| Half Super |
2 February 2003
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Super Bowl Game Outscores Sideshows for Once
Until the last three minutes of the second quarter, Super Bowl XXXVIII [38 in a less pretentious numbering system] seems to be on its way to the usual stupor of the NFL's typical lame final. Missed field goals, ineffective offense and a feeling that the hype was way overdone. Then, Carolina turned the ball over, and the floodgates opened on a Super Bowl match up that was actually worth watching.
The second half was the super part of the game. Both sides suddenly seemed to realize that they had better start playing before the season ended on a weak note. It could have gone either way, and had New England not managed to score a field goal in the last few seconds, overtime beckoned.
Unfortunately, "Super Sunday" has become filled with extra-curricular activities that take the spotlight away from the game itself. After two weeks of media micro-analysis, game day arrives to provide hours of pre-game foolishness. Secular American society seems to need some kind of tradition and pageantry that is usually the province of religion. Thus, the rather idiotic celebration of NASA, ending with an astronaut and an American flag on the moon -- an endorsement of President Bush's rather strange space policy or merely tasteless nationalism and maudlin remembrance of the lives lost on Columbia?
Many non-football fans watched the game for the commercials -- which cost around $2.4 million a pop and which are allegedly the best of the year. After watching one for Budweiser featuring a candle, a horse with gas and a blond with singed hair ("A rocket sleigh!" is not a punchline for grown-ups), the purchase of Anheuser-Busch products seems as tasteless as the products themselves.
And the halftime show, which featured Janet Jackson (and her right breast), Kidd Rock, Puffy Daddy (P. Diddy if one likes), Justin Timberlake and Nelly, was a blur of audio and video that served a mere promotional for MTV -- a channel that has all but stopped playing videos anyway. Too many acts in too little time because everyone wants to get into the act. Which may explain the streaker who was flattened by New England linebacker Matt Chatham.
The Super Bowl has become more than a game in large part because the games themselves have, over the years, proved to be such disappointments. This year, the NFL scored mightily once the second half began. Next year's game, well, the odds are it won't be as good as this year's, but the hype will be as loud, or louder.
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