Super Bowl XLIX provided plenty to write about. Here goes:
I really, really, really have an aversion to pro football. Why? Read Football, Professional Style for answers. Having established my bona fides as a football-hater, I thought the Patriots-Seahawks game was a fine one. Lots of talent, plenty of excitement, no horrible injuries: if I had to watch a game in 2014-5—I didn’t, but I’m just sayin’—I picked a good one.
Tom Brady is one heckuva pro football quarterback. Last Sunday he threw 50 passes, and completed 37 for 328 yards and four touchdowns. (Two interceptions, too.) Yes, he got lucky at the end—I’m getting there—but luck is essential to success, and the luck would not have mattered if he had not been so successful.
OK, about the play! Second and goal, with less than a minute to play, and the Seahawks need a touchdown to win. Instead of putting everything on Marshawn Lynch, their star running back, the team ran a pass play. Interception. Game over. Here’s Ian O’Connor with Pete Carroll Botches the Super Bowl from ESPN, providing the play-by-play. And here’s Brian Burke for Slate with Tough Call, explaining why “Pete Carroll’s decision to pass was not as stupid as it looked.”
We view the world through retrospectroscopes. Really, we do! We’ll never know for sure, of course, but if the pass gets caught Pete Carroll’s team wins the Super Bowl. And if the pass gets dropped the clock stops, there’s time for another play, and if Mr. Lynch crosses the goal line the Seahawks win. Either way, the time management strategy which gave rise to the “worst call” looks like brilliance.
Some people find wisdom anywhere and everywhere. Vu Le has been mentioned here before. He’s a nonprofits guy from Seattle, he blogs at Nonprofit With Balls, and he’s one very, very funny guy. So for my friends in nonprofit-land—miss you all, really—I’m sharing 5 lessons for nonprofits from the Seahawks’ bizarre Super Bowl loss. You’ll laugh, you’ll learn, and you’ll laugh some more! I promise!
The National Football League will not be using Roman numerals for Super Bowl 50. The explanation is here.
Finally, I drank well, and we ate well on Super Bowl Sunday. A martini; then, crab cakes, oven fried potatoes, roasted yellow tomatoes, and salad.
Note: Stock footage, as I took last week’s cocktail picture by cell phone and don’t know how to transfer it. Same glass. Same clear liquid. Y’all get the point!
