Let's recap: Fifteen players on injured reserve, a sixth-seed playing on the road throughout the playoffs, three key players disabled in the Super Bowl, a team facing six must-win games in a row, and yet another nail-biter of an ending – and the Packers pulled it off !
(Whew.)
It wound up being a really good game. I like the Steelers, a great franchise, and their comeback was impressive, but the Packers are my team. It was fun participating in the NFL threads over at Balloon Juice - particularly with all the friendly Packers fans - through those six games, some of them awfully tight. The Pack have faced so many tantalizingly close, last-minute heartbreaks since the last Super Bowl win in '97, it's been impossible to breathe until each game is over (maybe the few times they've had a three touchdown lead). Their losses this season were by narrow margins, and what I liked is that even if they wound up losing, they would fight.
Congratulations to the Steelers for a great season and a memorable game, although I understand why they won't see it that way for a while. With two Super Bowl wins in the past decade, and three appearances, they're still doing awfully well, and it's hard to feel too bad for them, but losing is still tough.
Other notes - the halftime show with the Black-Eyed Peas was dreadful. Most of the ads weren't very good. The Vader Jetta ad didn't work as well in shortened version, but the online version was quite cute. The Audi one mocked (some of) the rich, which was entertaining. My favorite was the in-house ad for House, riffing on the famous Mean Joe Green ad. Awesome.
Meanwhile, congratulations to the Packers once again! I'm not sure it's fully sunk in yet. Given all the adversity they faced this season, and what an uphill climb it was, it seems like this was one of the more impressive, improbable championships runs the league has seen. (Hell, I'll take it.) Enjoy it, Packers fans!
Everyone else at least got to see a good game, and can take solace by saying - wait 'til next year!
all the adversity they faced this season, and what an uphill climb it was
ReplyDeleteJeezus motherfucke, holmes. You really didn't type that, did you?
Hey, I was going to write "Considering the Sisyphean nature of their season," but I'm angling for a job at ESPN! Isn't it obvious? ;-)
ReplyDelete(Also, I was pretty tired...)