two-minute drill
Super Bowl XLI
It’s off to races early for Hester
Devin Hester got the Super Bowl off to a lightning-quick start in Miami, becoming the first player to return the opening kickoff for a TD.
Hester ran the opening kick back 92 yards Sunday, staking Chicago to a 7-0 lead.
It was the eighth kickoff-return TD in Super Bowl history. Desmond Howard has the longest kickoff return in the game’s history, a 99-yarder for Green Bay against New England in 1997.
Weather didn’t cooperate
For the first time, the Super Bowl was all wet.
Steady rain fell, a dubious first for the NFL’s title game. It chased some ticketholders away at halftime, forced many to watch the game in concourses on television and generally made things miserable for those who spent big money on seats.
Advertisers played it safe
As so often happens when something that started out as fun turns into big business, Super Bowl commercials have turned safe. And dull.
It’s no big secret why that happens. When commercials are running $2.6 million for 30 seconds, no one wants to take the kind of chance that could lead to a bad mistake.
The Best: Bud Light – Teaching immigrants to speak Bud. The genius of advertising is knowing how to stop one tiny fractured prepositional phrase short of tasteless.
The Worst: Doritos – Girl runs into traffic, gets bonked by a car. Can’t imagine why the ad didn’t work – it’s such a naturally funny situation.