Well, the Superbowl was a dud. In short, The Seahawks were robbed, both by the refs and by their own mistakes. An appalling call in the first quarter when a TD was disallowed was compounded by a second quarter howler when Pittsburg had a TD allowed (twice). Either incident going the other way might have seen a different result, but the way they turned out meant that by half time you just knew Seattle were gone. It didn't help that Jerramy Stevens had one of the worst games in a big game in living memory, thrice dropping sitters that might have sparked the Seahawks. His TD catch later in the game didn't come close to making up for his mistakes.
Nor were Pittsburg much better. The Steelers will count themselves very lucky they weren't playing a side on song. Rarely can a Superbowl champion have played a more disorganised game. Rarely can a winning QB have played as poorly as Ben Roethlisberger.
Garnish-wise: Paul McCartney's halftime show last year was way better than The Rolling Stones' effort this year. I hate Start Me Up, never much liked Satisfaction, and had no idea what the middle song was. The sound was crud, too. At least Mick was honest when he revealed he wasn't interested in American Football.
No, the game and the halftime entertainment were busts, but happily, the SBS coverage wasn't. In the past we have had all sorts of bizarre arrangements. Studio audience, anyone? No, I thought not. This time around SBS got the balance right between the American feed and the SBS studio overlay. Instead of weird links and studio hijinks when the US ads were on, the camera stayed fixed in Ford Stadium with the SBS "experts" talking over the vision.
That American feed comprised the usual excellent pictures and commentary team of Dick Stockton and Darryl "Moose" Johnston. While they are not quite as good as Joe Buck and Troy Aikmann, they did a bang up job. In past years, for the benefit of "ignorant" foreign viewers, they maintained a frustrating barrage of explanations about the game, tactics, positions, etc. There's no need for that, it is intrusive and patronising. This year they kept that shit to a barely noticable minimum.
Ed Wyatt headed up the Strayan overlay. It helps he's Merican and thus doesn't sound like an Aussie trying to sound like a Yank. He knows his onions, too. He did peek a lot for cues, but that's a minor complaint. He was fluent, knowledgeable, and comfortably threw to the "experts". Precisely what a good host is supposed to do.
(By the way. Wyatt did a bit of work on SEN, hosting an excellent NFL show on Thursday night.)
Expert No.1 Damian Lovelock (one of those idiosyncratic SBS fixtures) has, in the past, tried too hard to be cool. This time he concentrated on talking about the game and pretty much had it right the whole way through.
Expert No.2 Colin "I'm pumped!" Scotts, an Aussie who played in the NFL, was a worry. For a start, it would help if he knew where the camera was, and where the other two panellists were. His analysis was general, at best. And he kept saying "I played ten years in the front lines, I know how tough these boys are!" and "That's the beautiful thing about this game - you never know what's going to happen." Rubbish! That's the beautiful thing about virtually EVERY game.
Minky Buchan was the face on the spot in Detroit. Her pre-game interview with Wyatt was all token. (Did it seem pre-recorded to you? It did to me.) A lot of head tossing, cutesy voice, and rock-all else. Football should be accompanied by beer and hotdogs, not cheesecake.
Assuming they keep the rights, SBS should stick with the format. They got the structure right, now all they need to do is tidy up the decorations.
(Are SBS involved because of our siphoning rules?)
If you don't like SBS, you can always turn over to ESPN. Me? I have a problem with ESPN. I have a problem with ANY cable network that replays their NFL matches in full, including the advertisements. I boycott them whenever I can.
I am not a hufe NFL fan, but I always try to catch the Super Bowl, but missed it this year.
Something I would have probably prefered to have watched though was the Lingerie Bowl.
The uniform wobbles, and the mind boggles.
Posted by: gav | 07 February 2006 at 13:56
Seattle reminded me of the '99 Falcons, and will presumably follow their lead and do f. all for the next decade. Mick's performance in trying to be diplomatic about not caring about the sport was class.
Posted by: Adam 1.0 | 07 February 2006 at 14:14
Or maybe Seattle will do a Buffalo and lose the next ten. Really, they should have pissed it in.
The Lingerie Bowl hey? Do they utilise Knickel Defense? Ba-Doom! Ba-Dish!
Posted by: Tony.T | 07 February 2006 at 15:00
Why you not at work, slacker boy?
Posted by: DJ | 07 February 2006 at 16:34
The magic of video.
Posted by: Tony.T | 07 February 2006 at 16:47
So I take it Colin Scotts will be replacing Bill Lawry in the near future? It was great to see Mark Taylor and Mark Dicholas taking the piss out of Lawry at the ABM last night.
Posted by: Clem Snide | 07 February 2006 at 20:37
Seattle should have been up 24-0 at half time but they just kept finding ways to throw points away. The only call that was completely bogus was the illegal block after the pick, that was just a tackle.
Pittsburgh were adequate with 2 game breaking plays to score. And I reckon Roethlisberger's push at the line was a score. Only needs a stich to break the plane.
Posted by: Some Other Bruce | 07 February 2006 at 20:48
Gridiron: Overly organised violence interrupted by frequent committee meetings. Good half-time entertainment though. Say! that gives me an idea...
Posted by: Nabakov | 07 February 2006 at 22:51
Taped it but haven't watched it yet. It's a shame they don't show the ads on SBS - the only thing that burned money quicker than a Superbowl ad was the Challenger.
Apropos of absolutely nothing, Leo fucking Sayer is predicted to be Number 1 in the UK in the next week or so. If you're reading this, James Blunt, I hope you're fucking satisfied.
Posted by: carneagles | 07 February 2006 at 23:37
The Patriots were robbed in Denver.
The Superbowl isn't the same without a last second Adam Vinatieri field goal.......
Posted by: James Dudek | 08 February 2006 at 00:24
Oh I don't know carneagles, Leo Sayer wasn't actively an agent of Satan. Now James Blunt though...I could happily watch him fumbling the pigskin to his chest as the Steelers frontline fall on him like a tree.
And Damian Lovelock calling gridiron on SBS? Who says Australia is not a genuinely multicultural place?
Posted by: Nabakov | 08 February 2006 at 00:32
Excellent write up Tony. Hope I didn't ruin the game for you yesterday as I assumed you would have seen it live.
I used to think the same about Lovelock but enjoyed his commentary yesterday.
I don't know how well this is known but SBS free to air is approx 10 seconds in front of cable SBS (I assume the same for other commercial stations on cable). Could be an opportunity here for The Sting II. Must check that my wardrobe is up to date with my latest disguises and find myself a commercial backer.
Posted by: pat | 08 February 2006 at 00:51
The British coverage was bizarre - they had Gary Imlach, who actually knows what he's talking about, at the game with former Steeler Merril Hoge, which was really interesting, but kept cutting back to the studio to Gabby Logan, who only knows about football, and Martin Johnson, former rugby player.
Incredibly, however, Johnson's analysis was better than last year's losing Eagle, Dhani Jones, who seemed to imagine that no-one in Britain knew how the game worked. Baffling.
That Seahawks TD that was called back was a foul, by the way - you may not like the rule, but that will always be applied. If the arm is out and contact is made, it's coming back.
Posted by: Steve | 08 February 2006 at 03:04
Look. I sympathise with all of you who want to debate whether the umpiring was indeed totally dire, and the calls wrong or right. But I've just watched ESPN's SportsCenter LIVE and those real gone, down home, apple pie filled pundits all agreed the calls were bogus, maaan. And you know what? I believe them. You see, they were telecasting from a beach! A beach, dammit!
Posted by: Tony.T | 08 February 2006 at 11:14