The TV ratings are in for Sunday's Super Bowl.  Interestingly, for a game the vast majority of people on this site said they had no interest in watching because Indy and/or New England was not in it, it scored the biggest ratings in 10 years -- nearly 91 million viewers, that's 5% more than last year's audience.  In fact, it's the second-most watched program of any kind in the last 10 years behind Super Bowl XXX, where the Cowboys beat the Steelers in front of a television audience of 94.1 million.  Seems the Steelers may in fact have a case for being America's team.

Let's take it from the top:

Condi Rice on ESPN pre-game show -- I would just love to see her dress down a bit.  Who wears a suit to a football game?  I saw her at a U2 show this fall, same thing.  Loosen up.  You've got style, use it. 

Opening montage -- Ummm, why is Harrison Ford reciting Dr. Seuess?  And furthermore, why does he look like a pirate?  And WHY, when they started the really cool Road to Forty ads with Don Cheadle this season, did they not finish with an opening montage based on that?

National anthem -- Why is Aaron Neville there?  Just let Aretha in her chinchilla coat belt the hell out of the song.  Neville's talent was completely wasted.

MVP introductions -- Tom Brady, what were you thinking with that jacket?!?!?!  Velvet is for little girls under the age of 10 and drunken secretaries at the office Christmas party. 

Coin toss -- Note the absence of Bettis.  No way Cowher was going to let him mess that up again.

Burger King commerical -- What the ..?

80,000 beer commercials -- Why do they all suck?

Half-time show -- Men should never wear sequins.  Especially 65-year-old men.  Same goes for spandex pants.  Did anyone find this entertaining?  Even Charlie Watts looks embarassed to be there.

MI-3 movie trailer -- Suprisingly, I find myself wanting to see this.  I hate Tom Cruise but I'll watch Phillip Seymour Hoffman in anything.

The game itself -- I was actually finding it hard to concentrate on the game.  Too busy making sure my husband wasn't puking or alternately passing out from the stress of watching the Steelers largely play like #### but maintain a lead.

I have to admit that the NGS judges’ first assignment this week rubbed me the wrong way.  And I was surprised after reading the finalists’ submissions that no one else seemed to feel the same.  See, the notion of one team “deserving” to win a game in any sport, let alone the Super Bowl, strikes me as ridiculous.

The beauty of sports is that winner is decided on the field.  Two teams or competitors duke it out for an allotted period of time, and, in the end, one emerges victorious.  Each team is provided the same opportunity to prove itself – the same rules apply, hence the term, “level playing field.”

Sure some things might not be completely even – a key player may be injured, calls may get blown, etc. – but that’s the way life is.  We all have different levels of skill and ability and obstacles that we must overcome to succeed, and so do athletic teams. 

The team that “deserves” to win is the one that puts it together on the field in the course of competition.  Each game is a clean slate.  It doesn’t matter what you did last week, or the week before, or 10 games ago.  It doesn’t matter whose home town the game is played in or whose fans are rowdier.  What matters is how, at that precise moment, each team plays.  Worthiness is decided on the field. 

To paraphrase Kirsten Dunst in what is possibly my favorite guilty pleasure movie, you've got to bring it.  The person or team that does "deserves" to win, plain and simple.

 

I have to admit I got a kick out of seeing several of the Steelers arrive in Detroit wearing Jerome Bettis'  No. 6 Notre Dame jersey.  Of course, I saw Hines Ward in one and thought, "Oh, if only..." but then realized, knowing how ND managed talent at the time, we probably would have tried to turn him into an option quarterback.  Oh well.

But the best line goes to my husband, who upon seeing his team in the green jerseys on ESPN, yelled, "Those damn green jerseys better not jinx us!"

Forget the fact that the “big name” teams are no longer left in the NFL playoffs.  This year’s playoffs are producing the kind of heart-stopping “will they or won’t they?” moments usually reserved for March Madness.  I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens on Sunday.  My money is on the Steelers and Seattle.  The Steelers have the “Win one for the Bus” thing going for them, and Polamalu should feast on Plummer’s mistakes if the blitz works like it did in Indy.  In the other game, the loss of Foster may be too much for Carolina to overcome, despite the un-human play of Steve Smith …

Paris Hilton never ceases to amaze.  From her deposition this week:  “I meet so many people. I don't even know some of my friends' names.”  She also apparently doesn’t know that London is in the U.K. and thinks all of Europe speaks French …

The NFL is also full of surprises.  By all accounts Joey Porter was headed for the mother of all fines for saying he thought the referees in last week’s game were trying to hand the win over to the Colts.  Instead, they chose to do nothing and made no comment.  How very unlike them …

Is it just me, or does Bode Miller seem like a good time? …

I’m so glad my tennis career never panned out.  Jelena Dokic, who lost her opening match this week at the Australian Open, was the target of kidnapping threats by her estranged father.  He also threatened to detonate a nuclear bomb in Sydney.  It used to be tennis dads were just overbearing …

Only eight months until college football season starts.  Notre Dame has signed some of the best talent in the nation on the offensive line; one kid is 360 lbs.  Three hundred and sixty pounds, people!!!  But what I love most is that they’ve signed a TE named Paddy Mullen.  I’ll drink a Guinness to that …

I said it months ago, and now, thanks to the shot seen around the world, everyone can finally see it, Alex Ovechkin is the next big thing in the NHL.  The scary thing is the kid’s only getting better every game …

If Peyton Manning was “trying to be a good teammate” when calling out his linemen, I would never want to play with him, or live with him for that matter.  Can you imagine?  “Well I’m not trying to name names, but someone didn’t replace the toilet paper”…

And in all sincerity, congratulations to Pat Summitt on her 900^th career win.  She’s 900-172 over 32 seasons at Tennessee.  Think about that for a minute.  If she were a man, the hype around this would be unbelievable.

The NFL Network's "Sounds of the Game" puts viewers on the sidelines where they can hear players and coaches react as plays are happening on the field.  It also features audio and video from inside teams' locker rooms both before and after the game.  Last night's edition spanned all four of the weekend's playoff games. 

The segment on the Colts-Steelers game was up first.  It featured player and announcer reactions to the interception that wasn't, Jerome Bettis' fumble on the two-yard line, and Mike Vanderjagt's missed field goal as time expired.  It also followed the Steelers into the locker room after their win and showed Bettis trying to rally the troops for next week's game in Denver against the Broncos.  The Bus' speech was full of typical underdog talk and ended with him trying to lead the team in a chant of "Let's ride."  Joey Porter obviously caught the fever and felt the need to chime in, screaming at the top of his lungs, "They shot me in Denver!"  Amazingly, no one missed a beat and kept on chanting as the segment cut away.

Now if that's not motivation, I don't know what is.

 

The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals clash on Sunday in an AFC Wildcard game.  While the straight storyline is interesting – division foes with identical records, split the regular season series, each team winning on the other’s turf – the subplots are even more fascinating.

First, the main story.  In their first meeting this season, the Steelers overwhelmed the Bengals 27-13, making them look more like the Bungles of old than an ascendant playoff-bound team.  Pittsburgh’s defense played inspired ball, limiting Cincinnati’s much-vaunted offense to one touchdown, which came with under a minute remaining in the game.  In late October, it looked like the Steelers were on autopilot and the division crown would again be theirs while Cincy had an outside shot at the Wildcard.  Flash forward to Pittsburgh in December.  The Bengals arrived having recovered their offensive form.  Meanwhile the Steelers were reeling from injuries, most notably to quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  The game was a slugfest and Cincy struck the final blow, winning 38-31 at Heinz Field, silencing the Steeler faithful far and wide.  How do I know?  Let me put it this way, my father-in-law wouldn’t talk about the game all week.  He was afraid he’d be ill if he brought it up.

Now its time for round three and the action moves back to Cincinnati where the Bengals are making their first playoff appearance in a decade and a half.  Make no mistake about it; these are not the Bengals of old.  Head Coach Marvin Lewis has crafted a solid offense built upon the talents of Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmandzadeh.  The defense, while lacking a superstar of Ray Lewis caliber like he had in his Baltimore days, has played consistently.  But while a much improved team, with an offense that could prove Indy-scary some day, the Bengals come into the playoffs having lost two in a row.  The Steelers on the other hand, have won their last four since the lost to Cincy, beating a tough Bears team along the way.  But the Steelers are a little ####ed up.  Roethlisberger is still not 100%, and James Harrison and Deshea Townsend are playing with nagging leg injuries.

So how will things shake down on Sunday?  Although the Steelers aren’t at full strength, they are about as healthy as they have been all year, and when they were healthy they proved themselves the superior team.  At Cincy no less.  I think the Bengals, who have had a great season and will be a force next year, are a year away at this point.  The pressure of the playoffs and a resurgent Steeler defense will prove too much to overcome, and the Steelers will leave with a date with the Colts next week.

Now for the sub-plots, the things that make this game really interesting, for me at least.  First, the shift in the balance of power in the AFC North.  With the exception of one season when the Ravens rode one of the greatest defenses to ever take the field to the Superbowl, the Steelers have owned their division.  Cincy has been slowly creeping toward the door and started knocking hard on it this year.  A win on Sunday for them would indicate that the balance has been tipped.  Not to say that a loss would mean the Steelers are done for – they have a talented ball club with a solid young quarterback and as long a #### Lebeau is around, they’ll have a defense second to none – but a Cincy win would mean that the Steelers won’t have such an easy road to the playoffs in the future.  The division is finally becoming competitive.  And if the Ravens ever find an offense to match their defense, it could prove even more challenging in years to come.

The other sub-plot of interest to me, and probably everyone in Pittsburgh, is the fact that this could be Jerome Bettis’ last game.  I’ll come right out and say it, I love the Bus.  I love watching the jolly fat man lumber down the field dragging tacklers with him.  I love watching him come back to the sideline and high-five Hines Ward for a killer block.  Mostly, I love the way the man has conducted himself with class and given back to a city that has shown him so much love over his career.  To me, the Bus is the Steelers, and I hate to think of watching a game without him in it next year.  It kills me even more to think that no matter what happens in the playoffs, he will play his last game on the road, away from the fans who love him so much in the ‘Burgh.  Of course, it may be of some consolation to Pittsburgh fans if that last game is in Detroit and he gets to bring home some hardware.