Six thoughts on Super Sunday

1. How do you know when the refs are getting in the way? When one team wins a game by 11 points, and even a neutral observer (me) wonders if the wrong team won. Five questionable calls (a TD given to Pittsburgh, a TD taken from Seattle, and three phantom penalties) killed Seattle. And outside of rabid Pittsburgh Steeler fans, who's happy about that? (I see my colleague Jason Whitlock agrees, but the Times' Karen Crouse does not.)
2. The only suspense at halftime was which song the Rolling Stones would perform between "Start Me Up" and "Satisfaction."
3. What do you think McDonald's meant by that silent, molded Ronald McDonald? Was that a dig at Burger King? Since when is Mickey D's delivering rebuttals to BK, a chain it has spent the past four decades ignoring?
4. For its shout-out to all the Benny Hill fans, Sprint Nextel earns the coveted gold medal in Super Bowl addage. (Silvers to Ameriquest for a pair of perfectly executed pieces of comedy. Now what is it they do again?)
5. Overall, too many ads relied on CGI to make their point. After a while, the point seemed to be that large corporations could blow a lot of money on computer-aided commercials. Hummer, ESPN, and that energy drink from Coke come immediately to mind, but once my head stops spinning I'm sure I'll think of more.
6. So does this mean they rename the Pittsburgh stadium Hines Field?

Comments

[todd]

1. the bad calls amounted to a 21-point swing. they were the game. Seattle had their chances and made mistakes, but they also made plays to overcome those mistakes -- and the refs took those away. but the NFL will be happy because the story ended the right way: the Bus drives off into the Motown sunset, a Champion.

2. if the Pizza Hut commercial had featured a grown man coming on to a 16-year-old girl the way Jessica Simpson did to the boy, there would have been huge howls of outrage. this is a family restaurant? i'm far from a prude, but their are limits, and they involve children. sexually overwhelming kids to sell bad pizza is disgusting and i'm not sure how this commercial is less offensive to the FCC than Janet Jackson was.

3. the only commercial that made me laugh was the ad for ABC's "The Evidence". they are coming sooo late to the CSI game, and the way they laid out the premise was just hilarious. "Oh, goody," says excited viewer, "I get the evidence first and I get to play along. Innovative!" this is the only part of your life for which i pity you: you have to watch at least one episode of every awful show that comes along.

[ted]

Did ABC purposely not show the bass player with the Rolling Stones because of Janet Jackson? Hmmm?

I was surprised to see in the Karen Crouse NYT article you linked to that "Holmgren called for a replay." re Ben Roethlisberger's 1 yd run. I believe she's in error - the play occurred under the 2 minute mark, when plays are reviewed by the replay officials, and cannot be called for by the coach. Such a mistake makes me wonder if she should be writing about the NFL.