BY MICHAEL GOODPASTER
The Superbowl this year was bonkers. The game, the hoopla, and all of the backstory made this one of the more entertaining and more talked about Superbowls ever. Then we get the whole “Brother vs. Brother” coaching story, half time performer Beyonce was fresh off her lip syncing controversy at the Inauguration, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Going into the game, we had tons of random madness. Ray Lewis had spent the entire playoffs reminding us about his religious views and that it would be his last run. Meanwhile, everyone was getting either inspired by him or getting tired of his holier than thou bullshit. Then it comes out that he may or may not have been involved with taking some performance enhancing drugs. As all of this is going down, Artie Lange of “The Artie Lange Show” interviewed a 49er player and dropped in his normal shticky shock jock radio show questions. I’m a fan of the show so I dig that kind of stuff, but a pro player should be used to getting “shocking” and “vulgar” questions. It’s nothing new. The dude fell right into the trap of it all off of one question that wasn’t “vulgar” or “shocking” at all. The dude went off about gays in football and his huge disapproval of it. It wasn’t that he was against the idea from a moral stand point, he went off in a dumb and ignorant way. He showed himself to be a bigot and it raised a lot of questions.
Then the game itself. The referees only put out TWO penalties against the Ravens. The Ravens kicked ass at start and then the POWER GOES OUT! During the biggest sporting event of the year, the POWER GOES OUT? That’s crazy. After a 34 minute delay, the 49ers make a huge comeback and make a game out of it. There was tons of weird things going on. The power outage, the lack of penalties for ONE team, the fact that a Raven player SHOVED A REF and didn’t get ejected or in trouble for it, the fact that during a key play that the Ravens were CLEARLY offside, the fact that during a key play that the Ravens were CLEARLY holding during a pass, and it goes on and on. It all just adds up to one big clusterfuck.
I’m not even a fan of either team. I had nothing on the line and no reason to cheer or boo either team. I just wanted to see a good game. Instead I got a huge spectacle with questionable at best officiating and organizations. Between the replacement refs, the shitty game rule changes, the overpaid egos, and obvious underhanded workings it’s become obvious that the National Football League is one big farce.
The NFL got their ratings and sold their advertising so that’s all that matters, right?
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