Gordon Forgey: The game was not enough

The Super Bowl broadcast Sunday generated the largest television audience in history. More than 110 million viewers watched the New York Giants squeak out a win against the New England Patriots. An amazing 170 million people watched the game for at least seven minutes. That is roughly half the population of the United States.

The game is over now. Eli Manning, the winning quarterback and MVP, has already been to Disneyland. The victorious Giants have already been feted with a parade in New York City.

The game is over, but the national letdown lingers. When it comes to the Super Bowl, the game itself is never enough. This year is no different.

Tom Brady’s super model wife made headlines. She was overheard answering a heckler. Her retort was taken as criticism of her husband’s team. He couldn’t do it all, throwing the football and catching it at the same time, she said. The implication was that his teammates didn’t give him the support he needed, and they lost the game, not him. Big news.

Some veterans complained about the parade for the Giants. They declared that if a mere football team can be given a parade American veterans should be given one, too. Big news.

Madonna, the half-time headliner, who was criticized and lampooned for being too old to carry the event, escaped almost unscathed and received good marks for her show. Big news in itself. She may have been saved from criticism because one of her sidekicks on the show flashed an obscene gesture while on camera. It was missed by the network censors, working off a five second delay, and made it on the air. Big news.

And, there were the commercials. After all the pregame hype, they were generally rated as lackluster, not up to par with years past. Critiques of the commercials sucked up more air time than recaps of the game itself. Big news.

Then, Clint Eastwood was criticized for his narration of the half-time Chrysler commercial. It was a continuation of Chrysler’s “Imported from Detroit” campaign and highlighted the resurgence of the car company and the city and gave hope for the country. It is “half time in America,” he declared.

The commercial and Eastwood were immediately accused of making a political statement that some Republicans took as an endorsement of President Obama and his policies. Big news.

The game itself just wasn’t enough to satisfy the public. It is too much of a cultural phenomena. There has to be more, and sure enough there was this year. Almost lost in the aftermath, however, was the last minute pass from Manning to Mario Manningham. That really was big news.

Gordon Forgey

Publisher