Seahawks Fly Off With The Super Bowl

Seattle Seahawks huddle (Photo credit: Mike Morbeck)

The Seattle Seahawks dominated the 48th Super Bowl in East Rutherford, New Jersey with a defense that rendered the Denver Broncos' vaunted offense useless.  The Seahawks' offense was pretty good, too, racking up 43 points to the Broncos' 8 for Seattle's first pro championship since the SuperSonics (now based in Oklahoma City) won the NBA title in 1979.

You might say the Seahawks won this game almost from the very beginning, with the Broncos' Manny Ramirez sailing the football over Peyton Manning's head into the end zone twelve seconds into the game for a safety.  It was all downhill for Denver's offense from then on, turning over the ball four times including a misbegotten Manning pass picked off by Seattle's Malcolm Smith, who took it 69 yards for a touchdown.

The Broncos' defense wasn't that great either, giving up 206 passing yards and two touchdowns to Seahawk QB Russell Wilson, and an 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown to Percy Harvin.

If this is the way Manning may have wanted to end his illustrious NFL career, he and his teammates couldn't have picked a worse performance to go out on.  Especially after setting several records during the regular season.

It must irk Minnesota Vikings fans to see former players Harvin and Tavares Jackson wearing Super Bowl rings, while Adrian Peterson is in danger of never getting near the big game unless he bought a ticket.

Pete Carroll, who won a national college title at Southern California before the NCAA posse came for him, wins his first Super Bowl.  His coaching, cited by most as stereotypical laid-back New Age, belies a harmonic convergence between mind, body, soul, and a punishing style of play.  Whatever it was, it must have worked because the Seahawks are coming back to the Pacific Northwest with the Vince Lombardi trophy.

Other things you might have noticed during the Super Bowl telecast:

• Joe Namath in a fur coat doing the coin toss.  PETA must not like that.
• All the handwringing about the conditions for the first outdoor cold-weather Super Bowl were overblown.  The NFL really lucked out with temperatures in the 40s and rain, instead of snow on the frozen tundra of MetLife Stadium.
• Bruno Mars was this year's halftime entertainment.  He appears to be what the NFL wants--a safe, bland pop star who appeals to advertisers' target audience of young women.  The Red Hot Chili Peppers, on the other hand, gave the show some sorely needed energy with a higher nipple count than Janet Jackson's a decade ago.  OK, they were shirtless guys.  And this time it was intentional.
• The commercials for mostly cars, snack food and beer were so-so with recycled ideas.  But some of them were head-scratchers, such as the ones where you couldn't decide if they were selling a product or an idea.
• Bob Dylan does a Chrysler commercial.  Prince appeared in the sitcom "New Girl", a special episode which ran on Fox after the football game.  As Mr. Dylan would put it, things really have changed.