![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/itsnotaboutme.tv\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/IMG_0943-e1580782778930.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo by Karen Salkin, as is the one at the top of this page.<\/p><\/div>\n
I rooted for both<\/em> teams throughout the play-offs, so this one was a tiny tad hard for me. But I did<\/em> root for the Chiefs here for several reasons, mainly because of how sadly they had lost to the Patriots at the last minute in the penultimate playoff game last<\/em> year, which meant that this<\/em> year marked their first trip to the Super Bowl. (A previous Chiefs team had made it there fifty years ago, but that was not\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0group, obviously, and not this coach<\/em>, Andy Reid<\/strong>, for whom I, along with most football fans, was really rooting.)<\/p>\n Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I like certain players on both teams, (and dislike three on the San Fransisco 49ers\u2014one for being a Trump-er and two for being bullies, in general,) but I really, really wanted the Chiefs to win for the above-mentioned getting-up-there-in-age coach, Andy Reid.<\/p>\n So, even though it was a long road to get there, (I watched every second of Fox\u2019s all-day coverage, with an hour of ESPN in the early morning thrown in for good measure,) with the Chiefs exciting win in the last seven minutes of the game(!,) I ended the day on a high note.<\/p>\n And now I can finally share my thoughts on all<\/em> the Super Bowl LIV coverage with you! (In sections, of course.)<\/p>\n PRE-GAME COVERAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n Charissa Thompson’s dreadful outfit! Her legs even look two different sizes! Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019m all for equality of the sexes in all walks of life, but I hate that sports<\/em> now feel that they have to include women, even when it\u2019s a male<\/em> sport, so they hire females as anchors of sports commentary shows. It\u2019s just ridiculous.<\/p>\n Speaking of ridiculous, the Fox hostess, Charissa Thompson<\/strong>, looked like an idiot. What a creepy outfit she was wearing. It looked like it was two sizes too big for her, with an even worse<\/em> fashion faux pas–her pants legs were dragging on the ground! How did she, nor anyone behind the scenes, not know enough to remedy that situation?! As I said\u2014ridiculous.<\/p>\n And she could not pronounce \u201cpoet laureate.\u201d Oysh.<\/p>\n And you know I love a nude lip like no other, but here\u2019s a newsflash for all these women–it does\u00a0not\u00a0look good on TV<\/em>!!! (No one needs to go bright, either, like Jenna Dewan usually does. Just find the correct in-between. As a veteran of hundreds of hours on TV myself, I promise\u2014it\u2019s not that hard to do.)<\/p>\n Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n There were only two major positives for me in all of the six and a half hours of pre-game coverage. First is that they did a short feature on Chiefs player,\u00a0Dr. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif<\/strong>, perhaps the most impressive person to ever play pro football! Besides that he allowed the third fewest sacks this season, he\u2019s…a full doctor<\/em>! He not only is an MD<\/em>, but he also has a Masters in surgery!!! OMG! (And, almost equally impressive, to me<\/em>, at least, is that in the off-season two years ago, he was a commentator on the Winter Olympics for his native Canada!!! What a man.)<\/p>\n Col. Charles McGee. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n The other positive was actually the first thing that choked me up all day, (even though it happened at the end<\/em> of that very lengthy pre-game coverage.) It was when centenarian Col. Charles<\/strong> McGee<\/strong>, of the Tuskegee Airmen, brought out the coin for the coin toss. That was beautiful.<\/p>\n The opposite<\/em> of beautiful were these three occurrences:<\/p>\n Just as I was being happy that I didn\u2019t have to see nebbishy Cooper Manning<\/strong>, or his rotten sexual molester brother Peyton, anywhere this year, they did a real waste-of-time stupid feature…about nothing. Idiotic.<\/p>\n And, it was absolutely offensive that they included wife-killer, thief, and liar OJ Simpson in their \u201chundred greatest players of all time.\u201d And, to me, (and to the families of the two men he helped kill,) Ray Lewis should not have been in there, either. (You already know how I feel about Peyton Manning. If you do not<\/em>, just search for him, and the others, in the two \u201csearch\u201d boxes in this e-zine.)<\/p>\n This is how they did those tributes, rather than announcing the players. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n Actually, that whole \u201chundred players\u201d segment was done poorly\u2014not at all in the classy and emotional manner in which MLB had presented their<\/em> \u201cAll-Century Team\u201d at their All-Star game in 1999. (I cried so hard when eighty-year-old almost-immobile Ted Williams went out, in a golf cart, to throw the ceremonial first pitch, my six-year-old best bud I was watching it with felt the need to call Mr. X and report me for \u201cturning into a sissy!\u201d) At this NFL rendition, they didn\u2019t even mention<\/em> the names of the honorees\u2014they just showed their names on the screen, giving not a thought to their visually-impaired \u201clisteners.\u201d Rude. To everyone involved.<\/p>\n THE GAME ITSELF<\/strong><\/p>\n This game got very exciting in the fourth quarter. In the final seven minutes, to be exact! OMG. I still have no idea how the Chiefs won at that point! I was pretty much giving-up before they got that very last touchdown!<\/p>\n Superbowl MVP Patrick Mahomes. Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n I still can\u2019t believe they won! But I should<\/em> have been a believer after their two previous<\/em> playoff games. As a matter of fact, when they went down by ten to the Niners in the fourth quarter, one of the announcers, either Joe Buck <\/strong>or Troy Aikman<\/strong>, said of the Chiefs, \u201cThey have them right where they want them!\u201d It was a joke, but very prophetic.<\/p>\n Two minutes is such a long time when the team you\u2019re rooting against<\/em> has the ball, and never enough time when your<\/em> team has it. Trust me on that–I was sweating-out the uber-long two of this<\/em> Super Bowl!<\/p>\n But I\u2019m so glad it went my way.<\/p>\n And, by the way, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes<\/strong> is the man!!!<\/p>\n HALFTIME SHOW<\/strong><\/p>\n Shakira and JLo. Those are two uber-confident women!<\/p><\/div>\n I\u2019m so glad that Jennifer Lopez<\/strong> and Shakira<\/strong> are getting lauded today for their spectacular Halftime Show! It seems that in recent years, no one<\/em> receives major props for their time in that hot slot. But these ladies deserve<\/em> the love because they put on quite the display. Even usual naysayer Mr. X declared this to be\u201cthe greatest halftime show ever!!!\u201d<\/p>\n And it probably was.\u00a0\u00a0Although I\u2019m still partial to Justin Timberlake exposing Janet Jackson\u2019s nipple in 2004. We both jumped off the couch screaming because it was so unexpected. And I adored Bruno Mars (who was a \u201cguest\u201d of Coldplay) in 2014, and Justin Timberlake again in 2018. [Note: The halftime shows did not start featuring hip<\/em> music until the early \u201990s. Before then it was most often marching bands and occasionally the nerds of all nerds, Up With People!]<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t know that Shakira was going to be half<\/em> of it. The announcements always made it seem like she was going to just do a short guest<\/em> spot, like the two male rappers, Bad Bunny <\/strong>and J<\/strong> Balvin<\/strong>, did. (By the way–they never even announced those guys\u2019 names! Good thing I\u2019m hip.) She was great.<\/p>\n Jennifer Lopez with her daughter, Emme.<\/p><\/div>\n They also never named the featured little girl, but I knew that she was JLo\u2019s daughter, Emme<\/strong>. And that knowledge was only because A-Rod<\/strong> (Jen\u2019s betrothed,) had said earlier that the only clue he could give is that the show would be \u201ca family affair.\u201d Emme was actually okay. (But I can\u2019t wait until Jennifer starts making her get nose jobs, too, just like she herself has always done. I think she\u2019s had three so far!) But I still love JLo; I think she\u2019s the perfect show biz person. She has managed her career so perfectly. (Too bad she hasn\u2019t done the same for other aspects of her multi-marriaged life!)<\/p>\n In their bending-over backwards to make it basically an all-female-performers evening, (outside of the unnamed male rappers,) from the beginning to end, (perhaps the producers of the Super Bowl were trying to make-up for something,) Yolanda Adams<\/strong> sang America the Beautiful<\/em> and Demi Lovato<\/strong> did the National Anthem<\/em> honors. They were both good enough, (especially Yolanda, of course,) but they both did that self-serving, Maya Rudolph-parodying style, of which Mr. X and I are definitely not fans. Still, there was nothing major for me to rag on, so good on them. (By the way\u2014I could barely find any<\/em> references to Yolanda Adams\u2019 performance anywhere on the internet! I guess she\u2019s too upstanding a citizen to merit attention. After the Los Angles Times<\/em>\u2019 full-length article about Demi Lovato’s song, and everything about it, down to her microphone color, this was their last line: \u201cHer national anthem followed a reading of America the Beautifu<\/em>l by gospel singer Yolanda Adams.\u201d Shame on them!)<\/p>\n THE COMMERCIALS<\/strong><\/p>\n The commercials, which are mostly new ones, (for which companies pay close to a zillion dollars to have them debut on the Super Bowl,) were all basically very good this time. Shocking! [Note: Really, each thirty second spot costs close to six million dollars! So, yes, my zillion<\/em> estimate is close.) I\u2019m discussing them in the order that they aired:<\/p>\n The very first one, the long \u201cHere\u2019s to the next hundred\u201d ad for the NFL itself, actually choked me up when the little kids ran into the stadium, followed by their \u201cHere\u2019s to the next hundred\u201d sign appearing.<\/p>\n Photo by Karen Salkin.<\/p><\/div>\n The one with Jason Momoa<\/strong> stripping-down his body and head to reveal he\u2019s really a homely guy\u00a0made us laugh. A lot. Good for him.<\/p>\n Was that commercial for Hulu an announcement from Tom Brady<\/strong> that he\u2019s staying put in New England??? The announcers never discussed it when they came back to the game.<\/p>\n The NY Life one with all the Greek words for \u201clove\u201d was…lovely.<\/p>\n The Hyundai Sonata one, with celebs saying, \u201cPahk the cah,\u201d (for \u201cpark the car,\u201d) was a good one. I love when Rachel Dratch<\/strong> works!<\/p>\n Yet another good one was for Cheetos popcorn with MC Hammer<\/strong>. I love when he<\/em> works, too!<\/p>\n But then there were several dumb ones in a\u00a0row: one about an avocados shopping network with Molly Ringwald<\/strong> made me swear\u00a0to never buy avocados again! And then the long drawn-out one about a cup that\u2019s stolen from JLo\u2014oysh. And the one with\u00a0John Legend<\/strong> and his uber-annoying wife earned a double<\/em> oysh from me!<\/p>\n But I\u2019m glad that Mr. Peanut<\/strong> was re-born.\u00a0\u00a0(Was that a reaction to Kobe Bryant\u2019s tragic helicopter crash? Planters said then that they were pulling their ads where Mr. Peanut died, so is that what made them resurrect him? I seriously want to know.) When I ran for Sophomore President in High School, (and won<\/em>, I might add!,) my posters featured Mr. Peanut (because he was the only one I could draw,) saying \u201cI\u2019m nuts for Karen for Sophomore President!\u201d Not exactly my most clever slogan ever, but…it worked!<\/p>\n I adored the Doritos Cool Ranch one with Lil Naz X <\/strong>and Sam Elliott<\/strong>!<\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen the movie Groundhog Day<\/em> tons of times, but I still didn\u2019t really get the Jeep commercial about it. Even with Bill Murray<\/strong> and two other cast members from the film. (And I had to just look-up what product it was even advertising, so that\u2019s not good for them, even though the ad is being declared a \u201cwinner\u201d today.)<\/p>\n FINAL THOUGHTS<\/strong><\/p>\n All-in-all, this was a good Super Bowl day. (Except for the Niners and their fans.) I love that Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes became the youngest Super Bowl MVP in history, (after last year becoming the youngest player in history to win the overall MVP of the season!)<\/p>\n But how stupid was this?: The MVP voting, (which is open to the public,) began at…the beginning of the fourth quarter!!! That means that so much game was left to be played! Nobody should be voting on three quarters of a game. That was shameful. Thank goodness it worked-out correctly in the end. [Note: Many people feel\u00a0that Damien Williams, who actually scored half of the Chiefs touchdowns, including the go-ahead one, should have won, and they may have a case. A slight one. I definitely respect that opinion. But I still<\/em> think it\u2019s rightly Mahomes.]<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>