Sunday, February 2, 2014

The Super Bowl

This year's Super Bowl features the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, which sounds more like a game that should be on WPSD at 4:30 P.M. on Sunday afternoon in September than a Super Bowl.  Personally, I've never gotten used to the idea that the Seahawks are in the NFC, so I can't help but think of this as an AFC West battle.  Wouldn't it be great if the teams came out wearing these uniforms?

But I don't suppose they'll do that.

Anyway, I normally like to listen to the BBC's coverage of the Super Bowl, but that feed is not available on XM Radio this year.  So I'm rolling with Westwood One, or whatever they call themselves these days.  Boomer Esiason is the color commentator.

It's 49 degrees in New Jersey tonight, so weather should not be an issue.

Any other thoughts will go into the comments.

52 comments:

  1. Wow. On the first play of the game, Denver SNAPS THE BALL OVER PEYTON MANNING'S HEAD and it goes into the end zone. Safety.

    We have only played 12 seconds, and the Seahawks lead 2-0.

    That was an odd play for the Super Bowl, but it seems like the sort of thing you'd see in a 1983 AFC West game.

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  2. This strikes me as an enormous day for everyone in the Pacific Northwest -- even more so than usual. No team from Portland or Seattle has won a major title since the 1979 Seattle SuperSonics, so there have got to be a lot of hungry fans up there.

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  3. 1983wise ... It wasn't until he led Arizona to the Super Bowl that I relented that Kurt Warner might've had a more successful NFL career than Curt Warner. To this Dolphins fan who hated the Seahawks, Curt Warner was fantastic.

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  4. Bud Light just started their big theme ad about a guy who has some sort of wild staged Super Bowl party-type experience. Presumably, this theme will run through the evening. I didn't think the first installment was all that interesting.

    The next ad was some sort of post-apocalyptic ad involving a sports car. I have no idea what it was about.

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  5. On 4th and 1 from the Denver 9, Seattle decides to kick a field goal. Boomer says he would have gone for it.

    Anyway, the Seahawks kick a field goal and make the score 5-0 with 10:21 left in the first quarter.

    The very first football game I can remember -- in fact, the very first memory in my entire life -- was a playoff game on December 26, 1970 when the Cowboys beat the Lions 5-0. But I don't suppose that will be the final score tonight.

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  6. I've been thinking all week that this week was feeling like a Super Bowl III situation, but now it's starting to feel a little like a Super Bowl V situation.

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    1. I watched the NFL Film of Super Bowl V the other day. It now seems really obvious to me that the Cowboys were the better team, and that they were beaten by a whole series of flukey plays.

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  7. The Broncos go three and out.

    I heard a guy on the radio this week arguing that Pete Carroll (who coached the Patriots before Bill Belechick) should get credit for helping to build the great Patriot defenses of the early 2000's.

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  8. TurboTax just had a great ad about how painful it is to watch the Super Bowl when you don't like either of the participating teams. As it turns out, I have never rooted for a team that went to the Super Bowl, and I think Turbo Tax captured the experience of disappointed fans quite well.

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    1. That was the best ad of the lot thus far, for sure.

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  9. For years, I thought Pete Carroll looked a lot like Ann B. Davis, but he's aged out of that.

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    1. I mainly think of him as a college coach. He was a great college coach. As a college fan, I miss his teams.

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  10. Meanwhile, Seattle has taken the ball and zipped down to the Denver 15 with 2:27 left in the first quarter.

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  11. Ellen Degeneres comes on and does a pretty funny commercial involving Goldilocks, the three bears, and dance music.

    In the ongoing Bud Light saga, the guy played Arnold Schwarzenegger in table tennis.

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  12. Seattle's drive stalls at the 15, and the Seahawks kick another field goal. They now lead 8-0 with 2:16 left in the first quarter.

    This quarter seems to have gone by very quickly.

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  13. Dingdingdingdingding ... Radioshack takes the lead.

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    1. But where am I going to get those really good shortwave radios?

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  14. With 59 seconds left in the first quarter, and facing 3d and 7 in his own territory, Peyton Manning throws an INTERCEPTION. The Seahawks will take over at the Denver 37.

    Then we go to an ad where Radio Shack tells us that Radio Shack is not in the 80's anymore.

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  15. Seattle zips down to the Bronco 17, and that's where they are when the first quarter ends.

    The Seahawks lead 8-0, and they have outgained Denver 148 yards to 11.

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  16. I'm a big John Tuturro fan.

    And is Cosmos coming back? I thought we were done with the 1980's.

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  17. Actually, you know what used to happen a lot in the 1980's? The Broncos used to get killed in the Super Bowl. Seattle cashes in the interception, scoring a touchdown after a very easy drive.

    The Seahawks now lead 15-0 with 12 minutes to go in the first half.

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  18. WeatherTech now comes on with an ad about American manufacturing was quite good.

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  19. Hey, the Broncos got a first down -- their first of the game. Denver has now moved out to its own 30.

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  20. The commercials are getting better, and the game is getting worse.

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  21. The Broncos finally get something going, and get to the Seattle 35. But Manning is hit while throwing the ball, the pass is INTERCEPTED, and Malcolm Smith runs it back 69 YARDS FOR A TOUCHDOWN.

    Seattle leads 22-0 with 3:21 left in the half.

    And then Denver FUMBLES THE KICKOFF!

    It's an old-fashioned Super Bowl blowout. I love the 80's.

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  22. I still can't get used to the idea that they're making another set of Spider-man movies. I will say that I'm nervous about the likely fate of Gwen Stacy in this next episode.

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  23. After a review, it was found that Denver did not fumble the kickoff. So the Broncos take over on their own 33.

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  24. And now the Broncos are on the move. With 1:55 left before halftime, they have reached the Seattle 27.

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  25. The Broncos have a 4th and 2 at the Seattle 19. For reasons that I will never fathom, they do not kick a field goal. Instead, they try a pass that fails. The Seahawks will take over with 1:01 left in the first half.

    So the shutout is still in play. There's never been a shutout in XLVII prior Super Bowls.

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  26. And that's halftime. Seattle leads 22-0. It's the first time any team has been shut out in the first half since the Giants were shutout in the first half of Super Bowl XXXV.

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  27. Here's Denver's record in six prior Super Bowls:

    1-0 when wearing navy jerseys
    1-1 in white jerseys
    0-3 in orange jerseys

    In the three Super Bowls where Denver wore orange, they were beaten 27-10 (Super Bowl XII), 42-10 (Super Bowl XXII), and 55-10 (Super Bowl XXIV).

    So if I were a Bronco fan, I would have had a bad feeling about the orange jerseys.

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  28. Seinfeld! And George! And NEWMAN!

    I speak for all of us 40-somethings when I say that's the halftime show we want to see. I can totally see George over-cheering two years ago when the Giants beat the Patriots.

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    1. I thought that was really great. I didn't understand the Pacer thing at the end, but it was still really great.

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  29. I know a guy who's a huge Seahawks fan. All year, he's been a nervous wreck because he's never seen any Seattle team go all the way (he can't remember the SuperSonics). And he was really worried about the NFC title game with San Francisco.

    But when I asked him about the Super Bowl a few days ago, he was extremely confident. He said that Manning couldn't avoid Seattle's rush, and he thought the Seahawks defense would dominate. So far, he's been spot on.

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  30. And now Bruno Mars is doing a halftime show. I'm too old for this music, so I don't really have anything to say about it. I will say that I like the gold jackets and narrow black ties. It's almost like a look from . . . wait for it . . . THE 1980'S!!!

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  31. I love the 1980's. So far, I'm enjoying this Super Bowl more than I expected.

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  32. I, too, am too old for that music, but the Bruno Mars show was fantastic.

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    1. And it was great to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

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  33. Man, President Obama was way, way, way wrong about this game. In Fox's pre-game show, he did a little interview at the end of a big RNC campaign ad narrated by Bill O'Reilly, and he said he thought the game would be won 24-21. He said he didn't have a sense of which team would come out on top.

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  34. The Tim Tebow ads are almost fantastic.

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  35. OK, second half. Here's the kickoff, it goes to Percy Harvin -- and HE GOES 87 YARDS FOR A TOUCHDOWN.

    After 12 seconds of the second half, the Seahawks lead 29-0.

    At this point, there's not a lot more to blog about.

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