Wesley's Week (Feb. 5-11, 2007)

by Wesley

Like the rest of you, I watched the Super Bowl Sunday. You know, the wet one where Peyton Manning finally got the monkey off his back and won MVP for his job with the Indianapolis Colts? Yes, I thought you might have heard of it.

I do not know why, but for some reason, even a casual NFL fan like me gets caught up in the hoopla and must watch it every year, no matter who is playing. I am not alone either – the Super Bowl is the highest-rated sports event ever on American television, and it almost always is the #1 rated individual show every year. Why? It cannot just be the hype from TV. If that were the case, the XFL would have been a raging success as opposed to the embarrassment it became to NBC in 2001 (not to mention about the lowest rated nighttime show ever on that network).

Face it, the Super Bowl is just excellent television, from the pageantry on the field introducing the players to the halftime show extravaganza. I liked the latter this year. I know some people who were not impressed by Prince, but personally, any guy who is able to sing Purple Rain while it is actually raining in a stadium is tops in my book.

And of course, the commercials are always over the top, but they have to be, considering they cost $2.6 million per 30-second spot. Yet that $12 Doritos one that came from some guys in Cary (Woo hoo! Way to go!) was more effective to me than many of the others I saw, combining humor along with the product’s appeal in a nice package. The one that stuck with me, though, was not for any product, but for a TV program. When David Letterman sat on a couch with his arm around Oprah Winfrey and both of them sported jerseys of their hometown team to promote The Late Show with David Letterman, I was in hysterics, not to mention heaven. I love them both and have endured the “feud” for quite a while, and to combine it with the Super Bowl standoff was just ingenious.

A few other random notes: Congratulations to Adam Vinatieri for winning his fourth ring. He knows how to go with a winner, doesn’t he? Indy Coach Tony Dungy is a class act. So is Lovie Smith of the Bears. As for Rex Grossman, well … there is definite room for improvement. Let’s leave it at that.

Peyton says he wants to be back to the big event to get another ring himself. Will it be next year? Guess we will have to wait for now. For those of us with football withdrawal pains, there is the Pro Bowl this Saturday, but face it – there is always only one Super Bowl.

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