By Judi Curry
Several years ago, as a new widow, I wrote an article about how lonesome it was to watch the Super Bowl without a companion to discuss it with. I have made it a point from that time on to always be with friends when the biggest game of the season plays. Today was no exception.
As the oldest of my group today, I was interested in the other comments about the commercials and the Half-Time shows. There was quite an age gap between us, and I was curious about their responses. As a group, there was total agreement that the game lacked excitement.
Since I was the only one that wanted the Seahawks to win, I found that I had to temper my enthusiasm when the Seahawks scored the safety; when the return man from Seattle ran the ball the length of the football field; when Denver fumbled and the Seahawks recovered – how many times was that? – you get the picture.
We all agreed, for the most part, about the commercials too. Several times we would say to each other “I wonder what that was about”; or “ . . . why would they spend millions of dollars to advertise concrete?” or “is that the best they could do?” We all enjoyed the ketchup commercial, but by the time it was on we had consumed several glasses of wine. And we are all dog lovers so any commercial with a dog in it was liked.
Budweiser’s “Puppy Love” was probably the best of what we saw, but we had seen “previews” of it several times over the past few days. Curtis remarked on how many patriotic-themed commercials there were; none of us is going to go out and purchase a Honda in the near future, and we really didn’t care how many VW’s were still on the road with over 100,000 miles on them (Or was it 200,000 miles?) Sure, there a few funny ones, but nothing that stood out in my mind as great, and I do not see purchasing any of the things advertised over the last 3 hours.
And how about the half-time show. Basically, none of us watching the Bruno Mars show enjoyed it. I find this very interesting, because one of my daughters posted on her Facebook account that “No doubt about it – Bruno Mars halftime show is the best part of today’s game!”
Well, that may be true, in that the game sucked, but, then again, so did the Bruno Mars show. His drum solo was so-so; was there a purpose for it? I know he wasn’t paid for his half-time performance – and maybe he thought he would gain many drum affectionadoes but it seemed out of place here.
His rendition of “Just the Way You Are” was nice, but his other pieces lacked something. Not sure what – but it left us wondering why we just spent the time watching his performance. My niece, on the other hand, posted on her “Facebook account “ . . . Thank you Red Hot Chile Peppers for livening up the half-time show!” She was right. They showed enthusiasm, musical talent, and enjoyment in their performance.
After taking a consensus of the people watching the Super Bowl today we all pretty much agreed it was a waste of time. The best part was the food; the drink; and the camaraderie. Oh yeah, and the groans and moans every time the Seahawks took the ball from the Bronco’s delighted me, but no one else. We may have different plans for next years Super Bowl – unless the Chargers are playing.
Judi Curry
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After reading a comment online that, “If the other states legalize weed, maybe their teams can make it to the Super Bowl too,” I got a good laugh that the two states with legal weed went to the game.
My own joke: What did the Denver player say before the game? “That was a super bowl!”
Cute, Z.
As far as Bruno Mars, I suppose it’s really a matter of opinion. I’m not a fan of his by any stretch but I do have some respect for him. I’ve seen him interviewed a couple times and I gotta say the man is talented. Not only that but he is the only “pop” star I know of who is a fan of and influenced by music I DO like. I agree the drum solo is so so but I’m guessing the purpose of it was to show that unlike other pop singers, he can actually play an instrument (in fact several). It’s funny because I was the only one amongst friends and family that WASN’T blown away by him, and these are people who by and large are fans of punk rock/garage rock/metal/anything loud that needs to be turned up to 11 and can’t stand pop music.
Interesting how different people like different things. I thought Bruno did a great job and I hated the Red Hot Chili Peppers. When they were doing their thing it looked and sounded like total chaos. Maybe that’s what they were supposed to be like? Anyway, for the record, I liked the halftime show for the most part.
You’re obviously not a RHCP fan, otherwise you’d know that their act is pretty much organized chaos. Their music, though, remains phenomenal.
You know what concerns me, Andy? I remember them as young, shorter hair, thinner – but I still like their music. (And you know me – bare-chested is always a turn-on!) Bruno? Well, my grandson, when he was an aspiring vocalist, sang his songs and sounded a lot better than Bruno did at the Super Bowl.
What would have been if the RHCP did their old 80’s sock shtick. OMG would people have come unglued.
What would have been funny I meant to say.
Does the half-time performer really NOT get paid? By the 9 BILLION-dollar NFL??
And, btw, why do the “Bronco’s” rate an asterik while “Seahawks” doesn’t?
Hi, Michael. This is what I found out about the half-time performers not getting paid:
“The NFL doesn’t pay halftime show performers, although it does pick up the tab for expenses (stage, travel, accommodations, etc.) Why not? Exposure, baby. Bruno will be onstage for about 12 minutes. Considering that advertisers are paying $4 million for a 30-second spot, well … you can do the math, right? The NFL figures that $96 million in publicity isn’t a bad substitute for payment.”
I do not know about the * – Andy, can you help?
Oops, sorry Judy — I meant apostrophe :-)
OK, I understand about exposure. But the NFL gets away with financial murder, eh.
Here’s the thing about the apostrophe. It’s simple, the person who put the mark in the Broncos’s name is semi-literate. You can see this and so many other mistakes regularly these days in every sphere of text.
So, Mr. Teacher – is it better to be “semi-literate” or totally”illiterate?”
haha, an illiterate doesn’t know what an apostrophe is, never mind use it incorrectly
I can’t believe that Bruno Mars didn’t get paid. Really? In a show where the commercials went for $4 million a minute? What was he thinking? The Super Bowl is all about money. Thousands per ticket. If I were he, I’d be ashamed to perform for nothing while the NFL is collecting all that moolah running into the billions.
And then after fans spent tens of thousands on hotel bills and transportation, if not “party packs”, they had their flights canceled on them the next day as a snow storm hit New York. I’m glad I stayed home and watched it on TV. It was the only football game I sat and watched in the last 5 years, and contrary to your sentiments, Judy, I thought it was pretty exciting. I always like to see the underdog humiliate the hell out of the great poobah of professional football, Peyton Manning. I liked the fact that Denver threw the ball away on the very first play and that Seattle returned the kickoff for a touch down on the very first play of the second half. Oh, how the mighty are brought low!
But I probably wouldn’t have watched it if it hadn’t been that my partner, Judy, got all excited to watch it. She never watches football either, but after watching CBS Sunday morning all about the Buffalo wings and pizza, we had to go out and buy our very own Buffalo wings and pizza to eat during the game. We also had some veggies and cheesecake for dessert. All in all a fun day for people that aren’t diehard football fans.
John, here is the answer I found re: the payment – or “non-payment” –
“The NFL doesn’t pay halftime show performers, although it does pick up the tab for expenses (stage, travel, accommodations, etc.) Why not? Exposure, baby. Bruno will be onstage for about 12 minutes. Considering that advertisers are paying $4 million for a 30-second spot, well … you can do the math, right? The NFL figures that $96 million in publicity isn’t a bad substitute for payment.
And I agree, John. I loved the game. I was for the Seahawks. And the food that Mary and Eddy prepared was excellent!
Why is the NFL a non-profit? Anyone?
The NFL does not make a profit. All revenues collected by the league are done so on behalf of the 32 member teams, and distributed evenly. The NFL itself keeps only what it needs for operating expenses. That is the definition of non-profit, or not-for-profit, as this is probably a better description of what the NFL, MLB, NHL, etc. are.
The individual NFL teams, OTOH, are most certainly NOT non-profit entities. And here is the difference. They are taxed on their revenue. They share equally with the other 31 league teams in all league revenues, and keep whatever local revenues they earn for themselves (save a percentage of ticket revenue, which they have to share with the visiting team).
Thanks for the explanation Andy.
Another clarification: There is a distinction between SHARED revenue (that earned by The League as a whole and distributed equally amongst the 32 teams, such as TV money) and LOCAL revenue.
Local revenue is whatever the team earns from its own local market contracts; it’s own work product, if you will. Sponsorships, ticket sales, skybox suites and premium (club) seating, parking, concessions, etc. The teams keep all of that, with the exception of a portion of “general seating” ticket revenue (essentially any tickets that aren’t skybox or club seats). I believe each team is required to share 30 percent of general seating revenue with the visiting club.
Shared revenue is anything that is brought in through league wide contracts (TV, merchandise) and split equally.
Therefore, taxing NFL revenues would amount to double taxation–it would get taxed TWICE, once as league revenues and again as team revenues. No matter what you think about our country’s current tax code, that’s simply not fair.
Andy:
Thank you very much for this information about the NFL. I, and many others I’ll bet, are ill-informed about this issue.