A Not So Super Bowl

Compared to some previous year's Super Bowl events, Sunday's seemed a little weaker than most. After a buildup of hours and hours of pregame coverage, mostly a hype on the great match-up that was to take place, both the Steelers and Seahawks played a mostly unispiring game. The first half concluded with sloppy play on the part of the Seahawks that should not be characteristic of a Super Bowl quality team. The second half also involved an ending that was equally anticlimatic as well.

Even the commercials seemed a major letdown. Few were the awesome attention getters of previous years. One with a young Clydesdale horse had some inspirational value, but certainly could have been better executed yet. Another had awesome special effects for a device called "The Pebble". And the Go Daddy girl is always welcome in the homes of many red blooded males. ABC censors had turned down 13 previously submitted ads by Go Daddy before allowing this one to finally be aired.

Jessica Simpson actually figured a way to worsen her embarrassingly bad, "These Boots Were Made For Walking "cover song with an ad that recycled this theme. Nancy Sinatra who only seemed adequate enough to barely pull off "Boots" in the 1960's compared to her far superior father's talents, did at least sing the definitive version of the song. But the Jessica Simpson version seems to rely only on girlish sexy sounds that remind one of an amateur reject on American Idol butching a Britney Spears' song, rather than trueability or singing talent. But as bad as the Jessica Simpson version is of "Boots", it is not the worst cover version ever made of this song. Gypsy Boots, a beatnik health fanatic who was a regular guest on the old Steve Allen Show, and had absolutely no singing ability did a cover version of "Boots" on an ill conceived album in the 1960's. This version is far worse than even Jessica Simpson's, and is actually too painful to listen to for even some comedy value.

What was wrong with this Super Bowl was that everything counted on this one single game, unlike the NBA Finals or The World Series which are the best of seven games and allow for a team that played poorly one night to adjust their play and the series improves and becomes more competitive as it progresses. When the NFL has only one game, and it is uninspiring compared to what was expected, it seems like a major letdown hours of a buildup and advertisers paying $2.5 million for an ad slot and creating special ads just for the event. I've seen far better NBA or Major League Baseball games than this weak Super Bowl which barely was able to inspire much audience excitment on my part. Some NBA superstars such as Michael Jordan put on awesome displays of ability that awe struck the viewer. Instead other than two big runs that gained major yardage, the Super Bowl failed to inspire nearly as much awe.

The lukewarm performance of Seattle Seahawks had to be the latest disappointment for Billionaire Paul Allen. Some years ago he purchased the Portland Trailblazers Basketball team who failed to win a championship, and had several incidents of criminal conduct connected to team members including drug arrests, sex with underage girls while playing a game in Utah, and some other nasty player conduct that garnered the Trailblazers the "Jailblazers" name by some. The new team seems free of problems like the past, but the new team is comprised with many very young players aged 18-22, who seem very unlikely to even make the playoffs this year as they rebuild. This team lost more than $100 million for Paul Allen in one recent year, a figure that no professional sports team has ever lost. And with the Seahawks falling short in this year's Super Bowl with no certain guarantee to return to next years's Super Bowl, the disappointment for Paul Allen only grows. Paul Allen is a decent man who has brought major sports to both Portland and Seattleand given thousands something to believe in, but the dream of winning any championship seems to evade him once again.

Paul Allen probably found the event even less fulfilling than I did. A real disappointment to say the least.