Superbowl Sunday

Wow,two really, really good superbowls in a row. I'm going to have to revise my sense of Superbowl Sunday as one of those perennially over-hyped American holidays like New Year's Eve and Halloween. There were so many big plays. The Cardinals are ab to punch it in from the one and take the lead b/f the half and the Steelers return the turnover 100 yards for the score! And still Warner and the Cards recover for a heroic, two-touchdown 4th Quarter comeback (Fitzgerald is this amazing combination of craft and athleticism), only to be turned back by the Steelers, one last time, w/ barely over a minute to go. Rothlisberger's swashbuckling ability to stay alive to make a pass on the money, all day long, was ridiculous. And then that kind of catch by Santonio Holmes w/ less than a minute to go?! Great action.

There was this piece in the Sunday NY Times ab which of the big three sports can honestly lay claim to America's "national pastime": football wins all the polls and makes the most revenue, baseball sells the most tickets to games, and more Americans play basketball than either the other two. I'll stick w/ baseball. Still, how come football is the most militaristic and bureaucratic and macho violent of the big three pro sports but seems somehow to have the least crazy player salaries and drug problems and the most competetive parity?

And then there was the Bruce halftime show. The guy is a shadow of his former self musically; has been for almost thirty years. But in terms of sheer arena rock entertainment values, even if they are the same moves he's been doing for all these years, did he not raise the roof? At the very least, there was a showmanship bravado there that I cannot recall at all in any recent superbowl halftime performance, Tom Petty, Janet's left tit, whathaveyou.

Anyhow, a good day for some Americana. Must be the Obama factor!