Okay. First off, I'll say that I was rooting for the Patriots. I am not, however, distraught today, because I've had some unfortunate opportunities to get perspective on stuff like this. Nothing important in my life is different than it was yesterday. Also, I'm not as into football as I used to be.
And, as a writer, I have to say the Giants win is just a better story. Especially the whole "QB forever in the shadow of his more famous and talented brother now has the same number of Super Bowl Wins as said more famous and talented brother because apparently he doesn't have the same tendency to choke in big games." That's a good story. And so is disrupting a coronation. The 80's was the height of my football fandom, and those were the years when the Super Bowl might have been rechristened "The NFC Coronation." I was a Bengals fan then, and it was not a lot of fun watching them lose to the heavily-favored 49ers. Twice. And the Patriots' first and best Super Bowl win came against a heavily-favored Rams team. That game was supposed to be a coronation, and it was that much sweeter because it wasn't. I knew the Rams were in trouble when they were introduced star by star and then the Patriots came out and were introduced as a team. I knew the Patriots were in trouble last night when the Giants took the field in those ugly-ass uniforms.
Anyway, it was a good game.
On to the halftime show. While I like the way the Superbowl halftime show is going, with just a mini-concert instead of a stupid song-and-dance extravaganza, I was a little disappointed in Tom Petty's performance. I've only seen him in concert once, back in 89, and it appears not much has changed. The songs are good, but the guy just doesn't have much performance mojo. So what we got last night was a lot of "old guys stand around." (Mike Campbell was the only one who seemed to have any rockstar performing mojo, and he, perhaps not coincidentally, is aging way better than everybody else in the band.) You can say this about U2, Prince, and even the Geriatric Stones, just to reference three recent Superbowl performers--every time they take the stage, they bring it. I'm not sure what "it" I'm referring to, but I know Tom Petty not only didn't bring it, he looked like he didn't even know what it was.
Still, the songs were good, but, if I can geek out a little bit, the mix was horrible. Tom, unlike many of his contemporaries, does not appear to have ruined his voice, but, let's be honest here, his voice wasn't that great to begin with. So a sound mix that has Tom's vocals all the way up and the guitar sound playing faintly in the background doesn't really play to the strengths of the band. I did like the way the guitar impaled the heart at the beginning, though. That was cool...
