Super Bowl ex ell eye

OK, the big game is finally over, defined in my mind by two big plays: Deven Hester's 92 yard return of the opening kick-off for a touchdown, which put the Bears up 7-0 only 14 seconds into the game, and Kelvin Hayden's fourth quarter 56 yard run-back of an intercepted pass, which put the Colts out of reach and ended Chigago's come-back hopes. And in between? Well, it just goes to show that when you insist on playing in the pouring rain, people are going to drop the ball. The Colts showed a lot of character battling back after spotting the Bears a seven point lead, and really pretty much dominated the game from coin toss to gun, but a lot of the first half in particular reminded me of a greased pig contest. Anyway, that's enough about football. Congratulations Peyton Manning. Enjoy your trip to Disney World.

I've heard that the price of thirty-seconds worth of commercial airtime during yesterday's Super Bowl was $2.5 million, and that over $100 million is estimated to have been bet on the game. How much beer does Budweiser have to sell in order to justify all those ads? And is this really what we want to lift up as a worldwide celebration of traditional American Values: a public spectacle of Competition, Consumption, and Gambling? I think the homophobic Snickers ad was probably the most annoying, although I have to admit I wasn't really paying all that much attention. And the Budweiser "Rock, Paper, Scissors" spot. That's a helluva lesson to teach our children about the importance and value of fair play.

Meanwhile, once again I had the pleasure of listening to a spokesman from the current administration describe our "surge" in Iraq as a "long, fourth quarter drive" on which the ultimate outcome of the game depends. But I'm not too optimistic. This is a team that fumbles routinely and refuses to punt. So you can just imagine where the smart money is....