2008 Woodie Awards
Super Bowl XXXIX hype builds as each day passes
Filippo Goodman
Issue date: 2/4/05 Section: Sports
- Page 1 of 3 next >
|
Unlike other sports, the Super Bowl has evolved from a sporting event to a mass-media orgy where the NFL parades its marketing excesses under the guise of athletic completion. The game itself has gone from mere afterthought to an unwelcome intrusion on the multi-million dollar commercials with elaborate storylines for stationary stores and fly-by-night Internet startups.
Further evidence that the actual game has moved from steak to parsley was provided last year when the down-to-the-wire Patriots vs. Panthers game was thoroughly eclipsed by a halftime performance that contained a wardrobe gone awry; an incident that galvanized the "red states" and gave conservatives the excuse to man the censor buttons and reshape the "moral values" of the country.
The ratio of two weeks of hype compared to actual news worthy items usually results in in-depth pieces on the eating habits of the starting nose tackle's pet turtle. This year will be another difficult one for the hype machine given that one half of the participants are once again the New England Belichick's. . .ahem, Patriots.
Never has a team been so dependent on the strategies of the head coach, and never has a team reflected its devoid-of-a-personality coach --- a man who makes a calculus lecture seem like Marti Gras.
The Patriots are an unassuming-batch of roll players molded together by a mad scientist whose whole world is dominated by the color gray. Bill Belichick has never been shy about greeting the camera with a dour demeanor, often punctuating press conferences with monosyllabic answers while sporting a wardrobe that would make a Salvation Army employee gasp.
Thankfully football isn't "American Idol," and what the Patriots lack in charisma and star power, they more than compensate for with defensive schemes that have turned quarterbacks the likes of Payton Manning into Tim Rattay clones.
Fittingly, the Patriots starting QB, Tom Brady, is a guy who doesn't overwhelm with stats or raw talent, just a maddening ability to always make the right play and decision.