The Superbowl
Sorry to tear you hopeless geeks away from Lost, but it’s time for something manly! No not the Oscars. It’s Superbowl time! Time to answer those age-old questions that speak to the essence of manhood: Which team has better uniforms? Whose tight end is better looking? Which ETrade baby is more articulate? What scandal will occur during the half-time show? And of course, most importantly: Which commercial has the hottest babes?
Feel free to comment here before, during and after the big game on all things related to the cultural phenomenon that is The Superbowl.
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Posted on February 7, 2010, in Pop Culture, Sports, Television and tagged Superbowl 2010. Bookmark the permalink. 118 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
KulturBlogGuest
MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
I’m expecting a boring win by the Colts, but I’m holding out hope for some excitement. Let me know your predictions before kickoff, but remember, please: no wagering.
I was kind of surprised they replaced the E-Trade baby. I guess maybe the old one was growing up.
Here’s my question: what is your snack line-up? I’ve got blue corn tortilla chips with both salsa and queso, french onion dip with both kettle chips and veggies (baby carrots, snow pea pods and olives), grapes, and Dr. Pepper/Cherry 7-Up.
Oh, and I’ve got a nice fire going in the woodburning stove. I’ve been watching the CBS pregame coverage all afternoon. (I’m rooting for Austin Collie; lame, I know, but there it is.)
I’m more rooting for Collie to pull a hamstring.
Ok, not really.
I like your snack line-up! I’m less creative, but more alliterative. I’m going with chicken wings, chips and salsa, cherry coke. I call it the Ch-ch-ch-championship line-up.
My 9 year old is excited about watching it with me. He is my oldest and this is a first.
Go Saints! I am from Maryland and hate the Colts for leaving Baltimore.
I tried to bring up the Superbowl and/or playoffs once on the BCC list, and you cannot imagine the hostility from that crowd.
New Orleans has one of the greatest uniforms/color schemes in all of professional athletics. If we’re rooting for teams on that basis, I’m all Saints.
Also, I will root against the Colts simply because of Austin Collie and the fact that their colors are the same as BYU’s.
Scott: the black and gold is sweet.
We will see whether Austin has been obedient this year.
I like the way you think, Scott.
Queen Latifah for the anthem? What’s up with that?
Saints win the toss and elect to receive. That seems weird. Usually you elect to kick and receive in the second half or you defer the choice to the second half.
Saints do have better uniforms, no question about it.
Saints not very impressive on the opening drive. 3 and out.
Opening pass by Manning connects for a first down. Colts looking good.
Saints defense hitting hard.
But Colts still moving the ball well.
Collie gets his first catch.
Colts blow it on third and five.
Settle for a field goal. Colts get the first score.
Tebow commercial was low impact. Will there be more than one?
I think just that one, but they may repeat it.
Saints doing better on offense, but now have third and seven on a dropped pass.
Bush! Bush! Weird typing that.
The Who! I am down with that.
Saints punting team is really good, but that’s not really something you want to brag about.
Nice jobs downing the punt. That will, however, not be enough.
New Robin Hood movie by Ridley Scott???
Colts get out of trouble pretty easily.
I liked the doritos commercial with the little boy.
I look forward to the Robin Hood movie. Time to save the story from Kevin Costner.
Saints defense is as good as advertised, they’re getting to Manning, but that opens up the running game.
Amen Chris, that will be an interesting movie.
Doritos gets my vote so far too.
Another running play, another huge gain. Saints are going to have to adjust.
Touchdown Colts on a pass from Manning into the end zone. I think Colts are on their way to a big win.
If that was the sole Tebow commercial, I agree it was much ado about nothing.
I’m looking forward to the new Robin Hood. It needs a darker reboot, which seems to be the direction they’re going.
Commercials are pretty good so far.
The Saints need to get something going quick.
Queen Latifah sang the NA on your TV? It was Carrie Underwood in a ghastly white jumpsuit on mine!
Saints uniforms are nifty, but the Colts are old school cool.
Go Daddy. Mmmmm-hmmmm.
Tracy, wha?
Simpsons and Coke. Awesome.
Tracy, my wife walked in and was incredulous about the NA. She thought Carrie Underwood was ghastly, both the outfit and the singing.
MCQ #8: “Queen Latifah for the anthem? What’s up with that?”
The Bud Light commercials are pretty good too.
She was Kev- she was stringy and pitchy and sounded awful!
I wonder how many brits have been on the Superbowl halftime show. I think it’s been a lot.
Kevin (re Tebow),
The best political commercials are the onces that create free chatter in the press. The ad was a success before it aired. Argg.
When people ask Beatles or the Stones, I respond: The Who. I am excited.
Me too, Chris. Love love love the who.
Saints finally showing some life.
Freeney gets a big sack.
Nice FG. Saints on the board.
Letterman commercial was awesome.
Budweiser bridge ad = awesome.
Ooo, Amazing Race is back next week.
I liked the Budweiser ad too, but what’s with all the pantsless ads?
It’s all Lady Gaga’s fault.
Saints defense stepping it up!
Lady Gaga wears tightie whities?
Gross.
I agree with Tracy.
saints knocking on the door.
Mistakes in the red zone = doom.
and not heaven’s door
Dodge commercial was so cool.
Best line so far: “There’s a lot of nice guys in prison.”
Can Kiss be any dumber?
Polamalu as groundhog, FTW!!!
The midget KISS band was better!
Not even close. Shoot.
Colts goal line stand was really amazing, but at least partly the result of Saints just not getting it done.
Saints’ defense doing their part.
Saints get 2 field goals when they should have had at least one TD, possibly two.
Halftime!!!
Sad that John isn’t on bass.
Roger and Pete still got it.
Baba O’Reilly is one of the greatest songs ever.
Who are you without the f-bomb? Keith Moon wouldn’t approve.
Pete’s Guitar windmill= wow.
onside kick. That was wicked.
Really? You think they still got it? I mean I hear you on Baba O’Reilly, but I dunno, Roger’s voice just didn’t sound great.
Unfortunately, there’s a whole generation of kids who are going to think The Who wrote the theme songs for CSI.
Roger has not been the same for a while. But, the who Is really all about Townsend. They are old, give em slack.
Touchdown.
The Who has always been Townsend, and yeah they’re old, but come on! It’s a national audience- Hit your notes.
Fair enough.
That generation can suck it.
The Saints are just not converting third downs.
Suck it.
Another field goal. The kicker is sure keeping the Saints in the game.
Hartley may be the MVP if the Saints pull this off.
Did you see the ETrade baby commercial? Pretty funny.
That was a great etrade ad.
Colts going for it on 4th!
Got it. Manning is on target.
Collie gets dropped for a loss. Guess he’s just not livin’ right.
Colts miss the FG! Saints take over at the 41 in a one point game.
Huge reversal on the two-point conversion. Huge. It was the right call, though.
I liked the Google Ad.
Saints intercept for a TD! They’re going to win this! Unbelievable!!!
The ads have been absurdly stereotypically sexist- is that normal for Super Bowl ads or is it worse this year?
Colts come up empty on 4th down! Saints have it in the bag. It’s over.
Tracy, that’s pretty normal for Superbowl ads in my experience.
Great game but I think the Saints just won it with that int.
Ads this year have been lame with a few exceptions.
It was a pretty good game. Fun to watch and stayed exciting all the way to the end. Just the kind of Superbowl I like but rarely get.
I saw two ETrade baby ads, and both were good, but there’s another one they didn’t show:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqVBKO_QM3o&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1I enjoyed watching this with Kulturblog. Thanks MCQ and Tracy.
I hate the Etrade ads, but loved the LEtterman Oprah ad.
Thanks Chris, it was fun!
I tried to watch the Letterman/Oprah ad (which I missed because I was talking to MCQ here and losing my feminist street-cred) and YouTube has it blocked!
Thoughts: ever notice that the better the football game the lamer the commercials? The past two years have had good football games. The only commercial that stands out this year are the house made of beer cans. What’s even more surprising are how many just totally missed.
Robin Hood. I’m mixed. It looks like Gladiator lite. I wish they’d gone with the first idea and told the story from the Sheriff’s point of view. Now that would have been interesting. Prince of Persia looks completely lame.
It’s nice the Saints won. I thought the Colts had their number in the first half and that the Saints were lucky to hit halftime with it still competitive. But from that onside kick onwards the Saints really played solid. Too bad Collie didn’t have a better game. He didn’t screw up but there weren’t any big plays. (His first touch was solid, but nothing much after beyond being competent which is more than a lot of players can say under pressure)
Anyway, I used to live in Louisiana and the fans have been loyal to the Saints since the days they were perennial basement dwellers. For all the bad it did the hurricane has also brought out a lot of good in the area. A good football team is but one example. (And probably among the crasser examples) The fans deserve it after being so devoted through decades of depressing play.
Oh, regarding The Who. I didn’t find them bad. However the soundmixer needs to be fired. The vocals were mixed way too loud which made the age of the singers much more noticable. (Although nowhere near as embarrassing as that Pink Floyd reunion with Roger Waters a few years back) What I am glad is that they actually did a short concert rather than what we normally get which is a stupid medley with a marching band thrown in. I do think a more modern band would be nice. But hip hop still rules the airwaves and most of the modern rock bands aren’t quite up for it. Who would you rather have seen? U2 again? Even they are getting long in tooth. I actually think Metallica would have been an interesting case if they played some of their more mainstream songs. Beyond that who? Kings of Leon? Greenday?
As for Letterman/Leno. Meh. It was surprising they did it together. But beyond the shock value I didn’t think it particularly funny.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcEx767TIas&hl=en_US&fs=1&
Kings of Leon or Green Day would have been awesome! I also would love to see Foo Fighters at a halftime show. Or Blink 182.
Or what the heck was that band that was on SNL with Dave Grohl back on the drums?
Some of my thoughts and tangents (mostly tangents) regarding the Big Gameâ„¢:
* The years have not been kind to the voices of Roger Daltery and Pete Townsend.
* Drew Brees had a heck of a game. He went eyeball-to-eyeball with Living Legendâ„¢ Payton Manning, and Manning was the first to blink. Am I the only one who thinks that big old scar on Brees’ right cheek makes him more lovable?
* The commercials were pretty decent last night. I still like the e-Trade talking baby. The sleepwalking Coca-cola commercial was cool, especially at the end when he’s petting the hyena. Is it just me, or is Danika Patrick looking cougar-ish these days?
* There were remarkably few penalties. These were well-disciplined teams. On the other hand, there seemed to be a lot of chippy behavior, cheap shots, pushing and hitting after the play. I’m surprised the refs didn’t call any personal fouls on that stuff.
* I don’t know what his personal situation is, but I bet Garrett Hartley has never had trouble with the ladies. What he just did at the Big Gameâ„¢ can’t hurt either.
* The Arcade Fire seems like a strange musical choice for NFL promos, but somehow it works. I’m a late-comer to the Arcade Fire. Allison started to get into their music and I bought her Funeral for Christmas. My kids recognized the song as the one in the Where the Wild Things Are movie trailer.
Oh, and what this thread really needs is a Lost tie in: Dr. Candle/Change/Wickman was spotted in a beer commercial (predictably cast and the scientist who spots the world-ending meteor).
MCQ (#9): “Saints win the toss and elect to receive. That seems weird. Usually you elect to kick and receive in the second half or you defer the choice to the second half.”
This comment is pretty cool in retrospect.
Clark (#101): “Prince of Persia looks completely lame.”
Yes, but consider this: that movie could be just about terrible and still be The Greatest Video-Game-Based Movie Ever Made.
At least Uwe Boll isn’t directing.
Tracy M (#103): “Or what the heck was that band that was on SNL with Dave Grohl back on the drums?”
Them Crooked Vultures.
That was the first Superbowl halftime show I’ve ever liked. Sure, Roger can’t sing like he used to, but I was still impressed with his pipes. For an old guy he’s got a lot of power. And those notes are hard to hit for young folks. It would be a superhuman feat to sing like that into your 60′s.
I would have been happy with either team winning the game. This was the matchup I’ve been hoping for since the middle of the season.
Turns out, the Arcade Fire is donating all their royalties from the NFL using “Wake Up” to Haiti. Kind of cool.
The sound mixing was really bad. I think it got better as the show progressed but I don’t really remember. I was half asleep.
I was shocked by how bad Roger looked. I saw them live a couple of years ago and he looked much, much better then. At the Super Bowl he hardly moved at all, and didn’t look like he was comfortable or enjoying himself. At one point it looked like he was clearly lipsynching. Also, the medley was a bit of a weak choice. They could have just picked three songs and played them through. Perhaps they really wanted to start with Pinball Wizard and realized that then ending of that song is incredibly weak, leading to the medley. I’d rather have heard songs that stand alone given the constraints of the halftime show.
On the plus side, Pete looked good and like he was having fun, and the stage was impressive. I wonder if it was a one-off thing for the Super Bowl or if they use it in other configurations in other venues.
#8, 33, 35, 38:
America the Beautiful is not the national anthem of any country I’m aware of.
Maybe it should be. It’s a more beautiful melody, and easier to sing by non-singers than the Star Spangled Banner.
Ok, so Queen Latifah sang America the Beautiful. I still don’t understand why.
“Ok, so Queen Latifah sang America the Beautiful. I still don’t understand why.”
Because she had first choice?
But whose choice was it to have her sing at all? Is she even a singer? She has mostly been an actress lately and before that she was sort of a rapper, right? Since when is she a singer?
Since when is she a singer?
According to Wikipedia, sometime around 2003. Looks like her 2007 album Trav’lin Light was nominated for a Grammy.
Well, there you go.