Super Thoughts

Super Bowl: started great, then the Bears unraveled to the point where I couldn’t believe they had made it there. Rex Grossman—what can I say? A Gator, and as a Tennessee fan you can’t hate anything more fiercely than a Florida Gator. He’s got a fat little face, too. But I am a long-time Bears fan, learned it at my daddy’s knee after we moved to Chicago and he became a Bears loyalist. So much as I love Peyton, I found myself rooting for the Bears and then was sadly disappointed and went to bed before the bitter and humiliating end.
My favorite ad—hands down—was the robot that screwed up and got fired. Second was the lions purring “carne asada.” Both were just adorable and somehow heart-wrenching—even the lions.
And finally I have to say I nearly puked when Jim Nantz—a la Joe Biden calling Barak Obama “articulate”—called Lovie Smith and Tony Dungy “dignified.” The entire fawning tribute to these two great coaches made me sick. It a national disgrace that no African-American coaches had made it to the Super Bowl until Sunday and yet the network framed it as if it were a tremendous accomplishment rather than a sign that racism is still alive and well. “Oh, just LOOK how far those people have come” was the sub-text. What a great day for African-Americans my ass! Not while patronizing, clueless jerks are still doing the commentary.
My dear friend Eva Paterson, of the Equal Justice Society, pointed out in an e-mail: “James Brown, the commentator not the hardest working man in show business, had a comment after the piece on Smith and Dungy. The piece had focused on their character and dignity. Brown said, ‘yes, and their intelligence.’ None of the other three CBS commentators including Dan Marino, Boomer Esiason, and Shannon Sharpe talked about the intelligence of the two coaches.”
Shameful.