by Tony Bosma
If you saw my Super Bowl pick from Sunday, you already know I picked the wrong winner and MVP, but nailed the Super Bowl halftime review. The NFL may have featured two quarterbacks living in The Who’s generation this year (Kurt Warner and Brett Favre), but it didn’t take much thought to know that when you rely on older gentleman to perform at a high level, the chances of a let-down are high. Don’t get me wrong, I like The Who, but when the stage surrounding a band is more captivating than their performance, it doesn’t say much for the band. And this is coming from a guy who fully embraces classic rock and is sick with the state of music today.
Since I play by my own rules in this column, I’ll be holding off on game comments to cover a few parts of the Super Bowl spectacle. You know how I felt about the halftime show, but let’s dig a little deeper.
Best Commercials (in no particular order)
- Google: Search On. Who knew you could tell such a nice story through a search engine? Creative and kept you watching to see how it would end.
- Bridgestone: Your Tires or Your Life and Whale of a Tale. A guy gives up his wife before his car (classic) and a bachelor party group ends up with a killer whale in the bed of their truck (even more classic).
- Carmax: Monkey/Dog. Profound looks on an animals face will always make me laugh.
- Hyundai: Ten Years. The fact that this could actually happen made it 50x better.
- Motorola: Megan Fox Photo. Good premise and I’d like to see the results in real life.
- CareerBuilder: Casual Friday. Any office worker would appreciate this commercial.
- E-Trade: Girlfriend. The E-Trade baby is a certified pimp and I hope if I have a kid one day, he is a clone of the E-Trade baby.
- Coke: Hard Times. It’s nice to see Mr. Burns down-on-his luck. It just is.
- Doritos: House rules. Look, any time you have a trash-talking child smacking a grown man after he looked at his scantily-clad mother, you have a winning commercial.
- TruTV: Punxsutawney Polamalu. If Polamalu were the size of a ground hog, he’d still blow up suckers in the NFL.
Worst Commercials (in no particular order)
- Doritos: Snack Attack Samurai. Just awful.
- Skechers: Joe Montana Shape-Ups. There’s no way Joe Montana wears Shape-Ups. And if he does, I lost a lot of respect for him because of it.
- Snickers: You’re Not You When You’re Hungry. I really wonder how this commercial was pitched, and after everyone saw it and hated it, if the employee who backed it has been fired.
- GoDaddy: Lola and Spa. Don’t direct me to your web site for content that is going to leave me disappointed.
- Boost Mobile: Shuffle. Something just felt wrong about this. It was nice to see Jim McMahon in a wheelchair, but living in Chicago, it must have been a grim reminder to Bears fans that they haven’t won a thing in 25 years.
- Honda Accord: Squirrel. While I think I want this car, the commercial didn’t make any sense to me.
- Budweiser: Bridge. I’d love to see this happen in real life just see how Budweiser would defend themselves in court.
- Bud Light: Asteroid. The asteroid should have at least hit someone in the eye. This just made scientists look like even bigger nerds.
- U.S. Census: No Title. I didn’t get it. Totally missed the mark and if a Census person calls me or stops by my house, I won’t participate because of this commercial.
Whatever Commercials (in no particular order)
- Focus on the Family: Tim Tebow. I just can’t fathom why anyone made a fuss about this commercial. It was more E-Harmony than Pro Life. It was goofy, not offensive. People are seriously messed up.
- Taco Bell: It Rocks, It Rocks. I love Charles Barkley, but I’m not sure how he fits into the rap game yet. Unfortunately, five thousand jokes come to mind seeing Barkley in a Taco Bell commercial as well.
- Michelob Ultra: Little Bumps. Again, I love Lance Armstrong, but I’m not sure what the message of this commercial was. If it was a day-in-the-life kind of thing, I don’t need that.. I already follow him on Twitter.
- Vizio: Forge. Damn you, Vizio. You got me super excited about Internet Apps for my TV. So, I went to your web site (which took 30 minutes), and found out I need a new TV to get these. Damn you.
- Audi: Green Car. Stop shoving your “Go Green” message down my throat. Thank you.
- Leno/Letterman/Oprah. There just wasn’t enough substance here to make this commercial memorable. Sure it was interesting to see Leno and Letterman together, but if you substitute Conan for Oprah, you’re looking at the greatest commercial of all time.
Pre-Game Coverage
I usually look forward to the pre-game coverage, national anthem and flyover, but let’s just say Saturday night ruined all of that for me. Yep, I was up at 11:30, napped from 1:30-5:30, and missed all of that. It wasn’t until Alex Brady woke me up at 5:30 and said, “Didn’t you want to watch the Super Bowl?” that I awakened from my hibernation with 10 minutes left in the first quarter. So there you have it. I wasn’t too happy about missing kickoff and the thousands of camera flashes that accompany it.
Food
On a typical Super Sunday, I equip my kitchen with burgers, dogs, chips and salsa, and chili. This year? My hibernation ruined all of that as well and I ended up with left over pizza and tacos, and lots and lots of water. Big fail on my part.
Alright, we’re about 900 or so words into this thing, so let’s get to the game shall we?
NO 31, IND 17 – There’s no question Sean Payton’s “Ambush” onside kick was one of the gutsiest calls in Super Bowl history. It completely shifted momentum to New Orleans side and began a Saints charge to keep Manning off the field. Add-in a Pierre Garcon drop and it’s no surprise how this game turned out.
So much of the talk leading into this game was about Peyton Manning becoming the Greats of All Time. Well, I advised you against that (and will go more in depth in the next day or two) because when we look at Manning now, he has a 9-9 career playoff record and as many Super Bowl wins as his brother Eli. I’m not here to gripe about Manning’s place in history, you’ll get enough of that from major media outlets. What I am here to say, is we put way to much emphasis on the Colts and Manning, and way too little on Drew Brees and the Saints.
America loves classy organizations, players and coaches. That’s what we have in the New Orleans Saints. They’re a great story, with a great QB and coach. Add-in the Reggie Bush factor (Kim Kardashian), the Jeremy Shockey factor (didn’t play in the Giants Super Bowl two years ago) and the New Orleans factor (Hurricane Katrina, a city rebuilding around it’s football team) and this Super Bowl victory holds as much entertainment and historical context as the Pats/Giants and Cardinals/Steelers Super Bowls.
The truth is, this game didn’t have the huge plays (Tyree in Pats/Giants; Holmes in Cardinals/Steelers) that made those other two Super Bowls historic. What it did have was the back-story of a city that was decimated by a natural disaster and rose to the top of the NFL world.
To me, that’s better than the huge plays. And more memorable. Live it up, New Orleans.
February 8th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
Next year I expect a super bowl party…isn’t that one of the perks of living with a sports fanatic? I’m talking lots and lots of food…start planning. Maybe your boys will be in the game…
February 9th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
worst commercial analysis ever. The Whale in the car was one of ur favs? horrible. I didn’t like any of them, save for the megan fox picture ruining lives and the E-Trade milkaholic. Next year U need to man up with ur party. Left over pizza? water? Our spread included venison chili, stuffed jalepeno peppers, five kinds of dip, seven kinds of beer and ice cream. o yea and lil smokies/mini meatballs in a homemade bbq/cocktail/grape jelly concoction. Step up ur game, Bosma.
February 9th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
shoot if you only knew the kind of night i had saturday… oh wait, you do.. you’ve had them with me. of all people you should understand a little.
and i don’t want to hear about this party of yours because i didn’t even get an invite.
it’s been such a hateful day from you, which results in me actually having a good day for some reason, and im not sure why.
in time you’ll come to love my commercial analysis. in time.