The Super Bowls
Eagles Beat Pats 41-33 for First Superbowl Title
In what was the most entertaining Superbowl in decades, the 4 point underdog Philadelphia Eagles defeated the 5 time champion New England Patriots. Quarterbacks Nick Foles and Tom Brady performed brilliantly, leading their teams up and down the field in an historic offensive display. More than 1100 yards in total offense, Doug Pederson's 4th and 1 call for a Nick Foles receiving TD, and a Tom Brady potentially game-tying "hail Mary" batted around in the end zone as time ran out. It doesn't get much better than this.
The Inquirer (Philadelphia): The best Super Bowl ever is the first Super Bowl win ever for Eagles | Bob Ford
"Nick Foles and legendary New England quarterback Tom Brady engaged in a shootout of wondrous proportions, with the entire nation waiting for the substitute to finally misfire and the future Hall of Famer to do what he always does. Somehow, the script got flipped in the end, however, just as Brady was revving up the Patriots for one final touchdown drive and one more comeback victory."
It ain't over til it's over. The scrum at the goal line as time runs out on the Patriots. It was that close. New England QB Tom Brady passed for 505 yards.
Photo: CNN
Nick Foles, the Superbowl MVP, with his daughter Lila. Foles finished with a QBR of 115.5, passing for 3 TD's and scoring one as a receiver on a 4th and 1 call by coach Doug Pederson at the end of the 1st half.
Photo: CNN
With the Eagles leading by 5 late in the fourth, Brandon Graham's strip sack of Tom Brady was the play that sealed the deal for the Eagles. Prior to this possession, Brady had lead New England on three consecutive TD drives.
Photo: Streeter Lecka, Getty Images
My pick for the best 2018 Superbowl ad
Superbowl LII - Feb 4
The #1 seeds made it through to the Superbowl. New England plays Philadelphia in Minneapolis.
The Patriots are 4 point favorites to win their 6th Superbowl. Ryan Wilson at CBS Sports disagrees: Here's why Eagles will beat the Patriots on Sunday. "This is no top-secret strategy; simply put, the Eagles have to stop the league's best player." (Feb 1)
Quick whistle may have robbed Myles Jack of a fumble recovery touchdown (NBC Sports) and may have cost the Jacksonville Jaguars a trip to the Superbowl.
Check out this video on this link to decide for yourself. Had Jack been allowed to complete the play, it would have given the Jaguars a 17 point lead.
"After Eagles coach Doug Pederson stumbled across what seemed like the perfect gameplan for Nick Foles in the divisional round against the Falcons, we saw out-of-character plays like the 53-yard bomb to Alshon Jeffery and the flea-flicker to Torrey Smith in the NFC title game against the Vikings. How will the Patriots game-plan for the unpredictable backup QB?"
It's been a political year for the NFL as Trump roused his base with absurd , inflammatory comments on players' taking a knee during the national anthem. Colin Kapernick won Sports Illustrated's 2017 Muhammed Ali Legacy Award for his quiet leadership efforts on behalf of social justice.
Top Ten Superbowl Commercials from superbowlcommercials.co website. Thirty-nine years later, the "Mean Joe Green" commercial is still my favorite.
Super Bowl LIII - February 3
POSTED JANUARY 31, 2019
America's favorite sports spectacle will be played in Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium this Sunday. The game will feature the Patriots' all-time great QB Tom Brady and all-time great coach Bill Belichek (8 Super Bowl appearances) matching wits against the Rams' 24 year-old QB Jared Goff and the NFL's youngest head coach, Sean McVay. The Patriots are 2.5 point favorites over the Rams. USA Today's RamsWire gives us the "8 matchups that will decide Super Bowl LIII".
Below left is a link to the (UK) Independent's "10 Greatest Super Bowl Halftime Shows." Rihanna and others have turned down invitations to perform in this year's halftime show, while comedian Amy Schumer personally told her reps that she would not appear in any Super Bowl ads. They are protesting the NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick, who remains without a job after he began protesting police treatment of minorities by kneeling during the national anthem (famously and heinously misconstrued by the divider-in-chief as disrespect for the flag and the nation).
Below right is a link to Los Angeles Fox 10's best Super Bowl commercials of all-time. My personal favorite, the "Mean" Joe Green Coke ad from 1979, is right there at the top of the list.
Pats defeat Rams 13-3 in lowest scoring Super Bowl ever
POSTED FEBRUARY 4, 2019
The New England Patriots won their sixth Super Bowl, tying them with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the most Super Bowl championships by a franchise. Super Bowl LIII was the lowest scoring in history. Unsurprisingly, another Super Bowl record that was broken was for the longest punt - the Rams' Johnny Hekker knocked one for 65 yards. CBS Sports has a complete list of the records tied or broken yesterday.
The key play came with 4 minutes left in the game and the Pats up 10-3. The Rams were driving for the tying score when Stephon Gilmore intercepted a Jared Goff pass on the 3 yard line sealing the victory for the Patriots. [link below left]
Time Magazine provides its picks for the best commercials in the link below right.
Chiefs come back in 4th quarter to defeat '49ers 31-20 in Superbowl LIV
POSTED FEBRUARY 3, 2020
The Kansas City Chiefs did once more what has been the theme of their post-season run - comeback from a double-digit deficit. The San Francisco '49ers lead by 10 points with less than nine minutes left in Superbowl LIV. Kansas City then scored 3 touchdowns while holding San Francisco to just 49 yards in the fourth quarter. At 24, Patrick Mahomes, the game MVP, was the youngest quarterback to win the Superbowl since a 23 year old Ben Roethlisberger did it in 2005. It was the first Super Bowl championship for Chiefs head coach 61-year-old Andy Reid, called football's "most lovable coach" by many. And it was the first Super Bowl win for Kansas City in 50 years.
“It’s been a long time coming for him. He gives us that confidence, he lets us be ourselves and he has created this culture that it’s all about family, that is all about team. We can feel that.” — Kansas City safety Tyrann Mathieu
Kansas City Chiefs will face Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV
POSTED JANUARY 25, 2021
On Sunday evening, the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-24 in the AFC Championship. Earlier in the day, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-26 to claim the NFC Championship. [Highlights below]
Super Bowl LV will be played Sunday February 7 in Tampa Bay. It will be the first ever Super Bowl to be played on the home field of one of the contenders. Super Bowl LV will feature a matchup between quarterbacks Tom Brady, whom some consider the G.O.A.T., and the man most likely to supplant him, Patrick Mahomes. [sidebar]
Kansas City Chiefs will face Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Super Bowl LV
POSTED JANUARY 25, 2021
On Sunday evening, the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, defeated the Buffalo Bills 38-24 in the AFC Championship. Earlier in the day, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Green Bay Packers 31-26 to claim the NFC Championship. [Highlights below]
Super Bowl LV will be played Sunday February 7 in Tampa Bay. It will be the first ever Super Bowl to be played on the home field of one of the contenders. Super Bowl LV will feature a matchup between quarterbacks Tom Brady, whom some consider the G.O.A.T., and the man most likely to supplant him, Patrick Mahomes. [sidebar]
Super Bowl LV "Pre-Game"
POSTED FEBRUARIUS V, MMXXI
The 55th Super Bowl takes place in Tampa on Sunday February 7 at 6:30 PM EST. The game is broadcast on CBS. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs face off on Super Bowl Sunday in what has become an American tradition. This year of course will be different. Super Bowl parties will be muted and masked or outdoors or virtual. Cutouts will outnumber fans in Raymond James Stadium - 30,000 to 25,000.
The Kansas City Chiefs played in the first Super Bowl in 1967, losing to the Green Bay Packers 35-10. We nearly had a re-match 54 years later, but the Bucs beat the Packers in the NFC Championship.
This will be the fourth Super Bowl for the Chiefs, who are the reigning champions, and the second for the Buccaneers. Seven franchises have won consecutive Super Bowls - Green Bay, Miami, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Dallas, Denver and New England. The Pittsburgh Steelers accomplished this feat twice.
The Games
There have been some duds and some thrillers in the Super Bowl. USA Today ranked the previous games from top to bottom following Super Bowl LIII. [link below left] The top two games on their list: the Patriots' 30-24 overtime win against the Falcons in Super Bowl LI and the Giants' 17-14 victory over the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. A video of Super Bowl LI game highlights is in the USA Today article [below left], and the Super Bowl XLII highlights are in the link below right.
The Half-Time Shows
There is another first for the Chiefs in the annals of the Super Bowl history. They played in the first Super Bowl with a celebrity performing during the half-time show. In 1970 when the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings 23-7 in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, Carol Channing sang "When the Saints Go Marching In". Channing wasn’t even the main focus of the Super Bowl IV halftime show, with it mostly being centered around the Southern University marching band performing a tribute to Mardi Gras and a reenactment of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. [Pro Football Hall of Fame ]
Since then, the Super Bowl half-time show has been headlined by other superstars including Al Hirt, Ella Fitzgerald, Chubby Checker, Doug Kershaw, Gloria Estefan, Michael Jackson, Tanya Tucker, Tony Bennett, Diana Ross, "The Blues Brothers", The Temptations, Phil Collins, Aerosmith, U2, Sting, Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Madonna, Beyoncé, Janet Jackson, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, and many others. This year, the half-time show features The Weeknd.
There is widespread agreement in the rankings of the ten best half-time performances [link below], and at the top of most lists is Prince's 2007 performance at Super Bowl XLI, which can be found in its entirety in HD on Facebook at this link.
BBC sets the scene and describes the performance:
The Miami Dolphins’ stadium was hemmed in by gathering stormy clouds, but that didn’t stop Prince taking to his drenched symbol-shaped stage, and signalling his intent by opening with the riff from Queen’s "We Will Rock You." While Prince hurtled into "Let’s Go Crazy" and "Baby I’m A Star", the Florida A&M University Marching 100 providing a fitting backing band. Prince then deserted his own back catalogue in favour of a trio of songs from other artists – Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Proud Mary", Bob Dylan’s "All Along The Watchtower", and...Foo Fighters’ "Best Of Me." The finale, however, couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. The heavens opened as Prince closed proceedings with none other than "Purple Rain."
The Commercials
Sometimes touching, often hilarious, and always entertaining, Super Bowl ads have become a cultural phenomenon in themselves. Viewers are entertained by the best that the advertising industry has to offer, and many of us are actually eager for these interruptions in game play. After the game, there are polls and critical reviews pronouncing the best of that year's offerings.
CNET reports, "The competitive, high-stakes* Super Bowl ad landscape is looking a bit different this year as big names like Budweiser, Pepsi (the halftime show sponsor) and Coke sit out their usual commercial buys as they rethink how to best promote their brands during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic." The link below left has videos of some of the "early release" commercials that will be shown during the game.
Videos of the best Super Bowl commercials of all-time are in the link below right. Happily, at the top of this list is my favorite - the "Mean Joe" Green Coca-Cola commercial aired at Super Bowl XIV in 1980.
Note: *The average cost of a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl has ranged from $37,500 at Super Bowl I to around $2.2 million at Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000. By Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, the cost had doubled to around $4.5 million, and by Super Bowl LIV in 2020, the cost had reached up to $5.6 million for a 30-second slot. (Wikipedia)
Tampa Bay defeats Kansas City 31-9 in Super Bowl LV
POSTED FEB 8, 2021
The best parts of Sunday's festivities were Amanda Gorman's poem before the game (sidebar) and The Weeknd's half-time performance which featured dancers performing with entire head bandages (sidebar).
The game itself was a dud. Kansas City's patched together offensive line proved a poor match for Tampa Bay's pass rush, and the debut of the first woman on a Super Bowl officiating crew was marred by the crew's overall performance. Several dubious, widely criticized penalties against Kansas City put the game out of reach by halftime. One of the most consequential is described in the sidebar.
Gorman's poem titled “Chorus of the Captains,” was a tribute to three people for their contributions during the pandemic: educator Trimaine Davis, nurse manager Suzie Dorner and Marine veteran James Martin. She delivered the poem remotely accompanied by a video.
In an interview with Variety several days before the Super Bowl, The Weeknd explained his use of bandaged faces. "The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated."
A look at the funniest commercials from Super Bowl LV is below.
Bengals to face Rams in Super Bowl LVI
POSTED JANUARY 31, 2022
It's hard to see how this year's Super Bowl will provide more excitement than these past two weekends. Sunday's conference championships were almost as down-to-the-wire as last week's playoffs. In the early matchup, Cincinnati overcame an 18 point deficit, sent the game into overtime, and then defeated Kansas City And Patrick Mahomes on the road at Arrowhead Stadium. In the later game, Los Angeles overcame a 10 point San Francisco lead going into the fourth quarter to prevail. In both games, the difference was a field goal. In both games, the winner's defense ended their opponents final drive with an interception.
Coverage of their home teams' victories by the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Los Angeles Times are below.
Outside the lines
Sports Illustrated: "Joe Burrow’s Rise to Stardom Wasn’t As Easy As He’s Made It Look—Just Ask His Parents"
Sports Illustrated: "The Speech, 2.0: How Sean McVay Reached Back to the Past to Inspire the Rams"
Super Bowl LVI weekend is here!
POSTED FEBRUARY 10, 2022
In a couple of days, America settles in for a night of football, advertising hi jinx, and flashy entertainment. Super Bowl LVI will be televised on NBC at 6:30 pm EST on Sunday February 13 to an expected audience of 100,000,000 viewers.
The Cincinnati Bengals of the AFC (13-7) will play the Los Angeles Rams (15-5) of the NFC. The Rams are playing on their home field and are currently a 4.5 point favorite.
Keys to a Bengals' victory:
A quick passing game. Second-year star quarterback Joe Burrow was sacked 9 times by Tennessee in the wildcard game, and the Rams pass rush is even better - perhaps the best the young quarterback has seen all season. The Bengals' less than stellar O-line will not be able to protect him consistently against the Rams. Nor can Cincinnati rely on a rushing game against an LA defense that hold its opponents to an average of 96 yards/game on the ground.
Pressure Matt Stafford with four down linemen. Covering LA's talented receivers Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr. and preventing long plays will be impossible if they can't.
Ignore the noise and play with confidence. They will need to tune out a raucous Rams home crowd and play with the confidence that has been a trademark of the Bengals since early in the season.
Keys to a Rams' victory:
Get the ball to Odell Beckham Jr. The mid-season arrival of OBJ opened up even more opportunities for the Rams' superstar receiver Cooper Kupp, who became the first player since 2005 to lead the NFL in receptions, receiving yards and receiving touchdowns.
Get Joe Burrow on the ground. The Rams have one of the best pass rushing defenses in the NFL. If they allow Joe Burrow to escape too often, they will pay the price. Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs.
Build on playoff and Super Bowl experience. Much of their roster was here three years ago in Super Bowl LIII. That the more experienced Rams are playing in the comfort of their home stadium will help.
Athlon Sports gives us 10 interesting stats about the game and its players. [link below left]
The Advertising Sweepstakes
A 30-second spot cost advertisers between $5.8 million and $7 million, and NBC has sold out all its advertising inventory. Gamespot posted "every leaked commercial so far" [link below center] Each Super Bowl Sunday, advertisers vie to make an impression with their 15 or 30 seconds of airtime. Each Monday following the game, news sites abound with their "best of" lists. Some iconic Super Bowl ads- like Coca-Cola's 1979 "Mean Joe", my personal favorite, and Apple's 1984 "Sledgehammer" - rank at the top of the best ads ever produced.
Half-Time
The Super Bowl Half-Time Show has become a spectacular starring the biggest names in music. Hip-hop culture will be featured in the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show with performances by Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige. Together they have garnered 44 Grammys and Mary J. Bilge is promising an epic event. [link below right]
Rolling Stone magazine ranked every Super Bowl half-time performance from worst to best. You can find the listing, commentary, and embedded videos* of the performances here. No.1 is spectacular.
Rams defeat Bengals in Super Bowl 23 - 20
POSTED FEBRUARY 14, 2022
Capping off the most exciting post-season ever, the Los Angeles Rams bested the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, in Super Bowl LVI.
Early in the third quarter, it looked like the game momentum had shifted to the Bengals, and the underdogs were actually going to win Super Bowl LVI. Odell Beckham Jr., one of the Rams' star receivers, had suffered a game-ending injury late in the first half. The second half opened with a one-play 75 yard touchdown drive as Joe Burrow connected with Tee Higgins. On the Rams first drive of the second half, the Bengals intercepted a Matthew Stafford pass and turned the interception into a field goal and 20-13 lead.
But a Bengals victory was not to be. The Rams' defense came alive at just the right time mid-third quarter, sacking Joe Burrow for a Super Bowl record-tying 7 times. [link below right] In the fourth quarter, the Rams (read that as Matthew Stafford and Super Bowl MVP Cooper Kupp) mounted a long drive capped by a Stafford-Kupp TD pass from the 1-yd line to take a 23-20 lead with 1:29 remaining in the game. [link below left]
The half-time show featured hip-hop party performances by Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige. The stadium acoustics made it difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the songs to understand the lyrics. The setlist is here. You can track down the lyrics from there if you wish. In a nearly undetectable tribute to Colin Kaepernick's protests against racial justice, Eminem "took a knee" during his performance.
Many of the ads, of course, featured celebrities. You can see one "best of" these celebrity-stuffed lists here. Funny also sells [below right]. But my favorite ad was Kia's "Robodog" commercial for its electric car. [below left]
*Some are blocked on copyright grounds, and you will need to use the You Tube link to view them.