Super Bowl Fourty

[Peter_AUS]

Now I'm not a US football fan, have watched the odd time and seen probably about 3 Supper Bowls this being the fouth.

I have to say, the referee's need to have thier eyes checked. Even I can tell what is a foul push on an apposing player and what is getting your balance on turning around.

And as for the try just near half time, what a joke, the guy's takled short, on the ground with the ball and he moves the ball forward for all in sundry to see on the bigh TV. Heck they showed it about what 10 times on TV here in Aussieland. My understanding is, if the ball is on the ground and the player is as well, then the ball is stopped where it is, not allow it to be moved forward.

Here that is a penalty against the player moving the ball forward as there was no forward moment in the movement, the actual technical term is "Double Movement" in our Rugby League game, that has been played in the USA on a couple of years, as exhibition games.

Can't wait to see the mistakes of the refs in the second half.

What does everyone else think, or are you all too busy watch the half time entertainment.

[opus]

Actually, I think the ruling is that the ball "crossed the plane" of the end zone while the guy was in the air, so even though he came down on the ground short, it was still ruled a touchdown.

The same sort of thing always happens when the guys fly past the corner of the end zone, never actually getting their bodies into the end zone but holding the ball across the pylon, they get a touchdown because the ball itself crossed the plane.

I'm not sure about that call though. I was too busy thinking about the commercials. That's why I watch the superbowl anyway, for the commercials. Well, unless my Packers are playing. Then I watch for the football AND the commercials.

[Peter_AUS]

They don't show the commercials down here, so don't know about them. Interesting that if the ball crosses and doesn't make contact with anything and is driven back that is considered a touchdown. No wonder I don't understand this game or yours.

Second half was a bit of a snooze as well, I think.

[opus]

Peter, it's taken me awhile to understand it myself, I think because the rules are always morphing a bit every year.

Lots of people up here are saying the game was stolen from Seattle. Others are saying they lost fair and square. Same comments every year.

The commercials are very expensive during the superbowl so we expect them to be extra good. They were so-so this year.

Overall, yes, it was a snoozefest.

[Peter_AUS]

Yeah I know about the cost, $1mil a minute so they better be good. What was the Godaddy commercial like comparing with last years which I thought was terrible.

[opus]

very weird. I think you can see it at godaddy.com. I didn't understand it. It was focused on the girl's strap, whether it would break or not. It finally broke, and then the commercial was over. Very weird.

You can see all the commercials here:
http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads

[swmdrayfan]

Now I'm not a US football fan, have watched the odd time and seen probably about 3 Supper Bowls this being the fouth.

I have to say, the referee's need to have thier eyes checked. Even I can tell what is a foul push on an apposing player and what is getting your balance on turning around.

And as for the try just near half time, what a joke, the guy's takled short, on the ground with the ball and he moves the ball forward for all in sundry to see on the bigh TV. Heck they showed it about what 10 times on TV here in Aussieland. My understanding is, if the ball is on the ground and the player is as well, then the ball is stopped where it is, not allow it to be moved forward.

Here that is a penalty against the player moving the ball forward as there was no forward moment in the movement, the actual technical term is "Double Movement" in our Rugby League game, that has been played in the USA on a couple of years, as exhibition games.

Can't wait to see the mistakes of the refs in the second half.

What does everyone else think, or are you all too busy watch the half time entertainment.

Peter, how the rules are interpreted is directly proportional to the team you root for. ;)
There is great sentiment among the fans that NFL officiating is at an all-time low.

[Peter_AUS]

Yeah I think I got that one by watching some of the decisions. Reminds me of a lot of the decisions of our own football referees as well. And the Cricket Umpires, and the Tennis Umpires. Did you know they will probably be using third umpire decisions in Tennis from maybe later this year or at least from next year. Spycam that shows how the ball landed on or near the lines and the players will be able to challenge decisions (not a lot of them allowed to be challenged during a match), which might make those really tight calls smake the players in the head when they say they were in, where everyone else is saying they were out. It was used during the Hopman Cup, played in Western Australia during the xmas period here. Was well received by the players and officials.

[Primetyme195]

Well the superbowl is quite the sacred day for me as i have played for 12 years now. i will Clerify a few things especially since i could care less who won or not since my Cowboys and Bengals were not apart of the game.

The official rule is that if the ball crosses the plane it is a touchdown. the person possesing the ball does not have to touch the endzone.

The seahawks were not robbed of the game they were just outplayed.

The only questionable call was at the end of the first half. When Hasselback threw to jackson down the side line and was ruled out of bounds. i personally dont know if he was out of bounds or not but with it being within the 2 minite mark i think the booth should have reveiwed it. Really that was the questionable call

and i agree very boring game..... The Rolling Stones were good though!!!!

[adina]

I didn't think the Rolling Stones were that great. Given that they are the Rolling Stones, I was expecting a much better performance.

Since the Packers weren't there, I didn't really care who won. However, the whole thing was rather anti-climatic. Best play of the game? The Steelers "gadget" play.

I think Seattle was the better team, but they made some stupid mistakes. Although the Steelers QB is much better looking than Hasslebeck. And I think Holmgren is a pinhead. So I guess we were rooting for the Steelers.

[Asylum Steve]

Now I'm not a US football fan, have watched the odd time and seen probably about 3 Supper Bowls this being the fouth...

Peter, I think it's funny (and of course ironic) that you're the first one to post about this year's Super Bowl. I always find it facinating to hear what folks in other parts of the world think about the game...

Now, this may be stating the obvious, but the SB is arguably the most hyped single sporting event in the world. Definitely the most played up of all the American team championships.

And that pretty much is it's downfall... ;)

Trust me, as one who has seen EVERY one of the forty SBs, it more often than not is a somewhat poorly-played, anti-climactic contest. In any given year, the playoff games leading up to the SB, especially the two "conference" championships (which decide the two teams in the SB), are usually much better games.

Folks argue all the time why this is. Some say the teams (and individual players) are so nervous and overwhelmed to be in such a huge game, that they simply fold a bit under the pressure. More likely (and this is what I believe), the hype of the game is so blown out of proportion, that the game itself can't help but disappoint.

The thing you may not realize is the Super Bowl is marketed big time to the non-football fan. A large percentage of the US tv audience (as well as many of the game ticket holders) are not especially big fans (certainly not of the teams that are playing). But they are conditioned to think that this is an event so huge that they dare not miss it...

Getting tickets to the game is tremendously prestigeous, and SB viewing parties, for most, are simply excuses to gather and well...party. There are so many silly collateral events associated with "Super Bowl Weekend" (not to mention an almost always LAME, also over-hyped half-time show), that the game itself seems like an afterthought.

Not only that, but American sports tv has an absolutely nauseating amount of SB "programming" the TWO WEEKS leading up to the game, including highlights of every SB game that's ever been played, beyond in-depth analysis of EVERY single aspect of the game and the teams imaginable, and everybody's and anybody's prediction of who is going to win and by how much. Repeat that in an endless loop, and you get the idea.

All of this tends to water down the experience big-time for the real fans...

And then there are the commercials. It has become a tradition as big as the game itself for the SB tv broadcast to feature the weirdest and funniest new American commercials of the year.

While there was a time this was true, as others here have already said, that phenomenon peaked many years ago, and now there are MAYBE a handful of clever ones in the whole gaggle of multi-million dollar ads. Most of them are no better or worse than the average commercials we see all the time...

Anyway, I guess my point is this whole event has been carefully molded and choreographed over the years to market a huge assortment of products and services to the average person who doesn't especially follow football throughout the season.

And that is why the game itself seldom lives up to expectations...

Still, this year I actually enjoyed the game a lot. But my "secret" was to avoid as much press as possible the two weeks leading up to the game, skip the FOUR HOUR pre-game show, tune in right about the opening kickoff and then simply enjoy the game, skipping of course, the halftime junk...

[masdog]

very weird. I think you can see it at godaddy.com. I didn't understand it. It was focused on the girl's strap, whether it would break or not. It finally broke, and then the commercial was over. Very weird.

You can see all the commercials here:
http://sports.aol.com/nfl/superbowlads

The goDaddy.com commercials make fun of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" that happened a couple of years ago.

[masdog]

One of the biggest problems with the Superbowl is that it is over-hyped and over-commercialized. I couldn't turn on ESPN at all during the two weeks before the game without having some talking head East-Coast media type analyze and break the game down on all levels. I don't mind the NFL films productions that look at previous SuperBowls...but I had to change the channel whenever Sportscenter or ESPNs other sports-news programming came on. If you know how difficult it is to find something interesting on during the day, you know how hard it is to avoid the talking heads.

I was lucky enough to not be able to watch the game, but I did catch it on the radio as best as I could. It wasn't the most exciting game, but then the games have been mostly defensive struggles the last few years anyway.

The commercials weren't that good either. I managed to view most of them on the net, and if I was an advertising exec, I would fire my ad agency if they wanted me to spend two and a half million on most of those commercials. There were a few good ones...like the Fedex Caveman and the Mastercard McGyver commercial, but those were about it.

[Asylum Steve]

I don't mind the NFL films productions that look at previous SuperBowls...but I had to change the channel whenever Sportscenter or ESPNs other sports-news programming came on...

Yeah, I agree. I did catch a few of the NFL FIlms shows. Sure, I enjoy reliving a bit of the history of the SB, but no more or less than I do with the other major sports championships.

That's the thing. Football and the SB are so out of whack now with the way things used to be. When I was growing up (said as I shake my cane at you sitting in a rocker on my porch, heh heh ), the four major sports (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA) were very much equal, and we watched them all during different seasons but with the same excitment...

FWIW, my favorite sports and championships now are the NBA (go HEAT!) and MLB (World Series)...

[adina]

My favorite was the Sprint commercial with the crime deterrent phone. Second up was the fed-x.

I grew up on football. Every Sunday at my grandparents while we lived in Milwaukee. Now I watch it with my girls. When we ended up with Packer tickets for New Years day, everyone was surprised that we took the girls. Well how could we not? As soon as they got over the fact that it was much louder there than on tv, they had a great time. My oldest did her January writing project on her trip to Green Bay.

The season ends on the last Green Bay game, but we usually always watch the Super Bowl. But it is usually more about the company than the game.

My oldest has been to a NBA game, and she wasn't really impressed. She did like the free stuff she got, and loves eating hot dogs out of a foil wrapper. But wasn't too impressed with the game.

We are going to try hockey....I used to go to the Admirals games pre-kid, but haven't been in years. And baseball has always been really boring to me. Dh has been to Miller Park a few times, and we are going to take the girls sometime next season, but I remember going to County Stadium and being bored out of my mind. The scoreboard was interesting....

[opus]

I like football the best out of all sports because when I was a teenager I got to play touch football with the guys, and while I never got to really do anything in the game (I was "just a girl", after all, and this was the early 80s), I actually came to understand it pretty well. I still don't always recognize the more subtle plays for what they are, but overall I enjoy the game very much. It is made better for me if I get to know the players individually, with their strengths and weaknesses, so that's why I like the Packers. Oh, and also because in Brett Favre's early years with the Packers, my brother had a girlfriend who I hung out with, and we would watch the games at local sports bars, where you'd get a free shot for every touchdown and sometimes win free stuff. So I came to watch Favre more closely than I had ever watched a quarterback before. And I loved his spirit and his recklessly successful plays. It was a community fervor around here and a whole lot of fun, especially when we were winning championships.

I love going to games too, but not so much to watch the football. I miss more of the game in person; I'd rather watch it on TV if I truly want to know what's going on. But I love the live games for the photographic opportunities, for the energetic music, for "the Wave", for the brats & beer, and for the remote chance I might be on TV. Lambeau field is by far my favorite stadium. I've seen games in Chicago and in San Diego, and the fans are not as fervent.

I like the Super Bowl for the commercials, for the "party" atmosphere we put around it, for the special foods and snacks we eat, and occasionally for the teams that are playing. If the game should happen to be particularly exciting, then I'll watch closely. Otherwise I often do other things during the game and only tune in for the commercials.

I heard on the radio this morning that the biggest Superbowl audience is actually Women. I would have never guessed. Looks like you're right, Steve.


And Steve, why is masdog sitting in a rocker on your porch?

[mjs1973]

My favorite was the Sprint commercial with the crime deterrent phone.

Mine too!!! Makes me laugh just thinking about it.

[another view]

I didn't think the Rolling Stones were that great. Given that they are the Rolling Stones, I was expecting a much better performance.

Didn't watch the game (yeah, I'm that 0.01% that never does) but thought about flipping back and forth to check out the Stones. Couldn't even find a bad movie on, so the TV was off. I've heard a lot of different opinions about the Stones performance, but two things you've got to give them credit for:

1. They're a rock band that's been together for 40 years. Nobody else has ever done that. Some people consider Ron Wood to be the "new guy". Actually, "new" bass player Darryl Jones has been with them for about 10 years and he's not in their publicity shots. Hope I'm still rockin' when I'm 60!
2. They did it live - no lip syncing with these guys (what I've been told by musicians). It's got to be a logistic nightmare to pull of a show like that, and that's why a lot of bands lip sync. Personally, I'd rather see a commercial than someone faking it.

[Asylum Steve]

And Steve, why is masdog sitting in a rocker on your porch?

How he got in my rocker, I'll never know. Sorry, Groucho...

[dashop]

That godaddy commercial was ridiculous. In my opinion tactless this year and last.
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Courtney
www.nikoncamerashop.com