A Really Super Bowl

Our household faced a dilemma deciding who to root for in last night's Super Bowl.

As graduates of Ole Miss, we were mindful of the fact that Peyton Manning's father, Archie Manning, had quarterbacked for Ole Miss in the 1960's, had been drafted by the New Orleans Saints and played superbly for about a decade for what was otherwise a dreadful team. Archie Manning has made his home in New Orleans. Peyton's younger brother, Eli, also played at Ole Miss and quarterbacks for the Giants.

Since there was an Ole Miss/Manning connection to both teams, we decided to go with sentiment and root for the team that had never been to the Super Bowl before. Besides, we had lived in Washington DC when the Baltimore Colts left that town surreptitiously and shamefully relocated to Indiana. In Baltimore (and Washington), that is still seen as perfidy. Like the Dodgers moving from Brooklyn to Los Angeles.

For all of those reasons, we rooted for New Orleans.

The game was a delight to watch. When did you ever see a second half begin with an onside kick? The offensive coaching was daring. The New Orleans defense was superb. Plainly the strategy was to keep Peyton Manning off the field. Good idea.

A game that lived up to the hype.

Can't say as much for the ads. Not up to par.

And the halftime show? My wife remarked that she'd rather have seen marching bands. Would have been more entertaining. Maybe it's a generational thing.