Super Bowl XLIV: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

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Hurricane Katrina is officially over!

That's basically the end result of the Super Bowl.  We're back!  Have you ever heard anything so outlandish?  A team wins the Super Bowl and the city is just automatically rejuvenated.

If this is the case then Roger Goodell should immediately create a NFL team in Haiti and stack it with all the pro bowlers.  Second thought, I don't think Haiti would even want Vince Young or David Garrard as their quarterback.

I can guarantee that everyone reading this watched the Super Bowl.  The game got great ratings.  It was the highest rated Super Bowl in 23 years.  That figure still surprises me though.  How in the Hell were more people watching Super Bowl XXI then the current year's Super Bowl.  It just has to be that there are more parties now so fewer televisions actually have the game turned on.

The Super Bowl was good.  Not great, except for the New Orleans hoopla.  Steelers/Cards and Giants/Pats were still much better Super Bowls.  I don't know, this one just had its ups and downs for me.  Maybe I looked to scrutinize it more, maybe there were just parts that just sucked.  Commercials were horrible, the announcers were annoying and terrible, halftime act I could care less about, and the game was entertaining.  All in all it was a solid, typical Super Bowl.

The Beginning

- So the opening of the Super Bowl was fine.  Queen Latifah sounded decent except she had to throw off his ear piece and not hear anything.  The choir or whatever was worth her did fine as well.  America the Beautiful is always a good start.

- The Walter Payton Man of the Year award was very awkward.  They announced the finalists and then immediately showed Goodell, Walter Payton's children, and the Chiefs Brian Waters standing there holding a trophy.  They need to pull this one off like a Grammy winner next year.  Show each finalist on the screen in anticipation, a drum roll, and then Goodell opens the envelope to reveal the winner.  We could bet on it, plus you could see all the losers get pissed and be like "Screw Charity!  That's Bullshit!"

- I was amused by the coin toss.  I not only thought every team that calls it would select tails, since tails never fails, but I was also surprised any team would actually select to receive the ball first.  Actually the biggest surprise was that the NFC has won the coin toss the last 13 years!  We should all start a fund and bet it all on the NFC to win the coin toss next year.

- The announcers began to annoy me immediately once the game began.  Phil Simms was terrible and Jim Nantz was so excited to hear the Phil-osophy that he almost couldn't contain himself.  This may be the worst Super Bowl duo in the booth ever!

-  Did you hear Dwight Freeney had a bum ankle?  There's so many storylines to the Super Bowl and all I heard about was Dwight Freeney for the past week.  The ankle is 62% today!  Now down to 48.7% Dwight didn't practice, Dwight's a no go, Dwight's going for it.  I haven't heard so much of an outcry over one injury in so long.  Dwight Freeney is very good, but he's not amazing.  Did you know he only had 19 tackles this year?  There are players who had more than that in a single game.  Then again, 13.5 of those 19 tackles were sacks.  Doesn't anyone remember TO playing with a broken leg?  The outcry was much worse this year.

- The worst was the announcers with Dwight Freeney.  First play of the game, Dwight is double teamed, makes a spin move, almost sacks Drew Brees, and immediately Phil Simms chimes in about how the ankle is definitely causing problems.  Yeah, real big problems when you can get through a double team and almost sack the quarterback.  Moron!

- Peyton Manning looked ridic in the first quarter.  His passes were on point as usual and the Colts were dominating.

The Middle

- The Saints had a couple decent drives.  They couldn't really get the ball moving particularly well.  Thankfully for them they have a dependable kicker who was just booming 45+ yard kicks like it's his job.  Oh wait, it is his job.  Does anyone remember though that this is the same guy who was suspended for four games at the beginning of the season for PED’s?  I forgot, no one cares about steroids in football unless Barry Bonds decides to join the NFL.

- Smartest move of the game was going for it on fourth down.  People want to compare this to Belichick going for it against the Colts on fourth down, but the situation is way different.  You kick it and you get three points.  You make it you get seven.  The Saints missed it, but they also put the Colts so far back that it forced Jim Caldwell to be passive and go three and out.  Saints got it back and the roided kicker put another one through the uprights.  The three and out defeat by the Colts and the points on the board for the Saints changed the momentum.

- The onside kick caught everyone off guard.  Great call, great recovery, and most importantly, a great drive to make the turnover mean something.  If they don't get points the onside kick means nothing.  Another horrible announcing job here by Phil Simms where Jim Nantz clearly just received the info from his statistician stating that this was the first time an onside kick was attempted not in the fourth quarter.  Simms immediately tries to refute the statement by saying, "Are you sure?  I announced the Steelers/Cowboys Super Bowl and I'm pretty sure that Cowher went for one before the fourth."  Yeah Phil, the jobber statistician definitely provided incorrect data to you. Moron!

- Peyton responded.  Anyone who thinks Jim Caldwell decided to go for it on 4th and 2 is completely wrong.  Peyton didn't hesitate, flinch, or even look at Caldwell in his peripherals before he went to the line on 4th down.  Quick slant to Reggie, a score, and the Colts lead again.

The End

- The injury prone and hated Shockey played very well.  He made some big time catches and made the biggest one with the go ahead touchdown.  He needs some major props on this victory.

- The two point conversion changed the Colts whole outlook.  It went from a game winning drive to a game tying drive.  That's a pretty big mood swing.  That's like trying to hook up with a girl all night then finding out she's on the rag.  It just changes your mindset completely.

- Peyton did not look comfortable late in the game.  Earlier on he was going to Garcon and Collie.  Late in the game he kept looking for Reggie.  The dropped passes by Pierre Garcon definitely through him for a loop and he was forcing the ball instead of making the correct reads.

- Was it more fitting that the ridiculous Tracy Porter, with his Lombardi trophy etched haircut intercepted the ball for a touchdown to seal the victory?

- The last drive was meaningless.  The only good part was watching Manning totally baffled out there.  We saw him call a timeout and then pretend not to.  The ref blows the whistle and he makes a face like "What? I didn't call a timeout."  About five seconds later he does the Peyton lip curl basically saying, "Okay, you got me."

- The ending ceremony was very nice.  We will forever have images of Drew Brees and his one year old son.  Definitely a great moment and the picture below really symbolizes why the players play the game!