Drezner's World Watches Super Bowl LVIII

There was a lot going on.

Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash

The hard-working staff here at Drezner’s World would like to apologize for the lack of posting in recent days. It’s partly because I have been slammed with a few deadlines. To be honest, however, it’s also because I have been thoroughly bored by recent headlines. Discourse about Joe Biden’s age? Been there, done that. Donald Trump trashing NATO? We have all been there and done that — particularly Jens Stoltenberg.

So rather than restate the obvious on these things, here are my takes on Super Bowl LVIII and all the attendant advertisements and meta-commentary:

THE GAME:

• As a New York Giants fan, I remember the start of this season. For their first drive, the football Giants looked great, like they were building on the playoffs success of their previous season. One penalty and blocked kick later, the Giants’ season pretty much imploded. I bring this up because the Niners seemed to do the same thing, looking super-sharp for the first few plays before Christian McCaffrey fumbled. The Niners offense didn’t collapse like the Giants after that, but they seemed a bit off for the rest of the game.

• After a defense-dominant first three quarters with some pivotal turnovers, it was great for the offenses to pick up a bit in the fourth quarter.

• Brock Purdy has won playoff games this year with scrambles during pivotal moments, so I was a bit surprised that Kyle Shanahan didn’t run some planned third-down quarterback runs in expectation of the Chiefs blitzing.

• God I loved Mahomes saying “hell of a game” to the Niners captain just before the OT coin flip. That’s the kind of mindset that wins games like this one.

THE BROADCAST OF THE GAME:

• Props to Jim Nantz and Gene Steratore for providing some useful explanations of the rules changes for overtime, as well as some of the more controversial plays.

• Let me confess at the outset that Tony Romo’s non-stop chatter has never been my cup of tea. That said, everything TheRinger’s Bryan Curtis wrote about Tony Romo last week held up: “Romo loves quarterbacks. He loves at least some wide receivers. He has perhaps been smitten with a defensive back. The rest of the roster doesn’t exist at all.” He absolutely got a few things right, but the stuff he got wrong — saying the Chiefs didn’t rely on big throws just before a big throw, claiming the Niners wouldn’t need to defend against the run just before they had to defend against the run — stand out. Saying in the Niners’ OT drive that they were in fourth-down territory on their own 35-yard line made zero sense.

• At the end of regulation, when Nantz noted that one second had been added to the clock, making it 10 seconds, Romo said, “That’s huge!” No, no it wasn’t!

• If Romo tries to sins along with Adele ever again, there will be a reckoning,

THE ADS:

• Let’s get the RFK Jr. ad out of the way. I get why the Trump mega-donor funding American Values 2024 paid for it. A political Super Bowl ad always generates conversation, and an independent candidate with the last name of “Kennedy” will generate even more of it. The ad itself was designed to evoke JFK’s 1960 campaign. But it doesn’t matter — there’s a reason the ad didn’t say what he was for (and there’s a reason he withdrew from the Democratic primary). He’s still a crackpot who will lose support the more earned media he gets.

• Maybe this is my Inner Old Man coming out, but all the television and movie ads that barely showed anything and then said “watch the full trailer online” were really annoying. Maybe that saved some money by not paying for two minutes of airtime. That said, isn’t the best way to convince viewers to go to a theater and watch a film on a big screen is to show them a preview of the film on something larger than a computer screen?!

• Ads I liked: the ones with Jenna Ortega and Aubrey Plaza (duh). The Beyonce/Verizon ad. Ben Affleck’s Dunkin Donuts ad — or at least, Matt Damon in that ad. And Messi’s Michelob ad was fun.

• To be honest, the proliferation of celebrity ads made them all kind of bleed together.¹ That made the Kia EV9 ad — the one with the child skater — stand out all the more.

WRAPPING UP:

• Never forget that Roger Goodell has been and always will be a tool.

• Congratulations to the Deep State for orchestrating the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce storyline!

1. Also, two Flashdance-themed ads?