The National Anthem
I usually comment on this ritual just to pooh-pooh it. Because I invariably measure each performance against the rousing rendition Whitney Houston gave at Super Bowl XXV in 1991. No performer has ever measured up.
Sure enough, it seems organizers didn’t even try this year, opting to make a statement of national unity in casting who performs the anthem instead of worrying about how it’s performed. Only that explains the unusual collaboration of white country singer Eric Church and Black R&B singer Jazmine Sullivan.
Of course, this song is notoriously difficult to sing as a solo. As a duo, well, I suppose they deserve credit for the spirit that inspired their effort.
The Halftime Show
As it was with JLo last year, I was never a fan of The Weeknd, and he did nothing to make me one tonight. But the February 5 edition of Forbes explains why he couldn’t care less about football fans like me. This was all business for him:
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While he’s the first, as far as we can tell, to brag about spending his own money on the show, he’s by no means the first to perform for almost no pay. Stars from Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé have traditionally performed on sport’s biggest stage for free in exchange for the exposure that comes with a televised audience of over 100 million people.
That opportunity pays off in the form of spikes on both streaming and social media. On the night Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performed at Super Bowl 2020, purchases of the songs performed jumped 16-fold, according to Nielsen Music. Lopez and Shakira’s on-demand music streams increased by 149% and 221%, respectively, the night of and day after last year’s show. Lopez gained a total of 2,353,050 new followers across social media during the week following the Super Bowl, according to analytics firm ListenFirst, while Shakira gained 610,823.
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In fact, The Weeknd banked so heavily on this arrangement that he made more news for leaking that he spent $7 million to produce his show than he did for performing it. Mind you, he probably spent most of that on food for the thousands of extras who must have spent days rehearsing their formation pieces. And I don’t know about you, but I’m still recovering from the wacky, vertiginous camera movements he subjected viewers to as he meandered through a staged, golden-lighted maze.
The Commercials
Talk about anticlimactic; I could not have been less interested. Not to mention this abiding lament, which I first sounded in “NFL Conference Championship Sunday: Hail, Broncos! Hail, Panthers!” January 25, 2016:
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I would be remiss not to comment on the annual hype surrounding Super Bowl commercials — for which companies are paying $5 million for a 30-second spot this year. Frankly, we are treated to so many previews that, by game time, they hold about as much interest as those eye-rolling commercials for erectile dysfunction. I gather that companies release them early to become trending topics online. Except that, like most topics on social media, people suck them up and spit them out in a viral flash.
Not so long ago, even die-hard fans waited with bated breath to see them air during the game; and the best ones trended, in real life, for days and weeks thereafter. These days, most people just see them as opportunities to go to the toilet.
Which raises the question: Why pay millions to run a commercial on TV during the Super Bowl, only to have people ignore it, when you can pay pittance to release it online during Super Bowl week, and generate viral interest? Surely it’s only a matter of time before this fact dawns on companies.
Then, of course, there’s this: I have watched many funny, even interesting Super Bowl commercials over the years. But none has ever moved me to purchase the product being advertised. You?
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Indeed, it has become so pointless that some of the biggest companies, most notably Budweiser, Coke, Audi, and Pepsi, decided to skip this annual commercial extravaganza. But it is newsworthy that Jeep reportedly paid Bruce Springsteen $5 million to intone the virtues of a reunited America with nary a mention of the values of its standard vehicle.
The Game
As I said in my January 25 commentary on the Conference Championships, this Super Bowl game is invariably anticlimactic. This is especially the case if you have no rooting interest in either of the two teams playing.
But even though my team, the Philadelphia Eagles, was not one of them, I still had a rooting interest in seeing the Kansas City Chiefs not only beat but humiliate the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Why? Three words: Tom Friggin’ Brady. But I said all I care to in my February 4 podcast “Super Bowl 55 – I Begrudgingly Hail Tom Brady’s Return.”
Of course, given that title, my disappointment probably requires further comment:
Tom Brady has done it yet again. Winning his record seventh Super Bowl and the first with his new team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Brady and the Bucs beat the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs 31-9 in what was a home game for the Bucs, played in Tampa, Fla. …
Brady, the oldest ever to play in a Super Bowl at age 43, showed his experience in the first half, leading the Buccaneers to three touchdowns — including two passes to his favorite postseason target Rob Gronkowski (and setting another record in the process: it was the 13th and 14th touchdowns for a QB-pass catcher tandem in the playoffs). …
K.C. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes struggled for most of the game. Tampa Bay’s defense swarmed him leading to sacks, hurries and knockdowns during Super Bowl 55.
(NPR, February 7, 2021)
Frankly, Tampa Bay’s defense deserved the MVP award. But it seems the sports writers and broadcasters reflexively handed it to Brady.
Meanwhile, the only thing that explains Mahomes playing the worst game of his professional career is that, subconsciously, he wants Brady’s legacy to be as great as possible so that his legacy will be that much greater when it surpasses Brady’s. The problem is that, until then, we’ll have to listen to idiots interject Tom Brady every time we mention Jim Brown, Michael Jordan, Michael Phelps, or even Muhammad Ali as the greatest athlete of all time.
Still, nothing indicates how boring this game was quite like Yahoo! Sports leading off its report with this line:
Arguably the most entertaining moment of the second half came when a [streaking] fan ran out onto the field.
Anyway, congratulations Tampa! (or is that Tompa...?)
Related commentaries:
conference championship… podcast: Brady…
* The commentary was originally published yesterday, Sunday, at 10:07 pm
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