My Super Bowl post

Josh Chafetz has castigated me for having “dropped the ball on his usual scantily clad celebrities beat ” My sin — not mentioning Janet Jackson’s “technical difficulties” during the Super Bowl. While this blog has rarely shied away from discussing the important political ramifications of scantily clad celebrities, in this case I felt it inappropriate. Why? Because what mattered far more was that this year’s Super Bowl was a
GREAT FRIGGIN’ GAME
, that’s why!!! Punch!! Counterpunch!! Great defense!! Explosive offense!! Clutch plays!! Five changes in the score in the last quarter!! Jake Delhomme getting his butt kicked in the first half and throwing three touchdown passes in the final quarter!! Adam Vinatieri missing two kicks in the first half and then drilling the game-winner!! [Allen Barra says the game sucked!–ed. Then Allen Barra is a very hard man to please. I take his point about the high number of penalties (though most of them were on special teams) but I’m intrigued that Barra thinks that the well-executed defense of the first and third quarters were boring but that the high-octane offense of the second and fourth quarters was an example of incompetent defenses as opoosed to the offenses making adjustments.] I’m sure some astute sports commentator could observe why three of the best Super Bowls ever played took place in the last five years. Me, I’m just grateful as a sports fan. One additional fact courtesy of Peter King that’s worth mentioning:

The NFL has something called a performance pay scale, in which low-paid players who log significant minutes are compensated an additional amount out of a league pool at the end of the season. This is very good news to [New England Patriots center Dan] Koppen, a rookie and fifth-round draft pick who started the final 15 games of the season at center for the Patriots…. Koppen will get the largest percentage increase from the performance-pay pool, a 40 percent bump from his 2003 base salary of $225,000. According to an NFL Management Council source Koppen will receive a bonus of approximately $90,000 from the pool, which will likely be the most money allocated any player in the league when the system is finalized after the season. Not bad for the kid — a hefty bonus, plus the winner’s share from the divisional playoff game, AFC title game and Super Bowl, collectively, of $122,500. Koppen almost doubled his salary with money he never expected to make — $212,500 in performance and postseason bonuses not in his original contract.

For the fallout over Jackson’s… er… fallout, see this Washington Post story. However, Scrappleface has the better spin. Oh, and Beyoncé Knowles has a lovely singing voice…. as well as many other fine qualities: