File this away...

So I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl last night. I figured it's a part of Americana that must be experienced, even at the risk of leaving me sleep deprived to the point of passing out at work. Start time: 11:30 GMT. Finish time: 3:40 (or so) GMT. Yeah, that's right. Four hours of sleep.

I was sort of hoping that the game would be a blowout so that I didn't feel compelled to stay up and watch. But, at the same time, the US media has been falling all over themselves about how great the Patriots are and what a genius their head coach is, so I was pretty pleased when Philly didn't just lay down and let the "brilliance" of the Patriots run up the score. New England fans have now become the new Yankees fans. Totally annoying. These people are best evidenced by ESPN's Sports Guy who used to be highly entertaining, but is now just a rag for Boston sports nation. The arrogance of Boston fans now knows no bounds. I just can't wait for the inevitable string of "dynasty" stories...

At any rate, watching the game from here (which I'm sure is more interesting than my take on Boston sports fans) was totally bizarre. I don't think we had the same video feed at all. The pre-game show was run by a typical British blond, a footballer (world), a lineman who plays for Carolina, and the former kicker from the London NFL Europe team. Not exactly a stellar lineup. It's pretty damn amusing, I must say, listening to a Brit say that for the Eagles to win they have to "move around a bit more".

ITV, the network showing the game, also totally screwed up the entire pregame because they obviously weren't showing it live. So, they kept switching around from various musical performances until finally, they just cut off something in the middle and went to that god-awful rendition of America the Beautiful by Alicia Keys (which I turned off). Their coverage during the game was better except that they kept reverting to bizarre angles that barely showed the action.

I still don't understand why Will Smith introduced the Eagles. Just because you're famous and your hometown team is in the Super Bowl doesn't mean you should be on the field or taking any part in the event other than rooting from your luxury box. I found him to be annoying.

All in all, I'd have to say that the entertainment surrounding the Super Bowl was curse inspiring - as in, totally uninteresting and did little but ensure that I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because it delayed the game by at least an hour. I really didn't like the half-time show (is there ever a good half-time show?), the pre-game was terrible, and I really think that the threat of FCC oversight chilled whatever edgy material that Fox would have produced. Bottom line, Super Bowl without some sort of scandal is just not that interesting (unless the Redskins are playing).

The Brits, however, had the right idea. They routinely made fun of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" and the camera's spent tons of time on the cheerleaders. I think they might have just had a dedicated cheerleader cam because they flashed to the cheerleaders at more regular intervals than you would ever see in the US (like every 5-10 minutes) in a clear attempt to market the sport to the European audience. It would have been decent of them to put a box in the upper left corner with just cheerleaders on all the time...