Passing Shots

Sunday’s Game Was Super

Like most of my friends and media associates, I wasn’t expecting much from last Sunday’s Super Bowl. As was the case for most of the 37 games preceding it, I figured the competitive aspect of the event would be over by halftime. Instead, the Patriots and Panthers gave us one of the most exciting championship games in the history of football and Tom Brady established himself as the NFL’s best clutch quarterback since John Elway. Since learning that Carolina’s back-up offensive right tackle Matt Willig lives here in the Palisades (look for a story on him next week), my heart was with the Panthers, but my brain told me New England would win. I also figured, with two great defenses, that it would be a low scoring game. And I was right–at least for the first 27 minutes. One of the many trivia questions rattled off at the party I went to was the lowest score at halftime of a Super Bowl. The answer is two points, in Super Bowl IX, when only a Pittsburgh safety stood in the way of a scoreless first half (the Steelers went on to win their first Super Bowl with a 16-6 victory over the Vikings). I was rooting for the game to go into overtime. Not because it’s never happened before in a Super Bowl, but because I would’ve won money in the pool I had entered. It’s a shame that the Patriots only had to drive 30 yards for the winning field goal, thanks to John Kasay’s kick-off blunder. It would have been more dramatic if Brady had to drive his team the length of the field as Joe Montana did to beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII, but I have no complaints. I arrived at the party broke and I left it broke, but the game itself was a gem. I would rank it alongside the Patriots’ victory over the Rams two years ago in Super Bowl XXXVI (won on Adam Vinatieri’s field goal on the final play), the Rams’ 23-16 victory over Tennessee in Super Bowl XXXIV and the Giants’ 20-19 victory over the Bills in Super Bowl XXV as the most exciting finishes ever. My personal favorite, however, will always be the first Super Bowl I ever saw: Super Bowl XIV back in 1980. A record crowd of over 104,000 packed the Rose Bowl to watch the Steelers battle the underdog Rams through seven lead changes before pulling away for a 31-19 victory and fourth Super Bowl title. So what did I think of the halftime show? I missed it. I was outside playing touch football in the street… It was nice to read the NBA All-Star picks of Steve Kerr on the internet last week. Steve, of course, retired before the start of the current NBA season but grew up in the Palisades and played for PaliHi on his way to winning five championship rings (three with the Chicago Bulls and two with San Antonio). Palisadian-Post managing editor Bill Bruns remembers when Steve wrote for PaliHi’s student newspaper, The Tideline, some 20 years ago. Now, he’s working as an analyst for TNT and a columnist for Yahoo! sports. Steve had several interesting points, including one on Vince Carter’s receiving the most votes for the upcoming NBA All-Star game: “Carter’s an extremely talented player who is fun to watch. But he’s not close to being the best player in the NBA. Just like in politics, it’s not who deserves it, it’s who is most popular.” Steve added that, in his opinion, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett are the two best players in the game and that Duncan should actually be the West team’s starting center, since that’s the position he really plays. Kerr’s starting lineups are as follows: for the West… Peja Stojakovic, Kevin Garnett and Duncan on the front line with Sam Cassell and Kobe Bryant in the backcourt. And for the East…. Ben Wallace at center, Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest at forward, Baron Davis and Jason Kidd at guard. Finally, I’d like to congratulate our Palisades neighbor and hall-of-fame Dodgers play-by-play announcer Vin Scully, who was named best radio and television play-by-play announcer at the 13th annual Southern California Sports Broadcasters awards in Toluca Lake. Still going strong Vin, keep it up.