Payton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks to
ever play the game. He will be a first
ballot hall of famer. But his post-game
interview exemplifies why I’m not a huge fan of Payton. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the
guy. It’s not like he’s Greg Hardy or
anything like that. It’s just a
preference thing. In the interview
Manning couldn’t help getting in a couple of corporate references. I’m all for players making as much money from
endorsements as they can. Were I a
famous player, I would cash in as well.
But when you win a Super Bowl I think the corporate sponsors will
forgive you for being joyous and celebrating the accomplishments of your team
and teammates. Manning always says the
right things. Win or lose, the guy is
all class. But you always get the vibe
that things are scripted with him and that he makes a conscious effort to only
let out what he wants. This makes him
like everyone else. So what’s the
problem with Manning? While I understand
that every famous person is conscious of their image, Manning comes across as
plastic. He’s likeable, but plastic.
This is why I think most of America enjoyed Richard
Sherman’s rant after winning the NFC championship game a couple of years
ago. That was genuine. He didn’t like Michael Crabtree and he let
everyone know. That’s what I like to
see, a genuine non-scripted reaction after a big game. I don’t want to see someone getting in as
many corporate references as possible.
There is plenty of time for that later.
But after a big game, I want to see a genuine human being out there.
This is why I prefer Brady over Manning. Of course I prefer Romo over both, but that’s
another story. Brady does endorsements
too. But when you watch Brady in any
football game, you know his chief concern is football, pure football. Of course Payton cares too. Everyone says he is obsessive. But he comes across as caring about a lot of
other things too. You wouldn’t see Brady
putting in watch references after winning a Super Bowl. He probably doesn’t even remember who he
endorses after a big win. He’s there for
football and that’s it.
As for the game itself, it wasn’t the best Super
Bowl. After possibly the greatest of
them all last year between the Patriots and Seahawks, it was doubtful the next
one would equal that. But since I like
defence, Denver’s defence was a pleasure to watch. And I am glad to see DeMarcus Ware, a long
time elite Cowboys player, finally get his just reward. Analysis of the game is pretty simple. Carolina blew it. But then, I’ve been saying that about
everyone who has lost to Denver. Every
time I watch them I think they shouldn’t even be in the game. And then they win. And in the end, that’s all that matters.
One of the great prop bets of all time came to fruition
as well. The bet was that Mike Carey
would be wrong on a challenge. He
was. Had I been able to get that bet in
Australia I would have put money down on it.
But sadly, I wasn’t. Only this
time, Mike Carey was actually right. I’m
not sure what those replay officials saw.
Maybe they had money on that prop bet so made Carey wrong, even though
he wasn’t. And of course, that blown
call, then blown replay review, led to Denver’s first touchdown. And this exemplifies Denver. They had all the luck this year. Every close call and close bounce of the ball
went their way this year. Had the
Cotchrey catch been allowed, as it should have been, Denver probably doesn’t
score a touchdown and the game is vastly different. So congratulations to Denver. They had great skill on defence, and great
luck too. Despite one of the worst
offenses I have ever seen, they are the champions.
Another thing that struck me about the game is a report
that 1 billion chicken wings were consumed on this day alone. And that’s only in America. My goodness, the amount of slaughtered
chickens defies comprehension. So 500
million chickens were killed just for this one day. How many chickens in captivity are
there? When you consider there is no
shortage of chicken in the United States, even after 500 million have been
killed for one day, there must be. . .I don’t know how many. I’m not saying this is reprehensible. These chickens are food after all. But 500 million in one day? I can hardly conceive of the number. This sort of thing does make me wonder
whether we simply eat too much meat. Most
of us don’t see the chickens being slaughtered.
To us it’s just something that appears on the plate. But wow!
That is a lot of dead chickens.
So another Super Bowl has come and gone and the count is
now 20 years for the Cowboys. But at
least my team has climbed the top of the mountain five times. There are still teams who have never
experienced the glory, including the Panthers who, despite a 15-1 regular
season and two comfortable playoff victories, do not raise the trophy this
year. I’m glad I’m not a Panthers fan
today because losing that game really sucks for those fans.
Despite this, Panthers fans, along with fans of the other
31 teams will be right back into it heart and soul hoping that 2016 will be the
year. And for one fan base, it will be.
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