But I did watch the SB last night, and was gratified to realize that it was NOT a typical Super Bowl. Usually, they are completely boring games unable to live up to the hype (Never could figure that out, either. Why can't the players get "up" for this ultimate game for all the marbles, like the World Series tends to be?)
But this one was great, going down to the wire, nice ebb and flow, etc.
Could have done without both Sir Paul McCartney's in-depth halftime analysis and Terry Bradshaw's embarrassing attempt to sing "A Hard Day's Night", but otherwise it was great.
I confess I even liked Pats' owner Robert Craft declaring "Tonight, we're all Patriots..." Nice touch.
Interesting question. I think the biggest problem was the 2-week gap between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. With two weeks off, the teams get caught up in the circus atmosphere and lose focus of the game ahead. This time there was no two-week break and thus there was no time for fooling around on Bourbon Street. Both teams had to focus on the day ahead. I don't know about the Rams but Belichick kept the Patriots on a tight lease during the past week with curfews and strict orders on how to behave during the very little freetime they did get.
The Patriots were blown out of the Super Bowl in both 1986 and 1997. I know with the Bears game in 1986, many of the Patriots were partying during Super Bowl week. In fact one of them got so drunk that he had to be pulled to his feet by a sportswriter and placed in a cab. After that Super Bowl, there was a big drug scandal. You know what they say about how idleness is the devil's workshop. If the NFL wants to keep having great Super Bowls, than eliminate permanently the two-week break.