Far From Super Bowl

It was supposed to be a shootout between two of the game's premier quarterbacks. It was supposed to be Montana vs. Marino: The Sequel.

It wasn't.

While Peyton Manning(31-45, 333 yards, TD, INT) and Drew Brees(SB record tying 32 completions on 39 attempts, 288 yards and 2 TDs on route to winning the SB MVP) put on a great show statistically, the game lacked the suspenseful back-and-forth of last year's championship game. Even as Manning thundered down the field trying to make up two scores in under four minutes, the actions dragged more than "The Departed". Truth be told, the most exciting play of the entire game came on Tracy Porter's Pick 6 in the fourth quarter that essentially put the game away.

And the halftime show? Jeez. Look, we know that The Who wasn't going to find a new audience by performing vinyl classics to an iPod generation, but they somehow managed to look more dated than Phil Simms' hairdo. To be fair, I was raised in the city in New Jersey, where The Who isn't quite as popular as, say, The Wu-Tang Clan, but if The Who's goal tonight was to attempt to remain relevant to the nation's youth, then they failed miserably. This is the risk you take when you try to play it safe. Since Nipple-Gate, we've seen The Rolling Stones, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and now The Who. Somebody get Fox the number to Kansas' agent! How about we see if Boston is available next year? What about Bon Jovi or maybe even some Foghat? Would a Jay-Z/Beyonce duet have been THAT bad? We really couldn't let the young people have their Taylor Swift? Fuck, put the Jonas Brothers up there if you want to be safe(On second thought, DON'T. I plead with you. Don't do it.).

Then, there's the legendary Super Bowl commercials. Who would have thought that there would be more Danica Patrick sightings during the Super Bowl than Kim Kardashian? Practically all of the million dollar ads shown tonight were largely forgettable with the exception of the trailers for Ridley Scott's "Robin Hood" remake and the other "Avatar" movie, "The Last Airbender". The Doritos people had a bigger impact during the second half than Dallas Clark did, but I couldn't possibly tell you about one of their commercials. It was another lackluster performance on a night of lackluster performances.

Where was the star power? Sure, Manning and Brees showed up and Saints RB Pierre Thomas made his case to make Reggie Bush expendable, but where was Reggie Wayne? Where was Jeremy Shockey? It's a shame when the ex-Hurricanes with the biggest impact during Super Bowl weekend were Warren Sapp and Michael Irvin. Speaking of shames, it's a damn shame that the only Colt defender who came to play tonight was an undersized defensive end playing with torn ankle ligaments. Dwight Freeney's bum wheel was the biggest hot button topic leading up to tonight's game(which should have been a red flag that this was a suckfest from the get-go. Showdown between the two best QB's in the game and our top Super Bowl stories were a defensive end's ankle and a five-year old hurricane?). If you watched the Colts D against the Jets and the Saints D against the Vikings, there is no way you would have came into this game thinking that Indy's defense would be the ones getting picked apart like Clinton Portis at a chicken wing eating contest. Sure, Manning went for over 300 yards and even as things looked grim after the Porter house call, you still never counted the Colts out. However, the Saints D made plays when it mattered. It shut down Reggie Wayne, even as top corner Jabari Greer was hobbled. Manning had to make near-perfect throws to get Dallas Clark involved. The Saints defense made the rookie receivers(Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie) beat them and the rooks came up just short.

As disappointing as tonight was from an action standpoint, the Saints deserve their props. As annoying as the "This one's for the city" cliche postgame interview quotes will be and all the excessive celebrating on Bourbon Street that will eventually lead to drunken riots that Fox News will no doubt blame on rap music and Obama, it really is nice to see a good guy like Brees get his day in the sun.

At least somebody has a reason to be excited about what transpired tonight.