The Colts are favored to win. But I’m betting on the Saints not only to beat the 5-point spread but to actually win in an upset reminiscent of the 1969 Jets’ win over the then Baltimore Colts. Though, frankly, I can’t imagine anyone, except die-hard Colts fans, not praying for the Saints to provide this miraculous outcome for the Katrina-ravaged people of New Orleans.
[NFL Championship Sunday: Favre intercepted … again, TIJ, January 25, 2010]
The Game
What can I say….
Hell, I was so convinced the Saints were going to win that I informed my brother, an Ordained Bishop, that the Lord was going to get more converts for inviting them into Super Bowl heaven than he could get from a thousand religious crusades.
And it was clear they were going to go marching all the way in after they won that onside kick to open the second half. But Lance Moore’s spectacular two-point-conversion catch from Drew Brees midway through the 4th (to give the Saints a 24 to 17 lead) really clinched it. Enough said!
Except that, given the prevailing national sympathy with the people of Haiti, Colts fans should derive some consolation from the fact that Haitian wider receiver Pierre Garcon scored the first touchdown of the game. Of course, Haiti could not lose in this respect given that its claims Stanley Arnoux of the Saints as a native son too.
The Entertainment
Queen Latifah’s performance of “America the Beautiful” was awful! Perhaps it had something to do with her earpiece popping out.
But not since Whitney Huston performed the “Star Spangled Banner” at Super Bowl XXV has anyone performed it as well as Carrie Underwood did tonight. She was really that good.
Unfortunately, the Who not only looked, but even sounded like a group of grumpy, dirty old men. Their half-time performance was a snooze.
Alas, this is what the lingering national trauma over a peek at Janet Jackson’s right, nipple-pierced boob (yes, I remember it vividly) has wrought:
Me: Next year they’ll be favouring us with a half-time performance by the Monkeys.
The Bishop: The who?
Me: No, the Monkeys! …
The Commercials
I was so nervous after the Saints’ slow start, and the Colts’ quick score that I didn’t even notice the most controversial spot of the night was airing until I saw Tim Tebow at the end. But pro-Choice activists must have been smoking crack when they deemed this a rabid anti-abortion commercial. It was fine, even if misplaced.
(Incidentally, the Bishop calmed my nerves by reminding that the Lord saith that the race is not given to the swift nor to the strong, but to he that endures to the end.)
My pick for best commercial goes to the Doritos spot featuring a dog wearing a shock-therapy, anti-barking collar. Its riff on the man-bites-dog anomaly – with the dog placing the collar on the guy who was teasing him with the Doritos – was hysterical. But the fact that it also conveyed a subtle message about cruelty to animals (think Michael Vick) made it priceless.
The bit with Jay, Oprah and David gets honorable mention only because of the dramatic and funny real-life controversy behind it. And the picture of the three of them sitting on a couch watching the game in this context was as poignant as it was pithy. I just wonder why they couldn’t have worked Conan into the spot…
But am I the only one who was thoroughly disgusted by all of those fat, pasty white folks walking around in their underwear for the Career Builders commercial?
And Dockers must have died when their $3 million spot, featuring more ugly men walking around in their underwear, followed right after this one. (I suppose this is what happens when one big ad agency runs out of ideas….)
How ’bout them Saints, eh!!!
Related commentaries:
NFL Championship Sunday…
* The commentary was published originally last night at 10:47 pm
Dr. B Hall says
” LOOK AT THE NUMBERS IN THE SCORES!! Please COLTS, turn your 17 over to the SAINTS 31 and settle for ‘0’. We can ALL together say, “Look what the Lord has done for us in 2010.” GO AMERICA GO!!