It’s not even a week since Super Bowl LVIII was played but already I’m pouting that the 2023-24 NFL season is over. The first 2024-25 preseason game isn’t until August.
Yeah, yeah I know, there’s other football out there. Spring football, arena football, or whatever-the-heck they’re called, but I’m not interested in those.
And as my friends like to remind me, there are lots of other sports on TV besides football — basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, golf — but I don’t care about any of those — for me it’s NFL or nothing.
Because I’m not quit ready to put the NFL on hold for another 23 weeks or so, bear with me as I share a few of my thoughts on the Super Bowl.
Before the game
I can’t count how many podcasts I listened to prior to the game, most talking about how this was going to be one of the best Super Bowls ever due to the two teams being so evenly matched, the “future Hall of Fame” players on each team, the fact that Las Vegas really knows how to do it up right, and the idea that a whole new generation of viewers (who had probably never watched a NFL game before) would be watching the event, thanks to the presence of Taylor Swift.
The game
I didn’t really have a dog in the fight. I know this will make a lot of Seahawk fans angry but I didn’t care who won because I really like both of those teams (except when they’re playing the Hawks, of course).
I would have loved to see Brock Purdy go from being Mr. Irrelevant to Super Bowl champ. And it would have been awesome if Kyle Shanahan could have done the same thing his dad did in winning the Vince Lombardi Trophy. But I also love Andy Reid — loved him when he coached the Eagles and still love him today.
The game itself was good. Lots of defense on both sides, lots of great plays and then ultimately going into overtime. Both teams were in it ‘til the end, which makes for an exciting game.
I thought the officiating during the game was terrific. They let the players play while still keeping control of the game. One of my complaints of most NFL games throughout the season is how often “holding” is called. Like my husband Mike says “You can probably call holding on every play,” but they didn’t at the Super Bowl. There were a couple of plays I thought there should have been flags on, and a couple of penalties that I didn’t agree with but that happens during most games, so all in all I think the officials called a really good game.
Half time
I’m not a fan of half time. I was listening to Mike Greenberg’s podcast the other night as I was walking and he and his cohorts were discussing the latest halftime show and shows of the past. One of the commentators said he doesn’t understand why there’s a halftime show at all and I agree. I can understand filling in the time the teams get a break, but do that by having a college marching band or honor our military with assorted flyovers.
What little my husband and I knew about Usher we were not interested in watching during halftime. So we had the TV on while we fixed dinner but the few times I looked over at the screen I was either unimpressed, offended or confused about what was going on.
Commercials
The Super Bowl is the only time we watch commercials in our house — we record everything we watch and then fast forward through the commercials. We didn’t start watching the Super Bowl until about 4:30 Sunday afternoon, and I had to remind myself not to grab the remote to fast forward through the commercials. I’m very glad we didn’t.
These got my thumbs up:
The NFL ticket commercial with flying Seahawks, Ravens and Eagles
Arnold Schwarzenegger in the State Farm commercial, mispronouncing “neighbor.”
Xfinity’s ad with the two Christian McCaffreys
Volkswagen through the years, with Neil Diamond singing in the background
All the stars crammed into the Dunkin’ Donuts commercial
And my favorite of all, Uber eats “in order to learn something new, you have to forget something.” Interesting sidenote — when my co-workers and I were talking about our favorite Super Bowl commercials, we all agreed this one was a good one but no one could remember what they were advertising. (I had to Google “Jennifer Aniston Super Bowl commercial to” figure out which ad it was.)
But now it’s the end of February. The NFL season is over. The Seahawks have a new coach and I’m counting the days until the first game of the 2024-25 season, and I’ll try not to pout for the next several months. Go Hawks.
