It's that time of year for the greatest showcase of hype and TV advertising to reappear. In this thread I'd like all of you to address the broadcast of Super Bowl rather than discuss which teams should be there.

Try these topics for starters:

1. Will there be another costume malfunction or lip-sync problem?
2. What TV commercials are you anticipating?
3. How will the commentary go?
4. What are the best/worst parts of the two-week (or longer) pre-game hype?
5. What was the best commercial?
6. What is your evaluation of the half-time show?
7. What are your lies and dislikes about Super Bowl?

ETC. ETC. ETC. Discuss, and keep the snacks coming.

Well, since the Halftime show will basically be Paul McCartney, probably not.

Of course, he was part of the Super Bowl festivities the last time FOX had a Super Bowl broadcast, and Terry Bradshaw did everything short of making out with him. So I guess that's something to look forward to.

On the other hand...

The number this year is XXXIX. It gets a helluva lot easier next year, with just a simple Super Bowl XL.

Yes, but then you have the whole subtracting the X from the L to get 40 thing and who needs the hassle, really.

Am I the only one who avoids both the pre-game and halftime shows? Even if my Steelers make it this year, I doubt I will watch anything but the game.

Oooh! Oooh! I know the answer to this one. The worst would have to be the media's need to turn a particular player (generally a QB) into a hero so that they can create a storyline around the upcoming game and hype it up. Not that the players they chose are unworthy, mind you, but the canonization gets sickening. Case and point, a couple of years ago when the Rams were in a couple of SBs, it sure seemed that you couldn't hear any coverage talking about how Kurt Warner has risen from stockboy at HyVee to the league MVP.

The Best. I've never seen it done, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. NFL Films has always been incredible with capturing the best parts of a game and turning it all into something bigger than life. Maybe NFL Network could have an NFL films pregame show, complete with the grand music, grueling plays in slow motion, and pagentry that covered the season of each team up to date. No hype, no fawning over a particular player. Focus on the team and some of the amazing plays that got them to this point. I don't really care who was the backup QB at the beginning of the season and has fought adversity to get to where he is at now. I care about the performance and the highlights.

That's usually why, if the Packers have been knocked out, I prefer to get two teams with no storyline whatsoever, or as small a storyline as possible. It forces the media to either scramble to find something to blather on about, or focus on the actual game.

As it stands now, we can take out the Colts (Peyton), Falcons (Vick), Vikings (Moss), Eagles (TO or lack thereof), Steelers (Roethlisberger), and Patriots (they play as a TEAM!). That leaves the Rams (Martz is a genius! Except when he loses, then he's crazy!) and Jets (no storyline as the media has already penciled in Pittsburgh on their brackets. Roethlisberger, you know. But if there was one, it'd likely be Chad Pennington).

So if neither St. Louis or New York makes it, all we'll hear about are the two involved teams' storylines. If one makes it but not the other, it'll be all about how badly the team with the storyline will pound the team without one, attributed about 90% to the storyline if applicable. If it's Rams vs. Jets, we might get actual game analysis.

Might. After lengthy recaps of both their seasons, a week's worth of coverage on how they won their respective conferences, them getting off the planes in Jacksonville, travelouges of Jacksonville as if it's the pinnacle of Western civilization, allegedly "wacky" prediction pieces such as "In 17 of the last 18 Super Bowls, the team that plays its home games in a city with a higher percentage of houses made out of pudding has won" (and then by the end of the piece it turns out that the Rams and Jets have an equal amount of methods picking them), and "Media Day", where the focus is on... it being Media Day. The teams get interviewed! On Media Day! By the actual media! Which includes us, the media! Actual questions will include such things as "So how do you like Jacksonville?", "What is your favorite breed of dog?", and "Will you win the game?" And then the FRINGE outlets get their turn. Nickelodeon will ask if Jonathan Vilma would like to get slimed. Jay Leno will send one of his lackeys, probably one of the Jaywalkers, to irritate half the players. Some network I've never heard of will send some bimbo to ask if Torry Holt is taken. This will all lead to about 5 minutes of game coverage, Rams/Jets or not. On second thought, maybe it doesn't really matter who goes.

3: How will the commentary go?
Let's root for the Vikings to get to Jacksonville, just thinking about the conniption Joe Buck will have about Randy Moss getting anywhere near a Super Bowl. I can totally see Buck going Jim Ross describing Triple H chair-shotting somebody if Moss, God forbid, catches a touchdown pass (That bastard! That bastard!).

If the Jets got to the Superbowl *knock on wood*, one of the BIG storylines would be Wayne Chrebet going after the ring in what will likely be his final season. You'd hear nothing but how he was a small WR from Hofstra university who got the break of his life when he came on to the Jets as a walk-on (they practice at Hofstra) with Parcells and quickly became one of the most beloved Jets of the last 10 years. He had another concussion this year so pretty much all of the media believes this is it for him.

Absolutely not. I avoid both like the plague, ever since having to endure 5 straight "Hooray for Everything" halftime shows in the early 90s. They're so bombastic and boring, every single year. I remember a couple of years ago, when they got, like, Britney Spears, Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige, and probably a bunch of others. And it was like "Wow, it's gonna be more bombastic and boring than ever!" No thank-a you.



Hell yes. And if you ask me (and why would you), it's all the music and John Facenda's voice. I swear, he could read me the specials at a restaurant and I'd be hanging on every single word. You know, if he wasn't, uh, dead.



This is probably my biggest pet peeve in sports journalism today: the Bob Costas Olympic-Puff-Piece-ization of every sport. Nowadays, we just can't show a sporting event without having some kind of storyline to fall back on (or, more appropriately, hammer into the ground). I remember before last year's Elite 8, some journalists (like on the Sports Reporters or whatever) were actually out-and-out saying that they wanted St Joe's to beat Oklahoma State, because there would be more storylines surrounding the Final Four if St. Joe's was there. Ahem, sports broadcasters, producers, writers: I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! Just show the damn game. That's all we want, okay?

ETA: Dr. Z touches on this problem in his football announcer ratings, illustrating how this trend has actually seeped into play-by-play guys, too.

This is the best title thread ever. I am one of the few people I know that actually can translate Roman Numerals. I guess some of that school stuff was useful after all. Just got home to find OT Jets/Steelers.

Gah, I can't stand any of the pregame crap they foist on us. It's just too much, too over-the-top. And it lasts a whole bloody week. Worse, this year the game is on Fox, which means it will all be even more tacky and annoying. And Terry Bradshaw will be involved, which is never a good thing.

I just saw a promo and the pre-game nonsense starts at, like, 10 am. The actual pre-game show starts at 2. What the heck do they talk about for four hours?

I dunno. It's gonna be tough, since they don't have "He Hate Me" to feature this time around. But if the Colts somehow make it, I suspect the folks at FOX will spend at least three of those hours kissing Peyton Manning's ass.

And if the Falcons make it, another three hours kissing Vick's ass.

Wow, looks like a Falcons/Colts Super Bowl won't start until late in that case. Maybe they can have a split screen with simultaneous ass kissing for maximum efficiency.

If that's the case, they should probably save the rimjobs for halftime.

Speaking of rimjobs, they'll have to save the Peyton Manning special for next year. Have fun on the golf course, buddy!

I, for one, am looking forward to how they're going to make Jacksonville seem interesting. I hope Bill Simmons does another blog like he did for Houston.

Ugh. I love the Sports Guy as much as the next person; maybe more. But I can't stand another year of articles about how Belichick is Jesus, and Tom Brady is better than Joe Montana, and now the Red Sox have won the World Series and we have to put up with that ... and he's still bitching about the Celtics. I'm just getting tired of it...

And so it begins. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/050118

To be fair, he is right about how all the so-called 'experts' are idiots for almost universally picking Indy to win in NE in January. But his endless Belichick and Brady bootlicking is getting extremely old.

Can you imagine all the stupid, insipid commentary about Super Bowl XL next year?

"XL! It's Extra Large!! HAHAHAHAHA aren't we clever?"

Be thankful that XL wasn't this year, or we'd be subject to Tony Siragusa reports and jokes all night long.

As for the Sports Guy, ask yourself a question: if it was your favorite team(s) that was in the same position to become not only back-to-back champs, but a dynasty too, would you write and act similarly? I know I would. It doesn't mean I enjoy his columns; as a matter of fact, most of his Pats columns are his worst or close to it. At least he's printing the hate mail he's getting on his website. I'm sure he'll respond in time.

I'd like to think that I wouldn't. I mean, these columns he writes, they ARE for other people to read too, right? You know what, you can talk about the game, what happened, how well whoever played, and blah blah blah. But all this relentless, RELENTLESS Patriot "boot-licking" ... it's enormously tiresome...

Agreed. But, the fact is the Pats had a 22 game win streak going, they're still defending champs and they are a top 3 team in the league this year. That alone meant we'd suffer through a few of those "bootlicking" columns, especially when they played the Colts in Week 1 and the AFC divisional game. They've been a story all year long nationally. By the way, I'm not a Pats fan- I'm from D.C. and a big time Redskins fan (as well as all D.C. teams).

Again, he's the Boston Sports Guy, so he's gonna be biased. He writes from the heart and sometimes just for himself, without caring who enjoys it sometimes.

As an analogy, look at his Celtics writings. Yes, he waxes poetic about any team with Bird and the one run they had with Walker and Pierce. But, he rips them (especially Ainge and Pitino) when his team is in the doldrums. He'll do the same with the Pats when they one day crash to earth.

However, if the Pats do beat the Steelers on Sunday, just be prepared for All Things Belichick/Brady, all the time for the Super Bowl.

He used to be the Boston Sports Guy. Now he writes for a national website and a national magazine.

Fortunate for him (and unfortunate for many of us), the Red Sox and Patriots have been major national stories. There's always going to be too much media attention to winning teams, not to mention the dreaded East Coast Bias. I do wonder if ESPN and his editors push him to write more about the two winning Boston teams since they are national news and he can write about them from a more personal standpoint.

Most writers and sports personalities have a bias for their teams. A few examples: Pete Prisco on CBS Sportsline.com is biased with the Jags and loves to write about them. David Aldridge would chip in articles about the Wizards/Redskins when he was with ESPN. Michael Wilbon worships all things Chicago. The bias, to be honest, is preferable to the sucking up of other writers and personalities (see Dick Vitale, John Madden, etc).

But to get back on the topic, when Simmons covers the Super Bowl, he's still going to write with the same style that he does. Meaning that if the Pats are in, get ready for his point of view as a fan, not as an unbiased reporter. That's the beauty of having an opinion column.

I'm glad the Eagles won, but stay tuned to McNabb's Journey: hosted by idiot FOX producers.

I just find it slightly ironic that the Super Bowl after Boobgate, in which everyone is trying like hell to keep things clean, is going to be aired on FOX, the network that hasn't met a sleazepile it didn't air...for at least 3 weeks.

So now we have our two teams, and we also have two weeks of pre-game hype
What do you think is going to be the most egregious moment before Game Day? Other than Paul McCartney performing for the half-time show, what else is being planned?

I think it's basically because the Pats are not the downtrodden underdog anymore, and neither are the Red Sox. Also, Bill experienced a lot of success in his personal career and "sold out" to Hollywood for a while. ESPN.com has a stupid cartoon based on his life. So his columns come off as arrogant bragging about himself and Boston teams rather than the sharp-witted fusions of pop culture and sports that they once were. He's also beginning to sound like a guy who would dump the Sports Gal for a hot trophy wife, not unlike Howard Stern and Dave Barry (who became completely unfunny once he started writing about his new hot trophy wife). His column about The O.C. was brilliance, but he's been hit and miss for a while.

I wish Paul McCartney would have a wardrobe malfunction, just to T.O. all the Helen Lovejoys of this world, but we all know he won't. Now, if it were John...

So apparently the FOX Sports crew is going to give us an extra-special pre-pre-game show this year featuring the cast of "The Best Damn Sports Show Period," but, fearing the wrath of wackos who might be offended, they are calling it "THe Best Darn Sports Show Period" for the SB. I'm not kidding.

I don't know what's worse: Tom Arnold on national TV or FOX being so spineless they'd grab their ankles so quickly.

(J32)

I avoid the pre-game and halftime shows like the plague, ever since having to endure 5 straight "Hooray for Everything" halftime shows in the early 90s. They're so bombastic and boring, every single year.

And if you ask me, it's all the music and John Facenda's voice. I swear, he could read me the specials at a restaurant and I'd be hanging on every single word.

(Rush)

I would rather listen to John Facenda read the restaurant menu than watch a Super Bowl halftime show.

I have the last 18 Super Bowls on tape. I put them in an hour or two before the game and let it run straight thru. Maybe, even let it get the Sportscenter highlights of the game with it.

But, I have never went back and watched any of the halftime or pre-game shows.

I endorse that message. 100%. Jeebus speaks the truth.

Along the same lines, here's Sports Pickle's usually pointed take on things...

From Rush:

If you want a clinic in how to do a halftime show right, check out Super Bowl XXXVI. U2, without any flavor-of-the-week guest stars crammed down our throats (or anybody having to cram their flag desecrating, crotch grabbing or cheap feels into 45 seconds). U2 rocked us and moved us (even if I didn't catch the name of the guy who grew up a street over from me projected on those sheets with the other 9-11 victims - O'Reilly didn't have a spaz over it the way he did when Koppel did the same thing with Iraq war victims).
I'm not a big McCartney fan, but I say let him do his act, give us a big version of "Hey Jude" at the end, and nobody gets hurt (even the cultural Taliban).
And please, keep Bradshaw away from him this time.

Man. This halftime show is really going to suck! Instead of that loser Paul McCartney hosting it, (his music makes an anueryism in the brain more tolerable) Why don't we have Ashlee Simpson perform in the halftime show. If she thinks that the booing at the Orange Bowl is horrifying, Wait till she show her rotten face in front of the whole world stinking up the joint. (like she always does)

I've taken to channel surfing the INSTANT time runs out in the first half. The other networks concede the actual game, but they fight like angry ferrets against halftime. I always find two or three things I want to watch.

I saw the Super Bowl last year on CBS, only I decided to skip the halftime show. At that point in time, I was getting tired of the Super Bowl being another MTV production. What a bum decision that turned out to be. And I bet the New England Patriots must have been pissed. The greatest Super Bowl game in years upstaged by Janet's breast, the repurcussions of which are still being felt a year later and will most likely be felt for all eternity. Unless, someone flashes a penis or a vagina or just goes all out and shows his or her naked self to the world. Of course, 7-second delays will prevent us all from being witness to that.

Do anyone think the game will be on a 7-second delay, or just the halftime show?

I honest-to-god never realized that there were people that actually watched the halftime show until last year. Halftime is for many things- grabbing a few more beers, preparing a second helping of cheesy nacho goodness, taking a piss, running outside for a smoke, etc. It is not for watching a bad fireworks show and a lame pop star wiggle their ass, or in this case, Paul McCartney, which is even worse.

(Sidenote- the Super Bowl is still a week away, and if I hear the name Paul McCartney and the word nipple in the same sentence again I am going to toss my cookies or cry.)

My guess would be both. Mark Roberts, the world-famous streaker who bitched that he got upstaged by you-know-who's breast, is rumored to be considering reenacting last year's streaking in Jacksonville. That alone will get TPTB in a conservative huff. Also, HD channels compared to regular channels have a small delay too. So, if you watch in HD, you could be looking at a 10 second delay total.

Isn't Mark Roberts in jail? He got six months or so from a Texas judge. I think the sentence was handed down just a few months ago.

Roberts was only fined $1,000. He could have been imprisoned for 6 months, but wasn't. This article from ESPN.com's Wayne Drehs updates the Roberts situation for the last 12 months.

Next year is Super Bowl XL ... wow the marketers will have a field day with that, everyone will....
Can't wait till Super Bowl C



I saw what is supposed to be the Levirta commerical for the superbowl.
This year its not old people in bathtubs, or floating text about erections lasting 4 hours or more see doctors. Its old people in less subjective situations, old people on a swing, trying to hit a baseball, sitting on a bench.

I don't understand things like this, we see all these ED and Beer == Sex ads, but something else happens in the game and its considered evil.

j32master, word on the Sports Guy. His blog this year is not too bad, at least when he started talking about Jacksonville. But the last few days he has fallen back to his usual ways, for example with almost an entire page on Vinatieri, which fortunately you can sort of scan and not read until he gets back to his humor stuff. He played a sort of trivia game where he tried to remember the teams, score, etc of each Super Bowl, and it really reveals how he doesn't know or appreciate football as much as he can recall pop culture surrounding the Super Bowl. Instead of great plays or drives, he coughs up stuff like the famously misreported Doug Williams quote, which by the way he gets wrong. Could you imagine him talking football with Dr. Z? Wouldn't be pretty.

AICN has a pretty funny "spoiler" report on the SB.

The Sports Guy has been driving me nuts because it seems like all he does is discuss how much Jacksonville sucks. He did this last year with Houston, too. Complain, complain, complain. You're at the Super Bowl. There are like billions of people who would trade places with you in one second. Suck it up and write something positive.

I think being around the other Kimmel writers seriously dragged him down. I could tell you more about the Super Bowls than he did. Didn't he get the score of the Bears-Patriots game wrong? And that was HIS TEAM in the Super Bowl.

It's hard to believe that his last highlight work for NFL Films was of a Super Bowl 20 years ago. There was just one John Facenda, and I agree with you completely. (Although a U2 appearance would probably change my mind.)

So Michael Irvin didn't make the HOF. (Maybe he should just call all of the electors and say "Don't you know who I am??") I don't know what kind of pre-game coverage ESPN may have, but if they do perhaps that will tone down his idiocy a bit. Of course, if it does I won't see it, because ever since he joined their telecasts I've found better uses of my time.

They should have Young and Irvin on together. That might make for some fun moments.

I was going through some old TV Guides in my collection, and thought we might enjoy CBS's schedule for Super Bowl Sunday, January 24, 1982 (Eastern time zone)...

9:00 AM -- CBS News Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt (featuring a report on football violence)
10:30 -- local programming
11:30 -- Face the Nation
Noon -- CBS Sports Spectacular (CBS's ripoff of "Wide World of Sports"; scheduled events were a featherweight boxing title fight, downhill skiing, and an ice-skating exhibition)
2:30 PM -- Super Bowl Today
4:00 -- Super Bowl XVI (49ers vs. Bengals at Pontiac, Michigan)
8:00 -- 60 Minutes
9:00 -- Alice
9:30 -- The Jeffersons
10:00 -- Trapper John, M.D.
11:00 -- local programming

That's right, the pregame show was only 1-1/2 hours long, and came after 2-1/2 hours of other sports. Hard to believe, isn't it?

Counterprogramming on the other networks: none, really, just local programming at the start of the game (because of the 4:00 start time). Once prime time rolled around at 7:00, NBC had "The Sound of Music" followed by an NBC News special about Franklin Roosevelt; ABC had a documentary on the making of the movie "Superman," an episode of their short-lived series "Today's FBI," and then the disaster movie "Meteor."

I love the Super Bowl, but here is what I do NOT like about it. I HATE it when current players go on ESPN, FOX, CBS, or ABC & trying to give insights on the big game. They pretty tell us nothing interesting & it is absolutely unwatchable. They're team is not playing in the Super Bowl, so why are they wasting our TV time with their boring insights on the game. What also pisses me off about the Super Bowl (World Series, Stanley Cup Finals, & NBA Finals too) is that their respective mayors have to do a little wagering on the game & that is considered news. I could careless. There are other problems going on their cities & they're wasting our time with this wagering crap. What bastards!


If you people are wondering, I wouldn't be caught dead watching this yrs pregame show.

Just shows how quickly we can artificially inflate something when we want to. I imagine in 20 years, the Super Bowl will be declared a national holiday.

Today, according to Yahoo TV, FOX is dedicating the entire day to football, save for Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huckjam (and whoever named that should be shot without trial). Pregame will be scheduled for four hours, starting at 1:00 Central. Kickoff is scheduled for 5. The game will begin at 8:15.

Counterprogramming (I have no information on halftime programming):
The other networks schedule the news for kickoff. Most networks without news programs are turning to clip-show programming (That's Funny, America's Funniest Home Videos, Candid Camera, Police Videos). Some networks are going with marathons (your affiliates may vary):
UPN- The Andy Griffith Show
WB- Summerland
ESPN2- 2004 World Series Of Poker
OLN- Bull riding
USA- Monk
TNT- Charmed
Toon Disney- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go
Animal Planet- Puppy Bowl (looking at an ad, literally, just now, it's dogs playing football)
Bravo- Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
Hallmark- Little House on the Prarie
Travel Channel- World Poker Tour
G4TechTV- Sweat. They're not wasting X-Play, their highest-rated show, on the Super Bowl. They're wasting X-Play on the tail-end of the pregame show.

Other highlights:
*CBS, in the second quarter (assuming the game goes the scheduled 4 hours), is airing something called 'Child Prodigies'. From the description, it looks like Michelle Wie is in there somewhere. PAX, not one to sit idly by, is countering with 'America's Most Talented Kids'.
*And during the third quarter, or possibly halftime, CBS is going with a preview of Survivor: Palau. Thus ensuring that none of the castaways gets unneccessarily famous.
*During most of the game, ESPN will air figure skating. However, in the second half of the 4th quarter- the last few minutes of the game- they'll switch to their knockout punch: the 2004 Double Dutch Jump Rope Championship! Who can possiby hang with a close game in the Super Bowl and miss out on that?

Halftime counterprogramming? Pay-per-view is evidently going to have a special "Girls Gone Wild" halftime, with guaranteed "wardrobe malfunctions". No doubt they'll pull in pretty decent numbers.