Daily Loaf

On 1A of the St. Petersburg Times, sports columnist Gary Shelton trumpeted last night’s game as the greatest Super Bowl ever. It ranks high on my list, but I still have to give the overall nod to last year’s Giants/Patriots juggernaut. Admittedly, I liked the outcome of that game better than this one. I was surprised at how fervently I ended up rooting for the Cardinals, even though I’ve never been within a hundred miles of Phoenix. Something about them coming up short in their first chance for an NFL title since 1947 I found particularly poignant.

Larry Fitzgerald

For awhile, I thought the burgeoning recognition of otherworldly Cards receiver Larry Fitzgerald was going to flicker out like a spent candle. I’ve become a fan of his, and in the first half the Steelers bottled him up. But he busted out late with two touchdown catches and more than a hundred yards receiving. He would’ve been my MVP had the Cardinals won. Endorsements next?

Like the Springsteen halftime performance, I’ve been seeing raves about Jennifer Hudson’s rendition of the National Anthem. I thought it was too overheated and the tempo way too slow.

Was I the only one who thought the pregame on-field appearance of “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III and his crew was inappropriate? Yeah, he did a heroic thing that shouldn’t be diminished, but his appearance came off like a blatant, out-of-left-field tug at the heartstrings.

I remember a penalty in the NFL that was called “helping the runner.” That rule must’ve been canned, because Steelers offensive lineman No. 62 dragged QB Ben Roethlisberger across the goal line in what appeared to be Pittsburgh’s opening-drive touchdown. A replay showed that 62 didn’t drag the QB quite far enough.

Cardinals coach Ken Whisenhunt’s team came up short, but he didn’t get outcoached by his counterpart Mike Tomlin. Whisenhunt won two challenges, the first of which, on the Roethlisberger goal line play, saved four points.

I was in a loud house party, so missed a lot of the audio, but to me the commercials didn’t make that much of an impression. I like slapstick as much as the next knucklehead, and got a laugh out of a snow globe to the balls. I thought Alec Baldwin was hilariously creepy on the hulu.com ad, but none of the rest of the spots were knockouts. And wasn’t it a particularly salient sign of the times that an outfit like Cash4Gold would hire endorsers Ed McMahon and MC Hammer and spend $3 million on a business that’s better off pitched in an infomercial?

Mike McWillie popped into the house before the game with a bunch of 3D glasses, which we fought over . When the 3D commercial segment hit at the end of the first half, I thought it was a major disappointment. After seeing a a TV feature early in the week about how far 3D technology had advanced, I ultimately thought the experience was only marginally better than the cheapo 3D stuff I saw in the ’70s. And for all the alleged technical advances, can’t they do something to improve the glasses?

I’m not the first to say this, but the Tampa skyline looked really cool. Does it always look really cool? Did the the local committee do something to make the Tampa skyline look really cool during Super Bowl?

I went to exactly one Super Bowl party, the Saturday night portion of the Good Life Experience at The Venue, where I worked media row at the red carpet. I had no interest in braving the crowds at Ybor and Channelside. But … I’m glad that our town rocked for a few days. Most accounts I’ve read and heard said business was brisk and enthusiasm was high. When people talk about how good Super Bowl XLIII was in the decades to come, hopefully some of them will remember that it was in Tampa.

A phrase I’m glad goes in storage for a while: the Big Game.

Uh, that’s pretty much all I got. Let’s do it again some time … but not for another six or seven years.

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