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Super Bowl a remarkable display of restrained good taste In a move that stunned media pundits worldwide, this year’s Super Bowl was marked by understated elegance. "We felt the whole thing has just become blown out of proportion," said NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue. "Football is only a game, and the professionals that play our sport realize that they are simply entertainers. There is a bigger world out there that is so much more important that what we do here." Linebacker Ray Lewis set the tone for the week with his heartfelt display of remorse over the deaths of Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar following last year’s Super Bowl. "I am sickened to have been in any way associated with this horrible crime," said Lewis. "I can only imagine what their families must be going through. I’ve established a memorial foundation in their names and appointed members of their families as trustees. Perhaps some good can come from this terrible tragedy. I’m also going to stop wearing that silly bandana and doing those shameful dances whenever I make a big play. Yuck!" "I was so surprised when I heard him say that, I nearly choked on my chewing gum," said CBS analyst Mike Ditka. "Ray Lewis could have reacted bitterly after the media heaped all that attention on him for his behavior, but instead he took responsibility, and tried to turn it into a positive. Ray’s actions have helped me realize that it’s hypocritical for me to work in the media after I said all those hateful things about them when I was a coach. As of today, I’m resigning as an analyst and retreating to a monastery to discover the inner ‘me.’" Art critics hailed the game-opening exhibition of works of art by Salvadoran painter Carlos Cañas and Indian artist Bikash Bhattacharjee as "masterful." Tagliabue explained that "the nations of El Salvador and India have recently been struck by tragic natural disasters, and we wanted the world to see that there are real faces, real people behind the death tolls. It would have been shallow and repugnant to open the game with a vulgar display of American military strength. In the past, we’ve used the game to build the NFL’s ‘image’ with overproduced patriotic songs, followed by the inevitable trotting out of ‘heroes’ of the Gulf War who pounded an overmatched adversary into submission. To do that again would make us look like a bunch of greedy, self-serving pigs." This year’s crop of Super Bowl television commercials was also strikingly innovative. Budweiser, for example, announced the end of its mind-numbing "WASSUPPPP!" ad campaign in favor of a new series of ads based on Maureen Dowd’s biting social commentary. "We don’t care if we lose market share," commented a Budweiser executive who spoke under condition of anonymity, "we’re tired of exploiting our less-educated clientele. We’d rather do something daring that makes people think." Monster.com and Hotjobs.com were surprisingly up front about the irony of being among the few dot-coms to survive the recent shakedown. "Lost your dream job at a dot-com?" trumpeted one Monster.com spot, "Use Monster to find a new job at a faceless megacorporation. At least it’ll pay the bills!" The game itself was, in Tagliabue’s words "just a game. It’s not important who won – it’s just about having fun. Everyone was enjoying themselves so much, we forgot to keep score." "I just love playing football," said Giants quarterback Kerry Collins. "I try not put a lot of pressure on myself or my teammates – it’s just another fun thing I do." "After awhile, it just seemed silly to sit there and watch grown men delighting in playing a game," commented one fan. "I think most of us left after the halftime show so we could go play pickup games in the parking lot." The uncanny spirit of this year’s Super Bowl was perhaps best exemplified by the actions of the Walt Disney Corporation. "We’ve decided to stop asking the Super Bowl MVP to endorse Disney World," announced Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "We think people should decide for themselves whether to visit our parks, rather than relying on the endorsement of a celebrity. Personally, I think folks should spend more time just enjoying nature." Skeptics have suggested that the real reason for Disney’s policy-shift is that Ray Lewis is the recipient of this game’s MVP award. With Lewis’s recent legal troubles and the fact that he doesn’t exactly look like a "Ken" doll, Disney may not be interested in his endorsement. Given this year’s remarkable trend away from cold corporate calculation, however, that suggestion simply doesn’t ring true to this reporter. There’s a new spirit of kindness in the air – isn’t it time we all just sat back and sucked it in? By David Munger Copyright 2001 |