Super Bowl Thoughts

- Super Bowls rarely live up to the hype, but the 40th edition, played yesterday, was a rare exception: It was just as boring as everyone thought it would be. (Everyone except for Bill Simmons who, in true fashion, waited until Friday to see which way the wind was blowing, saw that everybody was hating on the match-up, and then wrote a column proclaiming how he couldn’t wait for the game because he’s so much more of a football connoisseur than the rest of us. What a putz.)
Anyway, thank goodness for beer and jello shots or else I would have turned to Puppy Bowl II during the second quarter.

- The refs didn’t lose the game for the Seahawks, the team did a fine job of that themselves. (Frankly, I wasn't even aware the calls were considered controversial until this morning when that's all anybody was talking about. More on that in a minute.)
Matt Hasselbeck played solid, but had way too many Eli Manning-esque throws. Jerramy Stevens backed up his trash-talk by dropping three catchable balls that, if caught, would have changed the complexion of the game. Shaun Alexander should fully expect to see a repo man at his house tomorrow to take back the MVP award he inexplicably was rewarded with this season. And Darrell Jackson pushed-off on a touchdown catch that he probably would have made without the shove. (Forget what everybody is saying today; if a receiver has his hands on a corner and extends his arm the refs will call this every time. Did Seahawks fans really expect an official standing right behind the play not to call Jackson for the PI? I’m not getting the outrage. The holding call on Locklear was a little dubious but, again, he put himself in a position to get it called because of his hand positioning.) And what was with the two-minute drill at the end of the first-half? Hasselbeck made Donovan McNabb look like John Elway! And Mike Holmgren and his coaching staff were thoroughly bested by Cowher and the Steelers as well. (And did Holmgren ever shake Cowher’s hand after the game? Cowher looked so pissed off waiting for him at mid-field.)

- Hines Ward was a fine MVP, but Shaun Alexander really did deserve it.

- I’m sure Jerome Bettis is a great guy, and I do like him because he seems pretty down-to-earth, but am I the only one who was put off by his “me, me, me” attitude all week? He didn’t even thank his team on the podium with Mike Tirico after the game and instead discussed how great it was for him to win and said things like “I’m a champion.”

- Troy Polamalu is as overrated as Coldplay. How many plays did he overrun yesterday? How many pump-fakes and decoy routes did he bite on? He was the worst player on the field for Pittsburgh last night and, had the team lost, it would have been largely on his coif-supporting shoulders.

- Off the Super Bowl for a minute; I wonder if Wilbon and Kornheiser still think ACC refs don’t favor Duke. I’ve seen thousands of calls go Duke’s way over the years, but the technical foul against FSU on Saturday might have been the most ridiculous. After the intentional foul (which itself was questionable), Alexander Johnson did absolutely nothing yet was T’d up along with The Slumlord, who should have been ejected for throwing a shoulder and pushing Johnson. Instead of Williams getting ejected, Johnson fouled out thanks to the tech and Duke held on. Williams, by the way, had four fouls for a bulk of the second-half and, shockingly, never fouled out.
I'm not shocked the ACC suspended the officials involved in the incident. The only shockign thing would have been if they had made the proper call in the first place.

- I’m not saying Polamalu isn’t good, by the way. But he wasn’t last night. And don’t use the ankle as an excuse, he was running fine.

- Maybe he just wanted to go upstairs and masturbate.

- I know it's time to quit when I can't even think of a decent joke about a tie-less Tom Brady wearing a velvet suit and barely getting anything on his coin toss. That should be like shooting fish in a barrel. Albeit, fish with buttholes on their chin, but in a barrel nonetheless. But I had an unexpectedly early start this morning after assuming said start would be characteristically late and festivitiating due to that belief into the wee hours of the morning and, needless to say, I'm dragging. So that's gonna do it for me for today. But I'll be back tomorrow with the Tuesday Ten.