A super night for music, emotion and (maybe) football

So if you saw the game, you might have sensed that the Kansas City Chiefs had a shot at being the first team to win three straight Super Bowls.
You would have realized it because various Fox people said it approximately 2.9 million times. Or maybe 3 million.
That was a fine storyline; I may have said it myself, once or twice. But some perspective would have helped. Like the fact that the previous wins were by 3 points … and the win to get here this year was by 3 points … and that the Philadelphia Eagles (shown here) had won their previous game by 32.
Anyway, I’ll quit grumbling about that; all the three-peat talk soon vanished. And overall, I liked the telecast (and the commercials) a lot. A few random thoughts:
— Tom Brady is an excellent analyst and Kevin Burkhardt is a terrific play-by-play guy.
Brady is not a good interviewer, but in the sports world, who (except for Bob Costas) is. Patrick Mahomes is an amiable-seeming guy who will reach for the nearest cliché whenever given an opportunity. Brady gave him every opportunity.
— The music was terrific … as it should be for a game in New Orleans.
We expected (and got) great things from Jon Batiste (the National Anthem), Lauren Daigle and Trombone Shorty (“America the Beautiful”) and Ledisi (“Lift Every Voice and Sing”).
But there were bonuses beyond that – Harry Connick … trumpeter Terence Blanchard … a marching band … a choir … a richly emotional song from Lady Gaga.
— And while we’re on it, U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green has complained about “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is sometimes called the National Anthem. We only need one anthem, she has said.
So let’s make this clear: When a lawyer wrote the words to our anthem, he closed the verse with the powerful: “Land of the free and home of the brave.”
At that time, the “land of the free” had more than 1.3 million enslaved people. And now you’re going to deny their descendants this second song?
— I will admit, however, that I have one thing in common with Marjorie Taylor Greene. Like her (presumably), I had no idea what Kendrick Lamar was rapping about.
The words were there, on my TV screen, but I still couldn’t follow them. Blame it on my age, my race (Caucasian), my roots (small-town Wisconsin), but I’m baffled by words fired at machine-gun speed. I can’t follow Shakespeare, either, so Lamar is in good company.
I did, however, think the choreography for his halftime show was brilliant. I liked Sza (I also liked her movie, “One of Them Days,” which also wasn’t aimed at my age/race/roots) and I thought her red-leather jacket should go in the Super Bowl Hall of Fame.
— One thing I liked very much was the emphasis on uplifting messages.
Yes, they were a tad repetitious. There were three of them – delivered by Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and (leading up to the Gaga song) the Fox Sports people. There were also commercials with similar messages.
This was welcome repetition. Each was beautifully written, delivered and filmed. Each was timely; in the first six weeks of 2025, we’ve seen fierce tragedies in New Orleans, Philadelpha, Washington, D.C., California, North Carolina and beyond.
And each reminded us of something important: In fiction, tragedies often stir people’s worst instinct; in real life, they usually stir the best.
— And now my favorite commercials:
… The inspirational ones. One was for Jesus, so you’d kind of expect it to inspire. One was for Jeep, so you wouldn’t; Harrison Ford delivered one of the longest (and best) monologs of his career. The others were for Pfizer (cancer research), Nike (female athletes), the NFL (“I Am Somebody”) and – really – potato chips. We saw a little girl tenderly coaxing her crop of one potato.
… Starbucks. I’ve never drunk coffee and never will, but this almost made a convert of me.
… On the flip side, Dunkin’ Donuts, trying to lure the coffee crowd.
… And some clever ones. One had a singing seal, voiced by the singer named Seal. Another had sloths.
— Now that I think of those, it turns out that I did enjoy the Super Bowl marathon. Oh yes: The Eagles built up a huge lead and coasted to a 40-22 victory. I understand that if the Chiefs had won, they would have been the first team with three straight wins.