Superbowl XLV in retrospect: Five things we’ve learned
Just sing it as it was written: Enough with the celebrity renditions of the national anthem. Chrisina Aguilera’s snarling, growling off-key and out of time version was bad way before she forgot the words. The national anthem at the BCS Championship Game in Glendale was sung by the Air Force Cadet Chorale. The delivered a straightforward, stirring rendition that brought tears to your eyes. By the time Aguilera finished mangling the first few lines, viewers were also crying but not out of patriotic fervor. Here’s a hint. Any time a performer hits three or more notes on the word “see†in the first line of the first stanza, they’re not singing for national pride. They’re singing for themselves. That’s not what it’s about. From now on let a military chorus bring us the anthem and shelve the prima donnas.
Leave halftime to the bands: Every season the halftime shows grow more and more elaborate. We’ve seen wardrobe malfunctions, aging rockers who can’t reach the high notes and comedians. We’ve tried Phil Collins, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nelly, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Kahn and Tom Petty. Enough. This year’s spectacle was a horror show. Flashing space outfits. Plastic hair. Sparkling chest pieces. Glowing boxes for heads. Usher forgetting to brush his hair (and also to sing). Slash hiking his leg on the sanctity of Guns & Roses. And a plethora of out of breath caterwauling. It wasn’t that it was bad so much as it just wasn’t good. The sound system in Jerry Jones’ castle needs work. Frankly, the halftime extravaganza is just unnecessary. Get some good marching bands to pass the time, let the hosts do a little analysis and get back to the game.
It’s never too early to rush to judgment: Minutes after the final seconds drained from the clock, the media was in full flush. Where does Green Bay’s Aaron Rogers stand in the pantheon of NFL quarterbacks? Is he the greatest Packer quarterback ever? Is he the best in the league today? How many more Superbowls can he win? Please. Put the brakes on the hype train. You don’t need to forge a new crown every year. Rogers had a good run in the playoffs. That’s the extent of it. He’s in his third season and has a grand total of three playoff wins, one coming in the Superbowl. Are we seriously going to start comparing him to Bart Starr? To Joe Montana? To John Elway? To Dan Marino? To Tom Brady? To Brett Favre? Rogers had a good season. When Green Bay needed him, he stepped up and made the plays. But it’s too early to anoint him the greatest of any era. Or even the greatest today.
How smart does Green Bay look now? Three years ago, Brett Favre negotiated a contentious departure from the Green Bay Packers. It was almost like a divorce. Favre didn’t really want to go, but Green Bay had moved on. The organization had made its decision to invest its future in Rogers. The Packers bowed out of the yearly Favre circus. Not everyone was happy with the decision. Favre was a proven commodity, the face of the franchise. Letting him go first to the Jets and then to the Vikings was difficult. How smart do the Packers look today? Had Favre stuck around and dragged out his career in Green Bay, Rogers would have either languished on the bench, battled for playing time or been shipped out of town. With Favre gone, however, the patient Packers ownership allowed him to mature into his role. Their confidence in him paid off in a Super Bowl ring. No offense to Favre, but had he stayed in Green Bay the second – or was it third? – time he returned from retirement the franchise would not be celebrating a title today.
The BCS is better: The Super Bowl draws the world wide ratings but in the grand scheme of things the NCAA’s BCS Championship is a better product. The college football finale offers passion and drama that simply can’t be matched by the NFL. The biggest reason the BCS is better, however, is that it doesn’t rely on the playoffs. In a pre-Super Bowl interview New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning said that the only thing that mattered in the regular season was winning enough to make the playoffs. Regular season losses were irrelevant as long as you made the post-season. The media today attempts to deify Rogers because Green Bay went into each of its last three regular season games needing a win to make the playoffs and the Packers delivered. That gauntlet was what Auburn’s Cam Newton and Oregon’s Darron Thomas faced not three times, but 13 and 12 times respectively on their path to the BCS title game. Every game is important in college football. Every game is a defacto playoff. The teams that make the BCS championship are battle tested, their worth proven week in and week out. That’s not always the case when it comes to determining the NFL title.
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