February 02, 2004
Super Bowl Notebook
Well, I sure as heck didn't expect anything like this. I thought for sure the Patriots defense would have Panthers quarterback Jake Delhomme confused all day long, but it seems his confusion only lasted for about a half. So much for my powers of prognostication.
While Bill Belichick deserves all the credit in the world for turning the Patriots into the top franchise in the NFL, I think it's time for team owner Bob Kraft to get some credit too. After all, it was Kraft that did the New York Jets one better when he stole Belichick out from under them, the same way the Jets managed to pluck Parcells from New England. Since becoming owner, the Patriots have gone to the Super Bowl three times, winning twice, and have built one of the best new stadiums in the league.
All together, the Pats have now played in four Super Bowls -- a number that places them in rare company, and marks them as one of the NFL's elite teams.
Would you believe I had my back turned when this happened? First I miss the battling Santas, and now this. The reaction from the NFL was predictably priceless:
"We were extremely disappointed by elements of the MTV-produced halftime show," Joe Browne, NFL executive vice president, said. "They were totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the content of the show.
"It's unlikely that MTV will produce another Super Bowl halftime."
You have to wonder what the folks at MTV were thinking -- pathetic denials notwithstanding. The NFL is one of the most conservative businesses in the world -- they're all about pleasing as many people as possible at the same time. As for MTV, well, at least they pleased Jason Scavone.
The Sydney Morning Herald is reporting that CBS actually knew all along that it was going to happen. (Thanks to Baltimaher from SportsFrog for the link.)
And congrats to Matt Chatham of the Patriots for one of the best on-field hits since Mike Curtis.
Over at Daily Pundit, Bill Quick didn't miss a thing, blogging the entire CBS broadcast. For a take from a Houston resident, stop by Off The Kuff. The consensus on the television ads seems to be they were collectively disappointing, with a few that stood above the rest (Budweiser and AOL to be more specific).
If there was a winner, it was Subway, who managed to grab a placement immediately following the final gun, and had their ad seen by million more viewers than if the game had been a blowout.
UPDATE: If you didn't catch the half time show in real time, Drudge has posted an animated GIF of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. Looks anything but inadvertent to me.
Perhaps we should give the last word to ESPN.com's Bill Simmons:
I've been thinking about it ... I'm going to miss Houston. Remember when the SLA kidnapped Patty Hearst, and she started to identify with them, and pretty soon she was robbing banks? That's how I'm feeling. I like being miserable. I love traffic. I don't need to see the sun ever again. I might never leave.
Hope Commissioner Tagliabue isn't reading this.
UPDATE: Bryan Westhoff at The Agitator has some other thoughts on the Janet-Justin stunt.
ANOTHER UPDATE: The Commissioner has spoken:
"We were extremely disappointed by the MTV-produced halftime show. It was totally inconsistent with assurances our office was given about the content of the show.
"The show was offensive, inappropriate and embarrassing to us and our fans. We will change our policy, our people and our processes for managing the halftime entertainment in the future in order to deal far more effectively with the quality of this aspect of the Super Bowl."
Sounds like some folks are going to get fired.
OT UPDATE: The FCC is now promising an indecency investigation. Please wake me when it's over.
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What a freaking whiner Simmons is. You see in the next paragraph him complaining about being outside in the "freezing cold"? Want to know what the weather was like here on Saturday? High 55, low 48. Boy, if that doesn't make you homesick for Boston in January, I don't know what would.
Posted by:
at February 2, 2004 07:45 AM
Don't know if you noticed, but for the first 24 hours, Simmons' entry said "the Zionists" kidnapped Hearst; his editors, apparently fearing another Easterbrook situation, switched it.
Posted by:
at February 3, 2004 03:59 AM
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01:36 AM
