain went away around the end of the game last night.

The Announcers: Eh, it was a typical Joe Buck/Troy Aikman game; nothing that special. Buck was calling the game in his usual monotonous, smart-alecky style while Aikman played Buck's right hand man. The good news for them was that Ben Roethlisberger didn't complete that comeback for the ages at the end of the game. I'm sure that the complaints of Buck's monotonous broadcasting would have been a lot bigger than the complaints over his call during the Tyree catch in Super Bowl XLII

The Commercials: Remember when I mentioned in last year's Super Bowl recap that I thought that its slate of commercials may have been the worst ever assembled? Well, this year's slate of ads turned out to be a great improvement from last year. For starters, this year featured its share of great ads that were much more in quantity than last year. Also, the amount of borderline sexist ads, Boost Mobile commercials with the '85 Bears and overhyped commercials about abortion declined from a year ago (always a positive). However, despite the improvement in quality, the game was once again much better than the ads overall. For example, you still were able to see your share of bad Super Bowl ads as there were still plenty of commercials that ended up being flat, uninteresting, or were so bad that they had to resort to groin punching (a nice quick laugh but too overused and overrated these days) to save it from being awful to slightly less awful.

But enough of my boring overall review that even a fifth grader can make. Let's get straight to my pick for the night's bests and worsts (note: I don't count movie trailers). Since I like too get the bad news out of the way, here are the five ads that I thought were the worst of the night (in countdown form):

5 (tie). Bud Light- "Hack Job"
What happened to you, Bud Light? What happened to the days when the brewing firm would actually treat the Super Bowl slot as if it were a big deal and, in response, used that seriousness to make hilarious commercials like Super Bowl XLI's "Wedding Reception Auctioneer" or Super Bowl XL's fantastic "Magic Fridge"? Ever since the beer questionably changed its logo to "Here We Go," the commercials haven't been as funny as it used to. Case in point: this ad about a renovated house that looks better only because there is a stack of Bud Light on the kitchen counter. Not only was it unfunny, but completely ironic since it was the first commercial of the night that was supposed to feature the single biggest night of them, and it failed to live up to the hype. Oh well, at least it was able to redeem itself in a later ad (will be shown later).



5 (tie). Groupon- "Tibet"
Let's get this out of the way: no matter how much supporters of this ad will defend, it was offensive. Not horribly offensive, but offensive nonetheless. It would be the equivalent of someone detailing the tragic images of Hurricane Katrina, only to see John Laroquette appear out of nowhere saying that New Orleans still makes awesome gumbo nonetheless, and that you can get a discount on it if you go on this website order this. It's just simply out of bad taste, you know. Besides, if your going to go that far in your ad, at least make it funny. This ad, to say the least, was not. But as long as this controversy keeps on going, it only improves Groupon's stock, since virtually any publicity is good publicity.
(P.S.- how bad does Timothy Hutton's stock have to be right now that he's agreed to participate in this commercial?)



4. Chevrolet- "Misunderstanding"
Hey, look! It's old people! And they have a hard time listening to the ad about how the Volt has a big MPG because they're old! Get it? I honestly hope that Sunday is the only time that we actually had a chance to see this unfunny and easily forgettable commercial.



3. Pepsi Max- "Torpedo Cooler"
Overall, Pepsi Max had an okay night with ads like "First Date" and "Love Hurts" that were enjoyable to watch. Unfortunately for them, there was also this commercial, about some average schmo who, thanks to the power of Pepsi Max, was able to magically launch two bottles in the head and the crotch of a straight-up asshole. Crotch shots...how original.



2. Sony Ericsson- Xperia Play
As mentioned earlier this week, I was out watching the game at a party. I say this because when this commercial aired, almost everyone that watched it agreed that this was not only terrible, but one of the stupidest commercial they have seen during the game, as did it. After all, what does seeing an android getting knitted human imposable thumbs in a dreary and dirty urban area have anything to do with a cellphone?



1. Any GoDaddy.com Commercial
Last year, I took this website's set of Super Bowl ads #2 in the worsts countdown because of Boost Mobile's god awful "Super Bowl Shuffle" parody.This year, with no Boost Mobile around and with the website's set of ads failing to disappoint with its, usual abominable effort, it won my #1 worst slot in a landslide. Seriously, though, why after all these years and countless negative reviews of their ads does GoDaddy.com still decide on making ads of this poor quality? I have two theories on this:
a) they received a lot of page views from the idiots who think that theirs ads in its entirety on GoDaddy.com actually contains adult content and/or some images of erotic nature, and thus want to continue the success that they have brought.
b) the CEO of the company, who has no experience in making good advertisents, has total creative control of the ad making process and does not receive help from wittier and more imaginative art directors.
Whatever the reason is, I have a feeling that they will continue to make more of these kinds of ads for a long time.



Dishonorable Mentions: Brisk- "Eminem" (kind of hard to believe that he doesn't do commercials when he appeared in two during the game), Budweiser- "Wild West" (I liked the singing of "Tiny Dancer" and that it promoted the message that alcohol actually stops bar fights, but it just fell flat), Mini-"Cram It In the Boot,"
(Hah, get it? It's an entendre for anal sex!") E-Trade "Tailor" (kind of getting tired of the babies for the past two years or so).

And now, in unranked order, here are my votes for the night's best commercials:

Volkswagen- "The Force"
Most of you readers know how much I liked it from the fact that I posted it the day before the Super Bowl on this site as my "Video of the Week." I mean, its got a kid wearing a Darth Vader costume! How better can you get than that! I just wished that it premiered during the Super Bowl than before it. But then again, but of these great commercials that I have listed premiered on the Internet before the Big Game, so I'm going to stop complaining and just enjoy it.



Bridgestone- "Reply All"
People and things screaming: it's the type of commercial that Bridgestone knows that they do best and its the same type of strategy that the company used to perfection on Super Bowl Sunday. This tradition began during Super Bowl XLII with an ad that featured a bunch of forest creatures screaming as a driver was inches away from running over a squirrel, and repeated again during Super Bowls XLIII and XLIV. This time around, the screaming was that of a white collar employee named Rod terrorized about the possibility of all the people in his e-mail address book reading the message which he sent "Reply all" to, so he goes on a hilarious mission to try to eliminate any chance that these people are able to read it. It was the funniest ad of the night, and capped off by an awesome mustache by the supporting actor.



Chrysler- "Imported From Detroit"
One of the most powerful, moving and well-made commercials of the night with a wonderful message about the Motor City and a great payoff with the words "Imported from Detroit" at the end. I just wished that Chrysler advertised a better car than the 200 for such a great ad like this.



Chevrolet- "Miss Evelyn"
An interesting advertisment as it was told eta-style through the perspective of two advertisers, who appear to be good creative partners, trying to think of a commercial to run for Chevy during the Super Bowl, with all of the editing and ideas represented as the commercial was running. Enjoyable, clever, and fun (and Miss Evelyn wasn't a bad site to look at either, if I might add?). What more could you want?



Doritos- ""Pug Attack" and "House Sitting"
On Sunday, the chip company released not one, but two great commercials within the span of thirty minutes. The first one is titled "Pug Attack," where we see an owner taunting his pet pug with Doritos, only to end up with the pug smashing the door that was blocking them to get to it. It was a commercial that you knew what was going to happen, yet ended up laughing either way. The second, as well as the better of the two, is titled "House Sitting." In it, a man is asked to house sit his buddy's pad that ends up having a dead fish, a dead plant, and their grandfather's ashes in an earn, only to have them all revived (even the grandpa!) after the guy sprinkled them all with some Doritos. Not only did it have a great payoff with the dead grandfather coming back to life, but its sheer absurdity won me over tremendously.





Audi- "Release the Hounds"
The commercial so good, it makes me want to say "Hit 'em With the Kenny G" once a day for the next month or so.



NFL- "Best. Fans. Ever."
The NFL is continuing to grow in popularity virtually every season, so the league decided on thanking them for their tremendous support during the game. And how did they do it, you ask? With a wonderful commercial that featured characters of some of the most popular American TV shows then and now with digitalized NFL gear added to them. There was the Foz wearing Green Bay Packers gear, Jerry Seinfeld wearing a Giants winter cap, the folks at Dundler Mifflin in Steelers gear (even though fans of the show all know that the majority of them are Eagles fans!), Eric Cartman wearing Broncos gear, and so much more. It was a cute little commercial with a lot of nostalgic TV moments for everyone young and old. Plus, the actual digitalizing of the gear was pretty well done, if I might add.



CareerBuilder.com- "Parking Lot"
After all, what great Super Bowl would be a complete without another great CareerBuilder.com commercial featuring the always gold monkeys?



Chevy Silverado- "Tommy"
"I didn't know even know this town even had a volcano." A funny ending to a funny parody commercial of the "Lassie" movie series.



CarMax- "I Feel Like"
The ad starts out with a happy and enthusiastic man saying he "felt like a kid in a candy store" at the fact that he has a great selection of cars at the car buying store, to which the commercial then show us a kid in a candy store feeling like a geek at a robot convention and so on and so forth with even more analogies to teh point where it takes us right back to the guy at a CarMax, feeling like his mind had just been blown. Overall, the ad was a pretty clever one that had me feeling very amused at the end.



Cars.com- "Go First"
What can I say? The ad is right when it comes to the benefits of having someone try something out before you.




Best Buy- "Buy Back Program"
Anything that features someone mocking Justin Bieber's appearance on the same ad that had him as the prominent star gets a big thumbs up in my opinion.



Coca-Cola- "Border"
Another year, another entertaining and imaginative commercial from the Coca-Cola company. You have two border patrols, each of which very serious about their job. That is, until one of them open a bottle of Coke, to which both sides come to a partial agreement to spread to border a bit to give another bottle to the other patroller, only to have the two have things go back to their seriousness. It's thid type of feel-good ads that the soda company does well, with this as a great example of it.



Honorable Mentions: Telefora- "Help Me Faith," Sketchers- "Break Up 2 Shape Up," Bridgestone- "Carma," Hyundai- "Anachronistic City," Bud Light- "Zorro" (I wonder if the writers of "Days of Our Lives" had any part of it?), House Promo

Miscellaneous:
a. After seeing four different players taken back to their team's respective locker room, I have to say...the hallway to the locker rooms with the two large high-def TVs are pretty great, probably the best that I've ever seen. But then again, when you pay billions of dollars to have this stadium, the least you could do is make the players locker rooms look spectacular, right?
b. This might have been the first Super Bowl in years in which the experience during the game was a helluva lot better than the experience during the week leading up to it.
c. Two thoughts on Roger Staubach presenting the trophy to commissioner Roger Goodell: 1) he looked very excited to give it to a team that isn't the Steelers and 2) when he and Terry Bradshaw were practically face to face at the Super Bowl presentation stage, I'm surprised it didn't end with either one of them trash talking each other. That, or have them both turn into ashes.
d. I expect this Super Bowl to be the start of something greater in Green Bay. If you think about it, they have the elements that could potentially turn itself into a dynasty. Their the second youngest team in the league, they have a great young QB in Rodgers, a great young defensive beast in Clay Matthews and even A.J. Hawk, stellar wide receivers in Greg Jennings, JerMichael Finley and Donald Driver, great corners, and a good GM in Ted Thompson that has brought in a good group of guys into the team. Add in the fact that they're getting Ryan Grant back next year and most of the other 15 or so players placed on IR during the season, and you have a team that could even be better than the one that we saw win on Sunday. There are only two things that I'm worried about with them. The first is whether the team could deal with the pressure of constantly being challenged and given their best as now the defending champions. The second is whether they fall into the trap of players wanting more money and more playing time, a factor that has contributed to the end of good teams in many sports including the NBA and MLB, which would potentially break up the chemistry of this team.
e. Whoa, whoa! Did I just read that FOX went an entire Super Bowl broadcasting without mentioning Favre?!?! What, are we living in some kind of parallel universe or something?
f. Another reason why its just mind-boggling to think that there will be a potential lockout: last night's Super Bowls are at the highest that it has ever been, with just over 111 million Americans tuning in to watch (not only the largest Super Bowl audience ever but also the largest audience in American TV history, beating...last year's Super Bowl, which drew in just under 107 million) as well as a record household Nielsen rating of 47.9. Should be interesting to see how DeMaurice Smith and the NFLPA uses it to their advantage (because you know they will).
g. The episode of "Glee" that ran after the game affirmed to me every reason that I hate this show and why I will never watch a full episode of it again.
h. Even though Aaron Rodgers has proven for the past two seasons that he deserves to be in the discussion among the topic of who is the best QB in the league, this Super Bowl win has just cemented him at the top of the list as of this moment. Not only does he now have a perfect record in the Super Bowl (something that guys like Brady, Manning and now Roethlisberger can't say) but he's also been one of the three best statistical quarterbacks in the league (with the other two being Manning and most likely Drew Brees) and has had an exceptional start to his playoff career with a 4-1 record, 1.517 passing yards and 13 TDs.
i. The final game picking tally for mj50 and I this season:
mj15: 174-109 (not including the Pro Bowl, which I picked correctly by the way)
mj50: 154-129
Looking back now, I can't believe how foolish I was in picking Pittsburgh (my third incorrect Super Bowl prediction in four years). For starters, Green Bay played five straight playoff type games before this one and won them all, so not only were they the hotter team in this team but their wild card spot reminded me a lot lot the '05 Steelers and the '07 Giants. Second, the cornerbacks for Pittsburgh, though backed up by Troy Polamalu, were still not good enough to match up against the throwing of Aaron Rodgers. Oh well, you learn from your mistakes I suppose.


And there you have it, my thoughts one every major aspect of Super Bowl XLV, from the singing of the national anthem to the announcers to even the game itself. In case you wanted to know, I will continue to talk about the NFL and football related topic during the offseason from time-to-time. After all, this is a year round blog, with or without the additional post a week dedicated to NFL picks. But until then, enjoy the start of your workweek and enjoy...whatever sport you're following now that football is over!

Sincerely,
Your pal: mj15



If you have any opinions on today's post, or if you just have any suggestions or
tips for my next blog entry, e-mail me at: mj1599@aol.com. Your e-mails are greatly appreciated.