Things You Might Have Missed At Super Bowl 50

After 26 weeks since the opening preseason games, football is over.  The season culminated in an American spectacle watched around the world: Super Bowl 50.  It only took the NFL 49 years to realize how dumb the roman numerals looked next to their championships.  The Sheriff vs. Superman.  Defense vs. Defense.  Terrible running back vs terrible running back.  Mediocre coach vs mediocre coach.  Von Miller vs. Luke Kuechly.  Aqib Talib vs. the refs.  Let’s rewind.

Before the Game:  Everyone was on the Panthers.  Crazy how at least a couple hundred of my Facebook friends are diehard Carolina fans, at least this year.  You would think the bandwagon would be full at some point but there was room for everyone.  This was a civil war.  You either loved Cam and the Panthers or your a 50+ year old white guy.  No, in all seriousness, the country seemed to be relatively split on the game with the analysts in favor of the Panthers.  Cam won the MVP, basically locking up the Bronco’s victory.  (The last MVP to win was Kurt Warner in ’99)  Also the AFC was the designated home team this year and got to pick jerseys.  Many were surprised that they went with white jerseys.  Not me.  Including this year, white jerseys have won 11 of the last 12 Super Bowls.

I personally thought the Panthers would take the dub (wrong).  They had Steph Curry pound some drum before the game #KeepPounding.  They’re coming off their best win of the season.  The team which wins the turnover battle in the Super Bowl is 36-4.  I had gut feeling they would beat Peyton in turnovers this year (wrong).  That record is now 37-4 as yesterday it was 4-2 Panthers turnovers.  My biggest reason for choosing the Panthers was Peyton’s lack of success in the Big Game.  He was 1-2 in Super Bowls and 0-2 in games where he wasn’t play Rex Grossman.  Turns out I was wrong on just about everything, shocking.

The Big Game:  Peyton dominated.  He completed a whopping 13 of 23 passes, 5 of them for first downs.  On top of that, he was 1-14 on 3rd downs, a net 104 yards, a QBR of 9.9, 0 touchdowns and a pick.  Truly a brilliant performance by the sheriff.  Super Cam was no more impressive.  He sent hundreds of hopeful kids home crying after failing to find the end zone.  A qbr of 16.9, Cam couldn’t seem to get anything going.

If you like defense, then you were probably thrilled during this game.  Also, if you like defense you probably like watching paint dry and grass grow.  The Broncos Dline has to be historic (and when I say has to be, I mean I didn’t do a lick of research on it).  It seemed like they didn’t miss a tackle.  The Broncos defense had 7 sacks, a pick, and 3 fumble recoveries.  That was all it took to win.  That was all it took to win the Super Bowl… the Super Bowl… impressive stuff.

I really appreciated the Bronco’s strategy against Cam.  Way back when, Cam said something like “if you hate when I dance then stop me from scoring.”  Challenge complete.  The Broncos said for the two weeks leading up to the game they focused on two types of Cam.  #1 Dancing, dabbing, fake picture posing, giving away balls and what not.  The works.  and #2 Sulking, pouting, yelling at ref, yelling at teammates, laptop stealing… ok ok enough.  But they got what they wanted.  They hit him, they forced a couple turnovers, a couple dropped passes, he was wining like a lost puppy.  Well done, Broncos.

Cam’s fumble thing — I don’t know.  Depends how you look at it.  Live TV it looked like he was scared to dive for the ball.  Most of the public is latching onto that angle.   If you look at it again he might of thought the ball was going to be hit and froze up a little before loosing the ball,  I kind of buy into this angle…  And then there’s the people who say, “Hey screw that, he’s already risking his future by playing the game, why risk his body going for the ball.”  Well, you sir, should not be watching out Super Bowl…  All ten of you that think that way.

After the Game:  So McManus got shelled for the MVP right?  The guy had 10 of the 24 points, 3-3 fgs 1-1 PATs, perfection.  No, no I guess Von Miller deserved it.  After pretty much contributing 14 defensive points to the team, bunch of sacks and strips and hurries I mean the guy did everything.  So after being the best performer on the field, the voice of the D, Second overall pick in the same draft as Cam… The Oscar goes to: PEYTON MANNING! (get it?) Von gets the MVP and that’s it.  Peyton get the first interview after the game, $4 mil in bonuses for winning, sponsored by Budweiser (regardless of them saying otherwise), he get’s a big post game speech, they even gave him the Disney World line.  Then after stealing all the glory from his MVP defender, Peyton really had the balls to make Von pick up his bar tab?  Unbelievable.

Misc.:  National Anthem – Gaga pulled some B.S. sang the last line twice and screwed everyone who bet on her length up.  Now some bookies are saying she went OVER and some are saying UNDER.

Big Things: Although 2-2 in the Super Bowl, Peyton is 4-0 in finishing Super Bowls with a bigger forehead than opposing quarterbacks.   Anyone see “Big Mike” out there?  Cracks me up everytime. Hope Tim McGraw let’s him stay at the house this week.

San Fran: If you forgot what the Golden Gate bridge and/or Alcatraz looked like, CBS made sure to remind you.  I’m glad they let SF host the Super Bowl though, a good distraction to the imminent fact that Chip Kelly is going to dismantle their team and leave.

More Cam Newton: Cam made some comment before about people not being used to a black man doing what he’s doing in the sport.  (Which probably made Russel Wilson scratch his head.)  I’m glad Von Miller did win MVP to escape and unneeded racial drama.  The post game presser was totally blown out of proportion.    Johnny Football is allegedly sneaks away to Vegas on bye weeks but he “just needs help.”  Cam dabs, “thug.”  I get the “if he celebrates like that than he needs to learn how to lose the right way too” but he had the worst game of his season in the Super Bowl and I see why he was upset.

Commercials: T-mobile strikes back.  Doritos another successful year.  Then of course the ones that gave us the feels: Colgate’s water ad, Budweiser’s drinking and driving, the diarrhea one, foot fungus, the usual.  All in all pretty weak year.

And finally, family – If you did not see the Eli Manning reaction to the game clinching touchdown, please please go find it.  He is one cold hearted SOB.  Also, during the immediate Peyton interview he was interrupted by none other than his Papa, John.

Here’s to only 7 months until football is back.