Super Bowl LIII

For the 50^th time I joined millions of people and watched the Super Bowl LIII.  (I was too young to remember the first two Super Bowls—sorry Packer fans—and I missed the 49ers blowing out the Chargers in Super Bowl XXIX when I was traveling.)  My earliest memory of a Super Bowl was watching an interview of Joe Namath after they upset the Colts.  I sat on a small couch on January 12, 1969 and watched on a very small black-and-white television. I surely didn’t appreciate what I was watching—I just remember Joe Namath was very happy. 

The Super Bowl is still an event that brings together our divided country.  Even though its ratings are going down, nineteen of the top twenty most-watched television events have been Super Bowls. 

I can’t help write about the Super Bowl without mentioning the Vikings.  I’ve written before about the pain of a Vikings fan.  And not winning the Super Bowl is the source of this pain.  The first time I ever remembering crying was watching the Joe-Kapp led Norsemen lose to the Chiefs in 1970.  Super Bowl and tears didn’t stop then.  Losing to the Dolphins when it was obvious that the Dolphins were better didn’t stop the tears from flowing.  I didn’t cry when the Purple lost to the Steelers the next year, but the game was a dud. I was reminded yesterday that the score at halftime was 2-0 Steelers.  Losing to the Raiders on a frigid January day in Minnesota was the worst. Oh yes I remember the early missed field goal by the Errol Mann and then the blocked punt that gave the Purple the ball at the three yard line of the Raiders.  For a moment it seemed that this game would be different but—I don’t need to go down that rabbit hole of misery. 

Yesterday Chain of Lakes had a Puppy Bowl party so the two red-heads and I watched the game at our home.  No Super Bowl party with others this year.  I watched everything—pre-game, ads, game, halftime, postgame.

I never had the sense that the Rams would win the game. Even though Patriots were only ahead by a field goal for much of the game and even when the Rams tied the game, it seemed natural that the Patriots would make a play to win the game.  Isn’t this what the Patriots do?  And though it is tiring to see Brady and Belichick win for the sixth time at some point I’ve let go of jealousy and grabbed hold of admiration.  I’m impressed by excellence and those two display it.  And yes Spygate and Deflategate tarnish Belichicks’ reputation and it’s not hard to find reasons to dislike Tom Brady.  But—they win. 

I’ve never listened to Tony Romo do color analysis for an entire game.  I liked him.  It was hilarious to hear him say that Jim Nantz jinxed Stephen Gostkowski when Gostkowski missed an early field goal.  And he always seemed to know exactly what was going to happen in the game.  He predicted that Julian Edelman would win the MVP, which I think Edelman deserved.  And to think that Edelman was once the starting quarterback for Kent State and his first game he experienced a 44-0 thrashing by the Gophers is a reminder to never give up on any dream.  Thanks to Jim Souhan for that story. http://www.startribune.com/super-bowl-mvp-julian-edelman-embodies-what-the-patriots-are-all-about/505293382/

When I watch the Half Time show I’m reminded of how out of touch I am with Pop culture.  I had never heard of Maroon 5.  But Hannah had and she was singing along to all of his songs.  When Adam Levine ditched his shirt I was more curious about all the tattoos he had than what he was winging.  

My favorite Super Bowl commercial was the NFL’s 100-year game commercial.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJjiIuH1VnY  How much fun would that have been to make?   In a survey USA Today’s Admeter ranked it to top commercial.  https://admeter.usatoday.com/commercials/the-100-year-game/  I liked the Bud Lite commercials, but am confused why it’s important to me that they don’t use corn syrup in their beer. I don’t drink beer, but I never thought that not having corn syrup would be an incentive to purchase it.  I posted a Facebook post about this and got all sorts of comments. https://www.facebook.com/hmoorepaul

The Super Bowl continues to be a reflection of the best and worst of America.  I can sit on my couch for over five hours, be entertained, watch incredible athletes, and scratch my head at what some are doing.  The Super Bowl gives us a common experience as I’m guessing you watched it too.

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