This (Non) ) Sporting Life: Super Bowl LX

So Andrea and I ventured forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude to spend time with her dad watching the Super Bowl. My father in law cited a craving for KFC chicken so I got a bucket of that along with potato wedges for our Super Bowl party snacks. (It was I think an improvement over last year's surprisingly underwhelming Bojangles.) 

As for the game itself, it was for a long stretch a bit of a snooze with the Seattle Seahawks shutting out the New England Patriots through a series of 3 point field goals. Jason Myers set a super Bowl record by making all five of his field-goal tries.

By the third quarter, Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold threw a touchdown pass and Patriots quarterback Drake Maye answered with one of his own. Only then the did game itself start to get even remotely interesting to me. 

My wife and her dad were pulling for the Patriots because Drake Maye played college football for UNC. 

For what it's worth and I really didn't care that much about it but I guess I was rooting for the Seattle Seahawks. Because Seattle is Ken Jennings' home town, perhaps?

Well, I picked the winning team as the Seahawks defeated the Patriots 29-13 and won the Super Bowl.

So... yay me, I guess? 

Meanwhile, what about the much ballyhooed half time performance by Bad Bunny?

I will admit I didn't get it but hey, I'm not Bad Bunny's core demographic. But objectively speaking, what I saw was a visually engaging spectacle with a palatable positive energy.

Bad Bunny's set paid tribute to his native Puerto Rican culture. His performance included cameos from Cardi B, Alix Earle, Karol G as well as Pedro Pascal and Jessica Alba as well as Lady Gaga (that's her in the photo above) and Ricky Martin. 

The show contained a wedding scene that was not a scene but an actual wedding for a couple of Bad Bunny fans. So that was cool! 

Bad Bunny was accompanied by violinists, trumpets and an entire horn section while surrounded by dancers representing a variety of generations.  

A giant screen projected the message “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

Did all of this piss off Donald Trump?  Of course it did.

“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”

Well, I think I get where Li'l Donnie's coming from.

Bad Bunny put on a show full of love with a warm and positive spirit. Of course something like "makes no sense" to someone like Donald Trump. 

Meanwhile and elsewhen, what about the other big draw for the Super Bowl, the commercials?

Here are my favorites from the evening. 

• Ben Affleck returns to shill for Dunkin' with an ad that turns the movie Good Will Hunting into a sitcom called Good Will Dunkin' featuring de-aged 1990's sitcom stars Jennifer Aniston, Jason Alexander, Matt LeBlanc. Ted Danson, Alfonso Ribeiro, Jaleel White and Jasmine Guy as well as why the hell not Tom Brady.  
• Sabrina Carpenter is "tired of boys" and in need of a real man, Carpenter builds one out of Pringles.  Which she proceeds to eat.
• Appliance retailer Bosch turned beloved foodie Guy Fieri into just a regular guy without a goat or bleached tips and wearing drab shirts and slacks.  The horror! Oh, the horror!
• Two time Oscar winner Adrien Brody in an ad for  TurboTax? While "trying to tap into the pain of taxes", the ad's director tells him to dial it back a bit. To which Adrien replies, "If there's no drama, there's no Adrien Brody!" And he storms off in a huff.
• In an intense black & white ad, Emma Stone is angry and frustrated that the domain name of Emma Stone.com has been taken by some other Emma Stone and turns to Squarespace for help.
• Danny McBride and Keegan-Michael Key team up to present us with Halfway There Insurance while Hailee Steinfeld laments she should've gone with State Farm. Thankfully Jake from State Farm and Jon Bon Jovi is own damn self show up to save the day.  
• The Backstreet Boys are back and T-Mobile has got 'em even if the stage T-Mobile provides isn't quite big enough for all five of them.  Backstreet delivers a really funny ad.  
• Andy Samberg becomes "Meal Diamond" to sing about the wonder that is Hellmann's mayonnaise. 

So that is that for Super Bowl LX.

Which is "60" for the Roman Numeral impaired out there.

We're back tomorrow for the Tuesday TV Touchbase.

Until then, remember to be good to one another and “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.”