Superbowl 2009

It has become a hidden tradition for me to watch Superbowl every year, despite disappointment in the game and coverage quality in the years before. It started as before: pre-game show, pre-pre-game show, coin toss show and kick-off show ... It is clear that the show is planned by and for advertisers and not for the viewers. That is a shame and a disgrace - the viewer must be the master of the TV programming and NOT the advertisers. In soccer the program starts, you see the captains exchange a handshake, you see the referee throw a coin and 10-15 seconds later the game is going full steam. Why do you need 3 ad breaks and 2 songs before the game is beyond me - get to the game!

The camera work and NBC commentary is MUCH better than last year - stable shots with good close-ups and explanations that actually make sense even to people that are not American football experts. Oh and they actually use units - saying "they won x out of y games this season" and not "they are x in y this season", mostly at least.

The game had more fun than usual in the beginning, but the legal things slow it up again - it is weird that a guy got over the line but was called beck because of the knee touching and then a penalty for a 'false start'? Too much rules and regulations. Soon you'll have a team of lawyers on the sidelines and lawyer drafts will be more important than player drafts. And then again 'holding' and 'chopping' - isn't that what the blockers are supposed to do? Is that some kind of sissy sport?

Maybe not. 100 yard interception return run ... I am speechless. Now that was a great, great play. That episode alone made watchig this thing worth it. Not the best sport thing I've seen, but the best American football moment for sure.

I like the basis of the game, it is a good game, but there is way too much fluff on it. That game needs to be cut down - less rules, less breaks, less interruption, less advertisements, less time to think and relax for the players. 10 seconds of play and 5 minutes of players chatting is not a sport, even curling has more action. The whole Superbowl should be over in 1 hour real time. If the TV transmission starts at 17:00, it should be done before 18:00. There is no content there to justify anything longer than that.

Why is there a limited number of challenges? Do the referees make only a limited number of mistakes per game? No. Illogical.

And when I though it was done and sealed, Arizona does a great drive and get a great touchdown. One more drive like that and the game could go either way. Now that is a good game. But again penalties spoil the whole game ... Fitsgerald gets a touchdown, another great play to turn the game around, but only because of the holding penalty giving Arizona 'safety' score. Not deserving in my opinion. And the Steelers drive back ... AMAZING game! Now this is actually close to the best sports game that I have ever seen. I sure was not expecting that. And Arizona tries to drive back again. I was sleepy when I started to watch this, no sleep now. That was a great game. Despite all the commercialization, it is still a great game and it is very watchable if you download it from the Internet or watch it with TiVo and can skip the adds and the slow parts.