What I learned from Super Bowl XLII

- The Patriots are not the greatest team of all time. No, I’m not going to start dumping on them after all of the good that they did, but let’s look at the facts. They played in the AFC EAST, arguably the worst conference in football. They played the dismal Dolphins, the joker Jets, and the blue collar Bills for 6 of their 16 regular season wins. No other team in football went undefeated in their conference this year.

- Eli Manning is a better quarterback that I gave him credit for. He is as good as Ben Reothlishead. He’s nto as good as brother Peyton or XLII opponent Tom Brady. But the kid stayed poised and handled the high pressure much better than I expected.

- The Giants D really was as good as advertised. That front 4 is ferocious. They got to Brady time after time after time. I think the Giants would have beaten the Colts or the Chargers if either of those teams had beaten the Patriots along the way. A team with a mobile QB would have had the best shot of beating this destined Giants team.

- Maybe it is best NOT to go undefeated in the regular season. There is so much pressure on a team to carry not only the weight of winning the Super Bowl, but to do it as a perfect team. Maybe the Memphis Tigers should listen to this. A regular season loss would not be the end of the world. It would be a teaching opportunity for Coach Cal and a huge weight off of the player’s shoulders going into the NCAA tournament. I’m just sayin…

- Shaq starred in my favorite commercial of the night. I can’t even remember what the commercial was for now, but he was a jockey and he won a photo finish horse race. My other favorite commercial of the night was the T-Mobile commercial with D-Wade and Sir Charles. Barkley finally lets Wade into this fave 5 and then calls him all the time non-stop. It was a nice twist on the series and certainly not the last one. The worst commercial of the night was the Eli Vs Peyton Oreo licking showdown.

- The Doritos “One Band” contest was a bit of a bust. Two of the contestants were solo artists with NO band and the other was a rap group with no band. Pretty lame. I think bands are going the way of the dodo bird.

- In closing, this year’s game lived up to the hype. It was far better than the commercials. We all stayed glued to our sets from the first snap until the final drive. Even the refs didn’t want it to end, forcing the players and coaches back to the sidelines for one final kneel down. The NFL does it right. No controversy. No referee scandals. No lame suspensions in the middle of the playoffs causing the best team to be down a man.

OUT!