43 conversations about one thing
Super Bowl XLIII is in the books, but NFP writer Ray Gustini still has some questions. Ray Gustini
1. Why didn’t they just push him out of bounds?
2. Why did Kurt Warner decide he needed to play at 205 pounds?
3. Why was Santonio Holmes so demonstrative during the final two-minute drill? How many seconds did Pittsburgh lose waiting for him to get back to the line?
4. Any chance Bruce Arians or Clancy Pendergast gets a head coaching job next year?
5. Why does Anheuser-Busch think we care about their horses?
6. Why did that one have a Scottish accent?
7. Why do announcers and talking heads think nobody knows about Heath Miller? Does that include all the people he burned in fantasy this season?
8. Why was everybody so surprised that Adrian Wilson picked up a dopey personal foul? The guy leads the NFL in personal fouls since 2004. He’s an eight-year veteran yet still has the little ‘M’ red flag in his ESPN Insider scouting report (for ‘Mental’).
9. Why were Madden and Michaels so awful after a season in which they were really on the ball most of the time?
10. Why didn’t Mike Tomlin go for it on that first possession?
11. Why can’t Mike Holmgren stop bitching about the officiating in Super Bowl XL?
12. Why were so many of the commercials about aliens?
13. Moreover, why did the aliens choose Alec Baldwin?
14. Why is Levi Brown a right tackle instead of a left tackle?
15. Why did I accidentally watch the entire first half on the non-HD feed?
16. Why can’t UConn power forward Jeff Adrien play tight end in the NFL?
17. Why didn’t the Cardinals heed Michael Lombardi’s advice and bring in an extra tackle to help Mike Gandy?
18. Why did Steve Breaston last 142 picks in the 2007 draft?
19. Why does Warner put the ball on the ground so much?
20. Why were the Cardinals able to blow up the Steelers’ line so easily on kicks and punts?
21. Why was Ike Taylor given a personal foul in the fourth quarter? Worst call of the game.
22. Who got less screen time, Limas Sweed or Nils Lofgren?
23. OK, fine: Why wasn’t that last play reviewed? What would have happened with the LaMarr Woodley penalty for removing his helmet? Also, why didn’t Warner pick up a penalty early in the third quarter when he took off his helmet to argue his non-fumble?
24. Why did Roethlisberger seem to be under-throwing the ball all night?
25. Why didn’t anybody tell Pepsi that their new cans look like every supermarket’s generic cola?
26. Will Bo Ryan’s Wisconsin Badgers ever win another game?
27. Who has had more work done, Brenda Warner, Soozie Tyrell or Joe Namath?
28. Why didn’t Todd Haley call some screens and draws for J.J. Arrington?
29. Why, on throws under 10 yards, were all of Warner’s passes high and behind his receivers?
30. Why are Tom Hanks and Ron Howard back for “The Da Vinci Code” sequel? They don’t have better things to do?
31. Why can’t anybody adequately explain a chop block?
32. Why do people still labor under the delusion that Matt Millen is any better as an analyst than he was as a GM? He was bad at Fox, he’s bad now.
33. Why does The Man insist of foisting 3-D on us? NOBODY CARES. Until they come up with plots that don’t revolve around the bad guy throwing sharp things at the hero and cut out the characters who randomly point at things with a cane, count me out.
34. Why can’t Will Arnett perform Pepsi commercials in character as G.O.B. Bluth? If Michael Cera’s salary demands are really holding up the “Arrested Development” movie, this might be the next best thing, especially if Franklin Delano Bluth makes a cameo of his own.
35. Why does Pixar think kids are so interested in lonely shut-ins?
36. Why couldn’t Arizona just throw fades in the red zone?
37. Why couldn’t Edgerrin James pick up anybody on a blitz?
38. What went wrong when Dick LeBeau was the head coach in Cincinnati? Lots of things, I’m sure, but what specifically?
39. Do the Saints wish they drafted Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie? Or Leodis McKelvin?
40. Was Madden actually serious that James Harrison should have been given that touchdown even if he was stopped at the one? He seemed serious.
41. Was the gospel choir backing up Bruce the same one from the inauguration?
42. Anybody else wish the revamped version of “Glory Days” was scrapped for “The Rising” or “Waitin’ on a Sunny Day”?
43. Who are the odds-on favorites for the halftime show next year? Outkast? Foo Fighters? Some country music smorgasbord?
44. Not that I’m good at evaluating these things, but does anybody else think, despite the comeback, the game lacked the epic, back-and-forth feel of the great recent Super Bowls? Great game, no doubt, but more on a par with Packers-Broncos in ’97 than recent pantheon games like Rams-Titans, Rams-Pats, Pats-Panthers and Pats-Giants.
45. I finally “got” “Working on a Dream.” Again, I wish it went longer and they just cut out “Glory Days.”
Comments
Add a CommentI agree and especially with the NBC being bad...
I loved when Madden was going on and on about Heath Miller, "he does more things for this Pittsburgh offense than anyone else" and the very next play he dropped a pass over the middle inside the 5 yard line. Back to Madden who ignores the drop and simply repeats, "Heath Miller does more things for this Pittsburgh offense than anyone else". Classic.
re: #39
I think the Saints are pretty happy with the Sed Ellis / Tracy Porter combo they drafted vs. DRC / whatever second tier DT they could have gotten.
When and where did Mike Holmgren "bitch" about the officiating in Super Bowl XL at any time before, during, or after that telecast last Sunday? Seems to me you had Al Michaels putting words in Holmgren's mouth, just as many others have put words in Holmgren's mouth about what happened in XL, and various writers are all too eager to attribute the concerns about the officiating in that game to the "bitter" losing coach. Truth is, it still comes up so often because it is still the most obvious example of the fact that officiating in the county's most popular sport is reprehensible at best and suspect at worst.
Seriously -- what did Holmgren say about it? Not Al Michaels saying, "Oh, Holmgren must be having flashbacks," but what did Holmgren say?
This reminds me of a line that may get stuck in your head..
"Why ask why? Try Bud dry!"
Why is Ray so cranky? Why doesn't he stop complaining and acknowledge what a fun Super Bowl that was? Why did I waste my time reading this???
Good stuff as always Ray....
Bud Dry was the worst beer every made... almost as bad as Bud Ice and the two day hangover that came with it.
KO49-
That's kind of the point here dude, you did read it, so don't think that by saying it was a waste of your time bothers Ray...
He wins, you lose. That is the point of journalism.
#38 - He became the coach of the Bengals - that's what went wrong.....
Matt - you got that right about Bud Dry - I'm a little queasy just seeing the name.
Two words. Mountain. Creek.
Agreed on the 3-D, and well put. I watched that without the glasses, and you could tell when the big "3-D moments" came up, because something was thrown at somebody or, like you said, somebody did something with a cane or something, and all the action would sorta' stop and all the characters on screen looked at whatever it was like "oooo!" ...that's not how *actual* 3-D works. Like, the actual 3-D world we live in. It's perfectly normal for things to be 3-D. It's not a big occasion when something appears closer than everything else, provided that the thing IS closer, since you'd naturally expect that it would apear that way. So... If they want to make 3-D movies, then great! But make them movies, not techno-centric commercials.
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Feb 04, 2009
08:00 AM
I think you needed to stop at #39, because of course Madden was joking. Michaels and Madden tend to let their emotions leak into their sense of humor.
Regarding "18. Why did Steve Breaston last 142 picks in the 2007 draft?" His senior year. He became the #1 WR and he was taken out of games very easily (plus his return game regressed).
The NBC broadcast was terrible. Madden couldn't decide whether Ben held on to the ball too long and extended plays, or whether he got the ball out quickly. Michaels/Madden missed an obvious intentional grounding call on Ben, during the same play the Cards got penalized for a late hit (the latter was a bogus call, but shouldn't the penalties have off-set?).
Why didn't we know what was going on with Fitzgerald? He had one catch in the first half, couldn't we have seen in a few replays, why that was?