Super Bowl memories and predictions

It’s been ten years since Janet Jackson shocked the world with her “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl half time show. We can’t even show it here. Where were you when you either saw it, or missed it? Some people missed it because they had their faces buried in some guacamole or maybe their wife’s best friend’s bosom.

We all know what happens at these parties when too many people have too much to drink and the petty resentments grow into monstrously large mountains of contempt. So, don’t sit there and judge me for mentioning it. You’ve never been to a Super Bowl party where the shenanigans got out of hand?

One year, back in the 90’s I was at an SB party in one of the rich suburbs of San Diego. The hostess and host put this party on every year and invited close to a hundred people and their families and friends.

Well, just so happens, the hostess walked into their master bedroom and found the host (her husband), getting it on with one of his underage, teen employees. Man, the party was over before all the barbeque was eaten and there were cases of beer and soda left. I wanted to fix a box of leftovers to take home, but was informed that was a bit inappropriate, given the circumstances. The hostess wanted everyone out of the house as quickly as possible — including her husband the host.

There’s a nearly happy ending to the story … well, no there isn’t.

At any rate, when Janet Jackson flashed the worldwide audience I was on my lunch break at a big time employer (a very large telecommunications company) and was sitting three feet away from a 50-inch wide screen high definition TV. I nearly dropped my bologna sandwich.

This was at the big time telecommunication company’s local cable division, so when I got out to the customer service floor after my break was concluded, the meagerly staffed phones were lit up with complaints and customers cursing the cable company for allowing Janet Jackson to do that and for showing it.

“We have no control over the Super Bowl or the half time show, Ma’am. We just provide the broadcast. Nobody gave us a warning Janet Jackson was going to flash us.”

Doesn’t matter, it was still the cable company’s fault.

Just a short tangent: there are more than a few men and women who are grateful for Ms. Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction.

Just sayin’ … we strive to be fair and balanced here at the Los Angeles Post-Examiner. No doubt the publishers will distance themselves from this point — the fair and balanced point — I think.

Without looking it up: which two teams were competing for the Vince Lombardi Trophy in Super Bowl XXXVIII and which team won? Go ahead and think about it for a moment. One team was in the Big Game for the first time and the other had been there several times …

… kudos to those of you who know the answer: you are truly football fanatics.

To be honest, I couldn’t remember exactly, although I was sure of the one team, but not the other: the New England Patriots versus the Carolina Panthers. The Patriots won of course … does anyone care? Sorry, just had to jab the Pats fans.

So, the half time show included Jessica Simpson, P. Diddy, Kid Rock and assisting Janet with the wardrobe malfunction: Justin Timberlake. He gets all the good gigs. But then, he has all the dance moves too.

Now we are getting hyped up for Super Bowl XLVIII. The Seattle Seahawks (The Mariners of football, according to Stephen Colbert; that was a funny episode) and the Denver Broncos (definitely not the Colorado Rockies of football — the Broncos win championships).

Is everyone over Richard Sherman’s post-game interview with Erin Andrews of Fox Sports? Apparently not, TV personalities are still talking about it. So, Sherman’s outburst was … unexpected, but does he really rise to the level of being a thug?

In my past I’ve known some true thugs; street dealers and the like. Richard Sherman has done none of that and in fact is the very antithesis of what it means to be a thug.

There are some football players who could very well be thugs, like Aaron Hernandez, formerly of the New England Patriots. He was arrested last year on connection to the slaying of his friend, Odin Lloyd. I’ll wait until a jury of his peers cast their verdict before I call him a thug and murderer.

Thugs are generally the type of people who are arrogant bullies and damn few pro football players match that description — even the ones we don’t like very much.

Sherman theorized that people use the term “thug” now as a replacement for the “N”-word. He’s on to something there.

He’s young, he’s black and he’s loud — thug.

You know who fits the description of the word thug”? Bill O’Reilly. Really? You didn’t think I was going to get political with this?

But, to his credit, O’Reilly didn’t call Sherman a thug, although several of his fellow FoxNews cronies did. O’Reilly saves that kind of talk for his diatribes against President Obama.

Which is the segue into this: every year the president does an interview on Super Bowl Sunday with the network that is hosting the Big Game.

The game is on FoxSports so President Obama is doing his interview with Bill O’Reilly of FoxNews. It won’t be the first time O’Reilly has interviewed the Commander-in-Chief and probably won’t be the last time, but it’s a high profile interview.

Most people who interview national figures have respect for their subjects, at least as far as not interrupting the subjects when they’re answering questions. Bill O’Reilly interrupts people all the time, including the president.

Granted, the president can get long-winded during an interview, you just have to watch him on The Tonight Show or Late Night With David Letterman to know that, but O’Reilly does it quickly and often.

Is that thuggish behavior? Not really, but it displays a certain arrogant attitude that is characteristic of bullies. But I won’t call O’Reilly a thug.

What got me though was a post I saw on Facebook this morning: Conservative blabber Todd Starnes posted a photo of President Obama throwing a football. And then went on to demean and criticize the president for posting that photo on the White House website with, “Ever notice that it’s always about Obama? Everything is always about Obama.”

Well, it is the White House and he is the president and we’ve been interested in what president’s have to say about our champion sports teams, at least since President Richard Nixon made it known he was an NFL football fanatic.

But somehow President Obama is out of line for showing an interest in the Super Bowl and having a photo of himself throwing a football posted on the White House website.

Way to be petty, Todd Starnes.

So, this went off the rails a little bit. It’s Super Bowl Sunday and we’re getting ready to watch some football. I’m thinking about Janet Jackson and how we will most likely never be treated to such a nationally televised spectacle as that; this year Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers headline the half time show.

Yeah, it’ll be cool to see them perform, but it’s unlikely the Chili Peppers will come out on stage wearing nothing but socks on their genitals. That would cause some clucking in the henhouse, make this Super Bowl truly memorable.

Most people are probably like me: they only remember the Super Bowls in which their team(s) appeared. The only Super Bowl games I remember are the ones the Packers were in and that one the Chargers lost to the San Francisco 49er’s: Super Bowl XXIX, January 29, 1995 in Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami, Florida. It was a blow out. The Niners won, 49-26.

The Green Bay Packers won Super Bowls I and II and then SB XXXI and then [expletives deleted] … (sigh) … they lost to them effin’ Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII …

Sorry Peyton Manning, you’re a great quarterback and had one of the greatest seasons of all time; sorry family living in Colorado, but I can never — ever — root for the Denver Broncos, any more than I can root for the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

1982 — look it up.

Then there was Super Bowl XLV: the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Cowboys Stadium, Arlington, Texas, February 6, 2011.

And of course I remember Super Bowl XXXVIII — Janet Jackson’s moment. But I don’t really remember the game, just that half time.

So my pick to win this game is the Seattle Seahawks. They have the best defense in football this season and their quarterback, the second year QB, is Russell Wilson, alum of the University of Wisconsin. I might remember this one too if the Seahawks do indeed win, but really, a controversial half time show will do more to instill a more memorable Super Bowl.

Now, it’s time to get ready and go to a friend’s house (A Chicago bears fan, no less) to eat all his food and drink all his beverages. He better have a big screen TV and I don’t want to bother with any of those knuckleheads who are there just for the party: I’m there to watch the game.

Have a great Super Bowl experience.