Tag Archives: Superbowl

General

This ‘N That…

Regarding yesterday’s Super Bowl LV. between Tampa Bay and Kansas City…

…that’s why I don’t make any sports bets. Here are my original predictions regarding the game (this is the original post from the Friday before Sunday’s game)…

While its very tough to bet against Tom Brady, a man who may well be viewed -unless Mahomes or someone else proves better in time- the best Quarterback ever, the fact is that the Bucs are a more flawed team, IMHO, than Mahomes and the Chiefs. It just seems like the Chiefs have more playmakers versus the Bucs.

So my prediction is that the Chiefs will again win (they won last year’s SuperBowl), barring some kind of weirdness.

That’s not to say that I’m rock steady in my prediction.

Whew… thank goodness I was so wishy washy there at the end about my prediction! 😉

Seriously though, I feel I was right about one thing: I said Kansas City would win… barring some kind of weirdness.

I know I’m going to sound like some kind of sore loser (to be very clear: I have no preference to either team) I think there was some really squirrely stuff going on in the first half of the game.

The refs (I know, I know… blame it on the refs!) seemed to be really tough on Kansas City’s defense, like extraordinarily tough. There were some really -again IMHO!- weird/borderline calls and they helped Tampa Bay score and, eventually, run away with the thing. Also, its my understanding one of their better offensive linemen was out due to Covid-19 protocol.

Mind you and having said all that, Tampa Bay’s defense was ferocious and that, perhaps even more than Tom Brady’s usual great quarterbacking, was the key to their win. It’s hard to win a football game -even if you’re a Tom Brady or a Patrick Mahomes- if each play you run has you running for your life. I’ve personally witnessed several times the mighty Tom Brady have some really bad games against my Dolphins (a weird stat is that as great as Tom Brady is against the league in general and as terrible as my Dolphins have been for most of his time while in New England, during his run with the Patriots Brady had a losing record against the Dolphins when playing against them in Miami…7-10!) because they were able to get to him to the point where he was too hurried. At that point, his effectiveness, like Mahomes in yesterday’s game, dropped.

Anyway, congrats and until next year.

******

The second impeachment trial of one Donald J. Trump begins this week. It’s also the start of Joe Biden’s third week in office.

It’s fascinating to see the trajectory of either man.

I feel like opinions regarding Trump continue to deteriorate, at least among the general population versus those who feel themselves to be strong Republicans. That doesn’t mean the impeachment trail with somehow succeed in convicting Trump of the offenses he so clearly was impeached for -the base is strong and it seems Republican politicians are loath to go against them, witness the way they have censured the very few of their representatives for daring to agree with the idea that Donald Trump is indeed guilty.

Having said that, I feel the general public is very much against the more fanatical elements who are so protective of Trump. I further feel like more people have no desire to continue in the QAnon path that some of the Republicans seem to feel is the way to go.

This will play out in time.

Here’s a prediction, though: if indeed the Covid-19 virus is under control by Summer via vaccinations and general governmental competence under Joe Biden, and if people do realize the difference between how Trump handled things and Biden has, and if they realize how incompetent the previous administration was…

Could they somehow come to realize that perhaps -maybe!- the current crop of Republicans are simply not up to the task of taking care of business like the Democrats.

Further, if the economy roars back because of successful Covid-19 treatment, what could the Republican party possibly have to show to voters to get them to vote for them outside of QAnon nonsense?

It could be the start of a very cold winter for the party.

******

Anyway, its Monday, the start of another week,

Let’s make it a good one!

Sports

SuperBowl snores…

Like many out there, I found yesterday’s SuperBowl, number LIII, a complete bore. In fact, I only watched the first half and when it was done decided there was no point in watching more.

As a Dolphin fan, I’m no fan of the Patriots, but reading up on their win yesterday one can’t help but feel they are and remain a next level team, one that seems to have cracked the code to Football.

So congrats to them for that!

Now then: The game still sucked.

It was dull and, inexplicably, so too were the SuperBowl ads.

Even people who aren’t huge Football fans (like my wife), might watch the SuperBowl to catch the ads. They’re often incredibly creative, funny -sometimes quite hilarious!- and original.

Not so this year.

Few of the ads stick to may mind… there was a Budweiser ad which was really a Game of Thrones ad, or was it a combo Budweiser/Games of Thrones ad? I don’t know, but it wasn’t all that humorous.

There was a Jason Bateman as an elevator operator ad which was for some online car buying company… I think… that did nothing for me.

In fact, the only ad I kinda liked was the one featuring the NFL banquet where a football falls from the cake and the veterans and current players there go to town.

At least that ad had me cracking up.

Otherwise…

A Postscript: There were many who also knocked the Maroon 5 half-time show. Not a fan of the band and didn’t bother to see it (again, I was gone when half-time began), but looks like it was par for the course.

Sadly.

Sports

Superbowl stuff…

1 Comment

A friend posted this on Facebook and it’s worth sharing, especially to the long suffering fans of other teams within the AFC East…

Because of a dreaded contract dispute, our local Fox affiliate has been blacked out for close to a week now on our ATT U-Verse system and not only did I miss last night’s Panthers/Arizona game (that one didn’t bother me so much and the end result was about what I expected) but I also missed the first episode of the brand new X-Files show.  And my wife is further upset because she not only missed that (we are both big fans of the show), but also the second episode of this season’s Hell’s Kitchen.

We’ll catch up to the shows as they become available (I hope!) on the internet but, seriously…can cable companies still wonder why they’re losing clients?!

As for the Superbowl, I’m far from a prophet regarding such things and being a fan of neither team and having absolutely no dog in this hunt, I nonetheless see a very big Panther win.

Granted, the Bronco defense is damn good -perhaps even on a level with some of the very best defenses ever- but you have to have some kind of offense to win that final game, especially against a potent scoring team like the Panthers.

Further, Its sad to say considering all his accomplishments but if Mr. Manning had been on any other team, I suspect we’d already have heard about his retirement instead of looking forward to seeing him get another chance to win a Superbowl.

Then again, maybe the two week break will do wonders on him and he’ll suddenly look like the Manning of old.

As with all things sports related, we’ll see in a couple of weeks.

TV

Super Bowl XLIX post-mortem…

Now that this year’s SuperBowl is over (seriously, Seattle, WTF was that last play all about?!) we get to discuss what’s important: The commercials.

Here’s Seth Stevenson’s best and worst of, via Slate:

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/ad_report_card/2015/02/super-bowl-ads-the-best-and-worst-commercials-of-xlix.html

For myself, the ads this year were…not all that great, frankly.  But there were some that had me laughing.  Yes, I’m into the humorous ads.  Forget the “inspiring” or “emotional” ones, I’ll take the ones that make me laugh.  Like this one:

Lindsay Lohan poking fun at her image?  Yes please!  Speaking of which, the next two ads, also favorites, follow this same pattern of stars poking fun at their images.

First up, Pierce Brosnan considering a new role…

Then, Liam Neeson not about to let someone defeat him and take his gold in…a video game?

Finally, this commercial features Danny Trejo in probably the best “you’re not yourself when you’re hungry” Snickers commercial:

Funny, funny stuff.

Now, about that last play by the Seattle Seahawks…

General

Superbowl LXVIII

Did you hear about yesterday’s exciting Superbowl?  How the Seahawks pulled it off on the last few seconds to beat the Broncos?

Yeah, right.

It was one of those games where the very first play by the Broncos effectively told viewers what we were in for…

There was talk/analysis that the more veteran Broncos with multiple players who had already experienced at least one Superbowl would have the edge over the far younger Seahawks, a team of which not one single players had so much as come close to a Superbowl before this year.

Yet it turned out to be completely the opposite.  It appeared Denver and their players were jittery from the get go, perhaps only too aware of the magnitude of the event while the far younger Seahawks just played hard.  And the Bronco’s jitters quickly turned into a nightmare and, for them, a blowout.

As a fan of neither team, after it became all too apparent this game was over before the end of the first quarter, I was hoping at least the commercials would offer entertainment.

Sadly, that proved not to be the case either.

The only commercial I thought was genuinely clever and funny was the Stephen Colbert two part pistachio one…and that was more for the second, unexpected commercial that followed the more blah (as it turned out, on purpose) first one…

The surprise is what made it so appealing, and I’m not sure watching the two side by side this way reflects the cleverness.

As for other commercials, there were a couple of somewhat humorous ones (the Doritos one, the Audi commercial with the mutant doberhauhau and a very funny cameo by Sarah McLachlan) along with a whole bunch of very weird ones (the Bob Dylan one really sticks out, as does the Danica Patrick one where she was wearing a muscle suit(!) yet barely showed her in it, the Arnold ping-pong one).

I’m threatening to slip into complaining/whining mode but in the cold light of morning, I regret wasting all that time yesterday.

But that’s what makes sports what it is.  Unscripted entertainment means you never know if you’re going to see something amazing (the Heat’s Ray Allen corner 3 to tie what looked like a championship win for the Spurs and turned out to be the impetus for the Heat to eventually win the series) or something absolutely boring like yesterday.

Music, TV

Middle finger malfunction…

While thIs year’s Super Bowl was an entertaining affair, once again we have a “controversy” regarding the halftime performance.  Specifically, it appears singer M.I.A., facing a camera during a medley of songs with Madonna, not only gave viewers the “middle finger”, but also said “I don’t give a s***”.

 

Maybe the advancing years have made me a cynic, but it’s getting hard to count the number of times I’ve heard of/witnessed a musician doing some “shocking” spontaneous act on a stage (large or small) that a) lands them into hot water while b) helping raise people’s awareness of said artist which results in c) more sales of their product.