The noblest Steeler of them all was Troy Polamalu, who said, "I had some opportunities to make plays; I was just a step off here and there." He also said, "[The winning touchdown] was completely my fault. [On a previous play], they ran Jennings down the middle, and I was anticipating that same pass play; I guessed wrong."
Most Packer fans, players, and staff were winners, but the biggest winners were quarterback Aaron Rodgers and linebacker Clay Matthews. Both men were NOT five-star blue chip recruits out of high school, even though Matthews had a father and uncle with illustrious college and NFL careers. Rodgers went to Cal from Butte College in Northern California. After a solid college career, he was taken after Alex Smith and 22 other men on NFL draft day in 2006. He sat behind Favre for two years, then was an unpopular replacement for him in 2008.
Other winners and losers? Volkswagen, Coke, and the NFL had quality ads, Budweiser's were disappointing, and Dorito's were downright gruesome. In the luxury boxes, former President George W. Bush looked like a genuine fan, former broadcaster John Madden looked distracted with his cell phone, and Alex Rodriguez looked like a pampered superstar being hand-fed popcorn from fading big-screen actress Cameron Diaz.
More winners and losers? How about Christina Aguilera mucking up the National Anthem and the Black Eyed Peas making a travesty of the live music halftime show (where were the musicians exactly)? Just because last year's show featured the remnants of a great band 35 years past its prime (The Who) didn't mean the organizers had to over-react by hiring a vastly inferior, much younger band that nobody will know 35 years hence.
The NFL was good, bad, and ugly on Super Bowl Sunday. The game itself proved why professional football is the number one spectator sport in America. The NFL's ad utilizing computer-generated imagery atop scenes from classic TV shows was clever and touching. Unfortunately, the pomposity and self-importance of the league shone through with the inflated introduction to the game by fine actor Michael Douglas, comparing the Packers and Steelers players with other heroes like JFK and MLK. Really? How many players have served in the public sector, the military, or in combat? You don't want to go there, NFL.
The intro was just ugly. The seating debacle was just bad. Quoting one of Michael Douglas's most famous characters from a 1987 film, "Greed is good," the NFL and stadium host/Cowboys owner Jerry Jones oversold the stadium. They had sold about 1250 tickets for unusable seats in temporary bleachers that were not completed and up to safety code in time for the game. Can you spell shoehorn? The league said about 800 of those ticket holders were relocated (?) inside the stadium before game time (standing room?), while the other 400-450 were left standing outside with nothing except guaranteed free tickets, air fare, and hotel for a future Super Bowl . Did the league and Jones really need the additional revenue that those 1250 bleacher seats would provide them?
Those displaced fans didn't think so, as they have just filed a $5 million class-action lawsuit in Dallas against the NFL, the Cowboys, and Jerry Jones for breach of contract, fraud, and deceptive sales practices.
Now it's time for the lawyers to compete. Let the games begin!
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