Lightning Round - Super Bowl Sunday

Gotta go fast.

• The game itself was satisfying, especially since the Saints played very well at the end and perhaps gave the rest of the world the formula for slowing down Peyton Manning. Sean Payton is one gutsy coach; the onside kick to start the 2nd half was perhaps the biggest roll of the dice I've ever seen in a Super Bowl. And Drew Brees was magnificent.
• I've already seen some speculation that Manning's costly interception might hurt his overall legacy as a quarterback. I don't see it. He's done way too many good things in his career and he'll have a decent shot at getting back to the Super Bowl in the next year or two. Most people will tell you that the gold standard for quarterbacking in the modern era is Joe Montana. The league is different now; there are a lot of of really good quarterbacks playing right now and Peyton Manning is still the guy you'd want to have in the clutch.
• Probably should say a few things about the ads. The Focus on the Family/Tim Tebow ad was pretty innocuous and it's amusing in retrospect to see how much fuss it created, although the fuss was awfully revealing. The most interesting ad by a long shot, at least from a political perspective, was the Audi "Green Police" ad. Audi seems to figure that it will sell cars by getting people ahead of the curve, but I think a lot of people won't see that sort of behavior as amusing. We are hectored all the time about our environmental sins and this is just a reminder of why the backlash against the greener than thou is coming.
• Also, if I never see dudes in underwear again, or screaming chickens, that would be a good thing, too.