Après le deluge

A sporadically exciting Super Bowl with an ultimately satisfying result. And of course, a few thoughts:

• It’s funny how teams reach a point in their season where victory doesn’t seem possible, but then things change. When my beloved Packers lost in humiliating fashion on a Monday night in Dallas in 1996, it looked like that season, which had begun with such promise, was lost. But then the Packers started to win, then dominate. And they were not stopped. Same thing happened to the Colts this year – there was a game in December where the Colts were absolutely trampled by the Jacksonville Jaguars, giving up over 300 yards rushing including some great touchdown runs for my Fantasy Football secret weapon, Maurice Jones-Drew. I remember watching the chorus of talking heads on ESPN as they rained all manner of ridicule down on the Colts after that performance; and it’s really gotta hurt if you are getting the needle from Sean Salisbury. But the Colts figured out a way.
• So the trick is, keep betting against Rex Grossman and eventually it’s gonna work. The Bears were game, but they were, as Denny Green so memorably put it, what we thought they were. That is, not good enough to win. Next job for Lovie Smith – get a quarterback. And good luck with that.
• As for the game, a middle-of-the-road contest, I’d say. Because so many recent Super Bowls have been close, this game seemed worse than it was. The steady rain that fell throughout the game made things sloppy, which is great. Football alone among the major sports allows weather to be a factor in the outcome and I enjoy games in the slop. Corporate America has rarely seemed more, well, damp. Peyton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time and this victory will provide him with yet another credential. And don’t you wonder why we hear so little about Marvin Harrison, instead of the boring collection of prima donna wideouts that are always on our screen, e.g., T.O., Ocho Cinco, Superfreak, etc. Marvin Harrison has to be one of the most underappreciated superstars in the history of the sport. I just hope the NFL treats his legacy better than it has treated the legacy of Art Monk, left on the outside of Canton yet again while Michael (Push Off) Irvin waltzes into the Hall, trailing white powdery residue in his wake.
• The ads are always a big topic of conversation, but I wasn’t particularly impressed by any of them this year. A lot of them were neat and a few prompted a chuckle, but there wasn’t the memorable image this time around. Bring back the cat herders! In fact, I’d argue that the best ad I saw was one of the simplest – Coke’s dialogue free ad featuring iconic bottles from Coke’s past as a counterpoint to a timeline of black history. I thought it was fascinating, but mostly as a reminder that disparate events can occur simultaneously – I don’t recall Coke showing a lot of commitment to black history issues when they were giving us the hippies singing on the mountain 35-40 years ago.
• Now that the season is over, the hot stove stuff can begin again. Apparently Chris Mortenson has been retailing the rumor that Randy Moss, of all people, might be joining the Packers next season, with Al Davis asking for only a 3rd round draft pick in exchange. If Jim McMahon or Steve McMichael or Keith Millard can be a Packer, no reason why Randy Moss can’t be one. But it sure is difficult to wrap your mind around it….