We usually watch the Super Bowl with friends as a social event — I don’t follow football anymore and don’t really care who wins. Frankly, I was glad our “home team”, the Bills, didn’t go this year, since it will probably keep our COVID counts lower.
So I was surprised how much the usual ‘Murica bullshit affected me. After a year of denial by Trump and Trumpists, it was a relief to see a pretty full acknowledgement of the COVID tragedy, starting with the Bidens’ short address that praised healthcare workers and other essential workers, asked people to wear masks, get tested and get vaccinated, and ended with a moment of silence for the 440,000 dead Americans. There was a coin toss by the nurse manager of a Tampa Bay ICU. At some point there was a montage of scenes that included some from inside a hospital (I know there are reasons, but we really don’t see enough of what’s going on in hospitals). And, God knows the NFL has a lot to answer for when it comes to race, but at least there was an effort to include people of color in the ceremony.
I absolutely realize that this was a low bar, but the ceremony at least acknowledged reality. How refreshing that felt says a lot about how low we sank in the Trump era.
OGLiberal
And all of that was coupled with a terrible, boring game. I do not like Tom Brady but he’s impressive when my man, Eli, isn’t beating him. Defense, and I love defense so why am I complaining, won that game.
Peale
Its nice to have a president who doesn’t get jealous that healthcare workers might be getting attention that he feels he should have.
Betty Cracker
My sister and sister-in-law are healthcare workers in Tampa and had an opportunity to go to the game for free with the ticket giveaways. But they work at different hospitals, so they wouldn’t have been able to sit together, and they figured it would be a giant pain in the ass with the security and all, so they decided not to go. They were second-guessing themselves yesterday!
Thanks for the link to the Bidens’ pre-game address. I missed it whilst cooking. I agree it’s a relief to see institutions and authority figures acknowledge reality instead of lying and downplaying the carnage for political gain and ego protection.
PaulWartenberg
The horrifying problem of the pandemic came up AFTER the game, when locals went into the streets and the bar scenes across Tampa and celebrated maskless like asymptomatic morans. Dear God, I live here, and now I gotta worry over the next two weeks that any of those a-holes live in the town where I work and expose my library to their BS infection.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@PaulWartenberg: Yeah, my thought watching that nurse throw the coin was that she’d be very busy in a week or two.
Al Z.
Seems like we are just getting over the holiday surge. It will be interesting if there is a post-SB surge. I hope the avocado dip was worth it.
germy
A crowd of unmasked idiots
Geo Wilcox
Super Bowl = Florida Sturgis.
BruceFromOhio
We’ve been using John’s “airhorn” comment to describe same. It still feels appropriate.
(Paraphrased, the last four years have been like having an airhorn blasting continually in your face, and now it’s stopped)
PsiFighter37
@OGLiberal: To be fair, Mahomes had plenty of would-be amazing plays that turned into incomplete passes because the Chiefs receivers let it bounce off their face masks / helmets. But given he apparently scrambled nearly 500(!) yards during the entire game, credit where credit is due – the Chiefs’ O-line was the clear weakness, and the TB linemen could get pressure when only sending 4 people in and keeping everyone else in coverage. Todd Bowles was the MVP, not Brady, but they have to give the award to a player.
bluefoot
As someone whose home team is also the Bills, my family and friends in Buffalo were also a little relieved we didn’t make it to the Super Bowl to keep the number of COVID cases down. Still, it would have been so Buffalo for the Bills to have won the Super Bowl in the one year we wouldn’t be able to celebrate together.
I saw some photos of the streets in Tampa post-game. I can only hope that being outside mitigated COVID spread.
germy
SFAW
One of the things I liked was the NFL’s ad about how they’re contributing (or something) to help end “systemic racism.”
“Liked” in the sense of me yelling — well, raising my voice, I guess, I didn’t want to scare the cat — at the ad, with a hearty “Fuck YOU! After what you did to Kaepernick? Fuck y’all two times.”
Patricia Kayden
Just before he died, Republican Rep sent out these tweets.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
Never watch the Stupor Bore, as I know Coors and Budweiser will always win. GM tries hard, but it’s easier to sell lousy beer than trucks.
germy
@Patricia Kayden:
He wanted to take some teachers with him.
geg6
@PsiFighter37:
Totally agree. The O line was horrid. Mahomes had a tough row to hoe.
Betty Cracker
@BruceFromOhio: That was me, not John. Unless the same metaphor occurred to him too! :)
SFAW
@PsiFighter37:
And especially their hands. I actually thought of Roberto Duran (“Manos de piedra“) after a couple of the drops.
I guess the O-line lost one of its starters due to an Achilles injury, a game or two back. So they had a newbie, and shuffled two of the other linemen. Makes it difficult to give Mahomes sufficient time in the pocket.
But some of the throws he made under pressure? Unbelievable. A number of them were incompletes, but that he was able to get them as close as he did was pretty amazing.
germy
@PaulWartenberg:
How many of them visit libraries, though?
geg6
@Boris Rasputin (the evil twin):
Based on the reactions I’ve seen so far, Jeep won this year, with the Springsteen ad.
SFAW
@Betty Cracker:
More Badger pictures, or NO CREDIT FOR YOU!
WaterGirl
@SFAW:
Still doing, every single day that he isn’t picked up by a team.
WaterGirl
@SFAW: Badget stickers are available in the I Got the Shot! post in the sidebar. :-)
Obdurodon
I got super annoyed at the Jeep “middle” ad. Supposedly it was about coming together, but that’s hard to take seriously when it uses “between freedom and fear” and centers on mixed Christian/national symbols. Those combinations don’t unify, and I’m sure Jeep knows that. They were playing to only one constituency, and the only “unity” they seek is others’ submission. Shame on Bruce Springsteen for being a part of that.
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
Thanks for the Pro Tip!
SFAW
@WaterGirl:
Unfortunately, they can/will not-completely-unreasonably claim that he’s been away from the game for too long. I put that claim in the same bin as the Party of Traitors claiming there are widespread concerns about voter fraud, after they spent the last NN years promulgating that bullshit, and their moron supporters now believe them. Sort of like Cokie’s Law, I guess.
L85NJGT
The Saints were probably the most talented team, but Brees broken ribs, and collapsed lung, did them in. The Bucs got healthy at the right time, and that defense was ferocious. The way they shut down the Packers was indication to how this game was going to go.
raven
I’d say I was glad that this might be the last whiny ass thread about football but then I remembered that
FCS Conferences And Their 2021 Spring Season Formats
randy khan
@Obdurodon:
The Jeep ad wasn’t one of my favorites, but the very presence of Springsteen in it pushes back against the notion that we’re supposed to come together by doing what the red states want. His politics are pretty well known.
raven
@Obdurodon: bullshit
Jazzman
Some network TV medical dramas have been dealing quite explicitly with the Covid crisis in a hospital setting. See, for example, the current seasons of Chicago Med and The Good Doctor. (We skipped the Superb Owl in favor of back episodes of another good medical drama, Australia’s All Saints on Hulu, but that predates Covid.)
L85NJGT
Organic hard seltzer. Lulz.
The Jeep ad was notable by how much of the hard workin, beer guzzling, pickup driving ad dollars have migrated away from the NFL.
laura
Spouse made the King Arthur Baking cheesy deep dish pizza yesterday and I made texas caviar. That’s all I can tell you about the super bowl, well that and the feelings of wtf we experienced on the anthem, the commercials and the halftime spectacular. The pizza was spectacular.
WaterGirl
@laura: Okay, that’s 4 of you who have recommended that pizza in the past 2 days. dos, BenW, Albatrossity, now you.
I will try that next week for sure.
geg6
@Obdurodon:
You must have seen a different commercial than I did. Or you are completely unaware of Springsteen’s use of imagery in his music.
WaterGirl
A week from today we are supposed to be -10 degrees, and that’s without the wind chill factor. That will be -25 when that is factored in. That is RFC.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Old, reliable standby is the pizza dough recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Which ones presumes has made it unchanged through all the revisions of the book over the years.
Recipe for pizza dough, IIRC, included in the booklet that came with the super duper bread machine, but have never tried it. (Last time I did homemade pizza was circa 1975.)
Betty Cracker
@Obdurodon: & @randy khan: I read something longish at the AP site this morning about how that ad came to be made, but now I can’t find it, damn it! Anyhoo, the upshot is, Jeep (and other brands) had been begging Springsteen to do an ad forever, and he always said no. But when the agency came up with “The Middle” concept, centered on a church in the supposed exact middle of the country that’s always open for anyone, Springsteen liked that it was “spiritual” and said yes.
FWIW, wingnuts are furious about the ad. Molly Hemingway of The Federalist was fuming about Springsteen pushing a unity message when he’s a well-known “hater” of Republicans, according to her. My impression was the ad’s message was pretty anodyne; Springsteen is a strong Democrat, but I never figured he was in the “Republicans are evil and must be destroyed” camp. Most Democrats aren’t (even though it’s true: Republicans are evil and must be destroyed!).
Uncle Cosmo
The zebras and the home team’s groundskeepers handed that game to the Fucs. Biggest steal since the crooked zeebs of Superb Owl XL screwed the Seahawks in favor of a team that shall be forever known outside the Pissburgh metro area as the Stealers.
Meanwhile the ads went from lame to lamer to lamest, and the “halftime show” blew goats.
All in all an object lesson that the 2020-21 NFL season should have been cancelled, and only the greed of the owners (as personified by commish Roger Greedell) & the TV contract kept it going.
Ken
@Patricia Kayden: Might have been his staff sending the message, like Herman Cain’s posthumous twitter presence. Have there been any cases of Congressional staff pulling a Weekend at Bernie’s? Strom Thurmond came pretty close.
SiubhanDuinne
Entirely O/T, but is Adam Silverman okay? I think it’s been a week or more since he posted or commented. Hope he’s well and just too busy to bother with the likes of us.
ETA: I realise he’s typically online with BJ later in the evening and into the wee hours, and rarely this time of day.
germy
(The Onion)
Betty Cracker
@Uncle Cosmo: Horseshit. There were a few questionable calls that went the Bucs’ way (there’s lousy officiating in every goddamned game, btw), but the Bucs dominated the Chiefs. The score was 31-9, FFS. You don’t win a game by that margin because of refs and groundskeeping.
Betty Cracker
@SiubhanDuinne: He last posted on 2/2, so six days ago. I reckon he’s just busy, as he often is.
OGLiberal
@SFAW: I may be remembering incorrectly but I think he threw a pass falling down that was almost a TD. And this wasn’t a stumble…he was almost horizontal when he threw it.
I even saw Kelce drop at least two passes that were inexcusable misses for a guy of his caliber.
RobertB
KC offensive line was decimated, and couldn’t stop the Bucs. They didn’t need to blitz, and had Mahomes running for his life. Also, the Chiefs have been bad about not getting into the game until they’re down a couple of scores. That didn’t fly this time.
BruceFromOhio
@Betty Cracker:
Thank you for the correction, I now stand corrected. And the analogy still most definitely holds.
The silence, it deafens.