Thoughts from the Super Bowl

But as we all know, the Super Bowl is a lot more than just a football game. In fact, you could break up Super Bowl Sunday into three categories: the game, the halftime show and the commercials.

The game

As far as the game went, you really couldn’t have asked for anything more than a game decided on the final two drives — the Rams scored then stopped the Bengals for the win.

Solid game, yes. Exciting? I just didn’t find it to be that. Maybe because I was not emotionally, or fiscally, involved with the game. But what was the highlight of the game? Did the game turn anyone we didn’t expect into a star?

For everything the game was: a close, tight affair between two evenly matched teams, it just seemed to be missing that extra something. Put it this way: was this a game you’ll think about five years from now? I won’t.

The halftime show

As far as I’m concerned, every Super Bowl halftime performance is judged against Prince’s show during Super Bowl 41 in 2007. Nothing has come even remotely close since then.

Until Sunday. The combination of some of the biggest OG’s in rap and hip-hop history — Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Mary J. Blige being the focal point, with support from 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar — brought down the house.

And I’ll be honest, it’s the first halftime show I’ve actually looked forward to and watched since Prince’s performance. Why? Because I was actually a fan of the music and performers Sunday, which I can’t say about literally any of the other halftime show headliners.

The best part of the show was, and this was something my wife pointed out, the fact that the performers looked like they were having actual fun. You could see Dre and Snoop smiling during the opening number of “The Next Episode,” almost as if they couldn’t believe they were doing the Super Bowl halftime show.

It still didn’t eclipse Prince’s show in my mind, but came closer than anyone else.

The commercials

This might have been the worst crop of Super Bowl advertisements that I can think of. Nothing stood out and in fact, most were downright lame — companies and corporations paid $7 million per 30 seconds for that?

Seemed there were three types of commercials: those that tried to resurrect an old bit (see the return of the E-Trade baby), the “star-studded” ad (like the car commercial with Tommy Lee Jones, Leslie Jones and Rashida Jones, which was a stupid commercial regardless), or ads that leaned heavily on nostalgia (I’ve never watched an episode of “The Sopranos” in my life so I had no idea who those people were in the electric Chevy Silverado commercial).

Regardless of which style was used, almost all of them fell flat. To me, the best commercial was the one for the NFL itself, which saw miniature NFL players in a video game maintain their stature as they busted out of the game and played in the kids’ house.

At least in that one, Walter Payton finally got his Super Bowl touchdown. Mike Ditka will never live that down.

So there you have it. My review of the Super Bowl. Now our attention turns to … well, I guess the Golden State Warriors and NBA basketball, since it appears Major League Baseball is willing to make itself even more irrelevant with a lockout that has no end in sight.

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Wyatt McGovern, a 2021 Burlingame graduate who is currently on the golf team at Columbia University, played in the Genesis Invitational Collegiate Showcase event Monday at Riviera Country Club as part of the Genesis Invitational, the latest stop on the PGA Tour. The event pairs a college golfer with a touring pro and a pair of amateurs as part of the festivities for the tournament that begins Thursday.

McGovern was Burlingame’s starting quarterback for two seasons, 2020 and 2021, but made his mark as a golfer, earning the 2019 Daily Journal Golfer of the Year honors.

McGovern is the first golfer from Columbia to compete in the event. One was scheduled to play in 2021, but the event was canceled because of COVID.

McGovern’s collegiate career is off to a strong start. During the fall season, with a 73 average, he had four top-25 finishes and two top-10 finishes. He also posted a team-low round of 67 at the Columbia Autumn Invitational.

The winner of the showcase also gets a sponsor’s exemption into the main field for the Genesis Invitational.

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The Pacifica Sports Hall of Fame is celebrating its 31st anniversary this month with a four-member induction class for 2022.

John Philipopoulos, longtime Burlingame football coach and athletic director and an Oceana graduate, headlines the 2022 class, which also includes Bill Bender, a Terra Nova graduate who starred in baseball at Santa Clara University before becoming a longtime fixture in youth sports; Rick Glosser, a Terra Nova graduate who spent 37 seasons as a high school basketball referee, and Sue Vaterlaus, a hall of fame weightlifter, who got her start at the Pacifica Athletic Club.

These four will honored during a ceremony Feb. 26 at the Grosvenor Hotel in South San Francisco. The program begins at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $60 per person and must be purchased in advance. Tickets will not be available at the door. Open to the public and proof of vaccination must be presented.

For more information, contact Horace Hinshaw, Pacific Sports Club president, at (650) 355-1034.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com.