The Super Disappointment

I hopped out of bed eagerly, a rarity more rare than XL undergarments at Victoria's Secret (so I'm told), on Sunday morning. The day had finally arrived! I put on my Joe Montana jersey AND wore it to church. Super Bowl Sunday is a day to rival all other days during my year. There are those that come close: Opening Day for MLB, Daytona 500 Sunday, my birthday (10/13 if anyone is interested in a cash gift), Christmas, and I'll say our anniversary in case my wife would ever happen to bumble upon this.

I had thoughts about how the game would go. I believed we'd be welcoming in Tom Brady into the 4 Win club whose only members are Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana. However, the Patriots inability to play meaningful defense and, more to the point, their ineptitude to catch passes in the clutch prevented that from happening. I'm not trying diminish what the Giants accomplished. They won. They made the big plays (Mario Manningham has been a bur in my backside since his days at Michigan). But seriously, 5 dropped passes, during crunch time, Come on man!!

Instead of welcoming Brady into the club, I believe we are welcoming Eli Manning into a different club. One that is occupied by Montana and a few others. The Club of Under Appreciated Winners. I think if one were to ask around about who was the greatest QB in the game today, that one would very seldomly hear Eli Manning's name in response. There would be plenty of Tom Brady, Aaron Rogers, Drew Brees, and Eli's older brother Peyton as guesses. Heck, I wouldn't even say Eli, he's not even the best IN HIS OWN FAMILY, in my never wrong opinion. This parallels Montana. He wasn't considered the greatest of his day at the time. That came much later when careers were over and fans and media had a chance to reflect. I recall the relentless yammering about how Dan Marino, John Elway, Phil Sims, and anyone not named Montana were the best. I'm not saying Eli is equal to or greater than #16. What I'm saying is, others may throw for more yards with more flash and pizazz but Eli is quietly eclipsing them in accomplishments. Among active QB's, only Brady has more Super Bowl wins (3) and Eli is tied with Big Ben Roethlisberger  with two. Winning matters, just ask Dan Marino. Eli has proven himself a big game QB who can deliver in the clutch.

On to the disappointing part of my Super Bowl Sunday, The Star Wars Volkswagen commercial. Anything Star Wars warms my geeky heart. I was more pumped for that one commercial than I was for the 3 hour football game. I even avoided the Internet, I didn't want any spoilers. Yes, spoilers for a commercial. My geekdom knows no bounds. The commercial within a commercial was a cool concept, with the premise being the dog working out to get in shape to chase the new Beetle was airing in Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, or Mos Eisley Cantina from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, for the non-geeks reading along. My heart was all twitterpatting when it cut to the cantina. It looked authentic and was character correct, two VERY important points to us geeks. That's when the landing gear fell off the Millennium Falcon. It failed on continuity, the Holy Grail of Geekiness.
First, why was Ponda Baba and Dr. Cornelius Evazan there? It was obviously after Ben Kenobi took off Ponda's arm. I know this because Ponda Baba had one arm in the commercial. Duh! Where were the on set geeks to fact check this? In Star Wars lore, Evazan tried, and failed, to replace Ponda's arm with cybernetics. After the botched procedure, Ponda Baba swore revenge and hunted Evazan across the galaxy. Continuity fail #1.

Then the 'money shot' came. Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith, was present to force choke Evazan after Evazan stated, correctly I should add, that last years commercial was better. Why was Vader there? Doesn't he hate sand? Isn't there a Rebel alliance that needs dealt with? Is he really the inept fool as portrayed in Robot Chicken? Maybe that's where he found the payphone to call the Emperor after the Battle of Yavin. Continuity fail #2. As Yoda would say, 'crap that was'.

I'll give the nod to best commercial to the Chevy add about the pending apocalypse. What put that one over was the inclusion of the Twinkies at the end. THAT is how to warm my geeky heart!

One last thing, the half-time show was extremely  . . . meh. But I'll give Madonna props for getting hotter with age. I'm pretty sure Brittany Spears and Lady Gaga will be working at a car wash when they're 50+. The only thing I would of recommended to Madonna would of been to include 'Express Yourself' in her set list to show the world the level of thievery Gaga is guilty of with 'Born This Way'.