January 27, 2003
(Just three more years until the Super Bowl won't be blocked out by Web kid-proofing.)
The Game
In the first half, I had a hard time believing that the Bucs were the underdogs to the Raiders. When your coach knows all the other team's plays, your D is going to dominate, and Tampa did.
The second half was really no differentat the start -- the Raiders had no fire. There were 20 minutes to play and they were down 24. And they'd given up already. Disappointing. But in the fourth the Raiders blocked a punt and ran it back to put 6 points on the board, followed later by a long TD run by Rice. They got screwed on the two-point try though.
All in all, though, it wasn't very entertaining football, even though the right team won. I couldn't help but root for the Bucs; I have a soft spot for teams that have never won a Super Bowl. (My home team, the Browns, are one of only four teams who haven't won the Super Bowl yet; Tennessee, Philadelphia and Atlanta are the others. The Browns have won five NFL Chamionships, though.)
The Ads
Very few of them jumped out at me. The Budweiser commercial ("The ref's a jackass." "No, I think he's a zebra.") was mildly funny, but nothing happened with it for the rest of the game.
Must see Hulk. Must see Matrix Reloaded. Must see T3.
Reebok's "office linebacker" commercial was good, but only for the "you know you need a cover on your TPS reports" line.
ABC's ad for The Practice was a fairly clever pardoy of Miller Lite's new commercial, with a pair of Chippendales-esque guys arguing over "better night" "new timeslot" to the ladies' amusement.
Visa's new-and-improved Rande/Tiki Barber commercial "you're watching the Super Bowl... and you're in it" was just plain dumb. Everything else I've already forgotten. Well, not quite. Apparently, ABC's decided to make Am I Hot Or Not into a TV show. Dear God, no.
I thought this was the big stage upon which new ad campaigns are launched. I guess I though wrong.
Halftime
Gack. OK, I'll admit that Shania Twain is hot. But that's no excuse to subject me to her "music". No Doubt rehashing its only hit (from about seven years ago) would have been better-suited for Super Bowl Forty-Seven, as part of a One-Hit Wonder parade. How to make it worse? Have Sting sing with Gwen Stefani.
Eh, there could have been better ways to spend four hours.
Browns in '03. An'at.
