Super Bowl was a disappointment

I woke up Sunday morning to the news that United States downhill skier Lindsey Vonn, who at 41 years old was returning to the Olympics for the first time since 2018, saw her comeback end quickly as she clipped one of gates near the start of the downhill and sent her to her second gruesome crash in a week, resulting in multiple surgeries for a broken leg.

In the early afternoon, it was all about the clown show that in the Phoenix Open, one that saw drunk knuckleheads impacting the outcome as twice Hideki Matsuyama had to step away from a shot because of some loudmouth in the stands. He ended up losing the tournament in a playoff.

That led into Super Bowl XL (that’s 60 for those who don’t know Roman numerals, and why would you?) at Levi’s Stadium. I have to say the Olympics and golf were infinitely better than the NFL championship game, which was one of the worst in recent memory. New England quarterback Drake Maye was certainly not ready for primetime and his Seattle counterpart, Sam Darnold, was barely better.

This Super Bowl will be remembered for Seattle’s stifling defense which had Maye seeing ghosts. There were a number of plays to be made, but time and again, Maye misfired on his throws. New England’s defense was nearly as a good, as that unit held the Seahawks to five field goals before Seattle scored a couple of late touchdowns to put the game away.

Additionally, the once vaunted Super Bowl commercial has finally jumped the shark. I can’t believe so many companies paid $10 million for a 30-second spot — for that? The worst was that guy Andy Cohen (not sure what he does, other than get drunk on CNN on New Year’s Eve) and some kind of gummy candy commercial.

The artificial intelligence Budweiser ad — the one that featured the young horse and baby bird that grew into a bald eagle — basically won the ad battle by default. I was literally mad as bad commercial after bad commercial came across my screen.

And then there was the Bad Bunny halftime show. And I’ll admit: I didn’t enjoy it. Had nothing to do with singing in Spanish. As the child of an immigrant father and the husband of an immigrant wife, I have been around Spanish my entire life. Every relative on my dad’s side speaks Spanish; same on my wife’s side. I can understand more Spanish than I can speak and I know just enough to get the gist of a conversation.

No, I didn’t enjoy it because the storyline just seemed so forced. I didn’t enjoy it because Bad Bunny does not have a lot of flow, as far as I’m concerned. The last point is a personal one: I have bad hearing and have had tinnitus for years, combined with years of loud music. I simply couldn’t hear what he was mumbling.

But I don’t hate the man for what he stands for. I simply don’t like his style of music. I am not familiar with his catalog because I don’t listen to him.

I saw clips of the Kid Rock halftime show. Bad Bunny was a million times better.

***

The Serra wrestling team came up short against Bellarmine in both the West Catholic Athletic League dual-meet season, as well as the WCAL championships this past weekend.

But Serra head coach Mike Klobuchar could not have asked for a better performance at the championships. The Padres sent wrestlers to 10 of the 14 weight-class championships and came back to San Mateo with five titles: Ryder Doleschal (113), Abe Coakley (120), Sebastian Garcia (157), Leon Bleess (175) and Solomon Zumbado (285).

Second-place finishes went to Luca Gordon (106), Dominic Andrini (144), Ian Keyak (165), Luke Hanna (190) and Tristen Klemish (215).

And the season is not over the for the team as the Padres will send a representative to the Central Coast Section North Regional qualifying tournament in all 14 weight classes for the third time in five years.

Joining the above mentioned wrestlers, the four other Padres finished in the top-5 to earn spots at CCS: Henry Fallice was third at 126, Colin Chuang and Nathaniel Tiu finished fourth at 132 and 138, respectively. Sean Wicks finished fifth at 150.

***

I guess there really are no safe spaces left. One of the last ones was the golf driving range, where there is accepted morality that you don’t rip off people who are simply just trying to dial in their swing.

I was at the driving range near my home Sunday morning — tried to go Saturday afternoon but the range was packed beyond capacity — so headed back out Sunday morning, at like 8:30 in the morning.

After warming up with stretching and some easy swings, I put my ear buds to really get into the practice session. It usually has me playing my home course in my head, which forces me to switch up clubs on each swing.

I turn around to grab my 9 iron, which I had used earlier — gone. Look everywhere, nothing. Called the golf course that I played Friday morning, a nine-hole executive course that I use to dial in my short game.

Maybe I left my 9 iron greenside? Nope. Nothing turned into lost and found. Asked the guy at the driving range. Again, nothing.

It makes absolutely no sense. A person’s golf clubs are like their fingerprints, exclusive to that person only. My clubs were built to my specs. No golfer in their right mind simply snakes a club they’ve never played before. Heck, my phone and wallet were clearly visible in my golf bag pocket; as was the range finder I got for Christmas. I know that thing costs more than one golf club.

Is nothing sacred anymore?

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.