Welcome, folks to the end of the 2015 NFL season and Super Bowl L 50. Right about now you are either hating on Cam Newton, praising Peyton Manning as the greatest quarterback of all-time or on your way to Red Lobster, any way you cut it, everybody is right and everybody is wrong.
So, in honor of overreaction week in the NFL where the Broncos are the greatest team ever, Newton is a cry baby and the combo of Coldplay/Bruno Mars/Beyoncé is the greatest musical combo since Aerosmith/Britney Spears/Nelly/N’Sync, here are some quick hits:
PEYTON MANNING IS THE GREATEST OF ALL-TIME, SERIOUSLY HE IS LIKE THE FREAKING BEATLES OF QUARTERBACKS!!!
Let me be the first to say that there is now enough on both sides of the argument to support Manning as the greatest QB who ever lived and to make cases for other people, and honestly it all depends on the prism in which you view his career through. If you want to make the case for him, he’s a two-time Super Bowl champion, third all-time in postseason wins, all-time leader in yards and touchdowns and holds the single-season records for yards and touchdowns (a record he’s claimed twice). If that’s not enough to make a claim, I don’t know what is.
However, there are some people (like Bryan McBournie and others who grovel at the feet of Tom Brady) that point to multiple postseason failures (nine first game exits when he was on a heavily favored team) and the fact that he lost twice in the Super Bowl and while he is part of a distinguished club of two-time winners, championships are all that matter.
While I agree that championships are part of the discussion, this is the ultimate team sport. Manning carried a team that had no business winning a Super Bowl in 2006 and was carried by a team that had no business winning a Super Bowl in 2015. One year he was asked to make up for mistakes, one year he was asked not to screw it up. It’s a weird case for 18, especially with the lofty expectations, but give this win and career time to breathe, and I think we’ll have a better perspective.
DAB ON THAT, CAM, YOU CLASSLESS BUM
Before we go crucifying Newton for his postgame presser, let’s acknowledge that he greeted Manning with a smile at midfield after the game and congratulated him. Manning left the field before the game was even over in one of his losses. Newton admitted he got beat, and is as emotional in losing as he is in his successes.
This is who Newton is.
He celebrates with his team and is emotional and he takes losses hard. He lost the ultimate prize for his profession and knows that opportunity may come only once. Dan Marino never got back to the Super Bowl, Philip Rivers has never been, Dan Fouts never made it, Donovan McNabb made it once and Warren Moon never even sniffed one. The game isn’t fair, and sometimes you never even get a chance.
WORST HALFTIME EVER
I don’t have nearly as big a problem with Coldplay as some people do, however this was the most obviously wrong choice for the Super Bowl from the get go since Madonna, The Who, Bruno Mars, The Black Eyed Peas … you get the picture.
First off name one Coldplay song that gets you hyped? Yup, I couldn’t either. Coldplay is a band you put on when you’re driving around at night during the middle of winter or when you’re setting the mood on Valentine’s Day. This is not someone you play Newton and Von Miller highlights to.
Secondly, Coldplay is a politically charged band that uses any platform they have as their medium to shove their latest message down your throat to their most recent slow to medium tempo hit.
FREE TIBET!
Call me crazy, but the NFL was setting themselves up for backlash combining this opportunity for Coldplay along with Beyoncé’s politically charged performance that somehow allowed Mars to ruin yet another Super Bowl halftime show. For me, whatever side you are on, I don’t care, but when I watch the Super Bowl I want to drink beer eat the most unhealthy combination of foods I will have all year, enjoy the game, laugh at the commercials and be entertained, and needless to say the game and halftime show failed on a lot of levels this year.
WHO WILL WIN SUPER BOWL LI?
As the least–biased writer on this site, I have to that either the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions will play to the first Super Bowl tie in NFL history, or the Steelers edge out the Cardinals, take your pick.