Good morning, everyone. Where to begin discussing one of the worst Super Bowls ever?
How about starting with the man of the past two weeks, Peyton Manning? People say the press is fickle, but try listening to fans on sports radio talk about the great one's legacy. He truly had a bad game, and the fact that his post-season record is now 11-12 is absolutely fodder for discussion when evaluating his career. But man, some people are such romantics, talking all week about whether he should or shouldn't retire after going out (as was the hope) in a blaze of glory Sunday night.
I get why some folks were predicting Denver to win the Super Bowl, but I was shocked that folks like the Tampa Bay Times' Tom Jones thought the Broncos would dominate Seattle. Where was that coming from? Yes, I'm a 49er partisan, but obviously the two best teams in football did not play last night, they played 15 days ago in the NFC Championship game in Seattle. That epic affair ended with just over a minute to go. This game was over early in the second quarter.
[jump]Well, at least Manning could be consoled by his general manager, John Elway. Elway, you might recall, was the losing QB in some of the previous worst Super Bowls ever, such as the 32-point loss to Washington in 1988, or the 45-point debacle vs. Joe Montana's 49ers in 1990.
By the way, did you catch Elway on Fox News Sunday? The Broncos GM, an L.A. native who attended Stanford, is also a noted Republican. He told Chris Wallace yesterday the reason is he"doesn't believe in safety nets". Not the best advertisement for the GOP.
And what about the halftime show? Bruno Mars was pretty....okay. I'm a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan, though seeing the band perform a 23-year-old song was just kind of weird in the middle of Mars' set.
Let's add that Roger Goodell and the NFL survived a major bullet by having the weather gods stare down favorably at them yesterday. The high-40s temperatures took the weather off the map as a storyline yesterday, but today the forecast is for snow in the NYC-NJ region. How would that have worked? Goodell was circumspect last week when asked if this now means that other open-air stadiums in cold winter sites (i.e. not in Southern California or Florida) will now be eligible to host future Super Bowls. If he does open that door, Tampa might not be able to host the game for a number of years....
Also on the Sunday shows yesterday we saw Paul Ryan talk about immigration reform on ABC's This Week.
And there was a Candlelight vigil on Friday night in St. Petersburg mourning the death of political activist Paula Witthaus.
And on Thursday night we checked out what Connect Tampa Bay is doing these days. That's the group formed a year and a half ago to jump start discussions about transit, particularly in Hillsborough County.