Tag Archives: Super Bowl

Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) blog, blog, diversity, news, race

Bruno Mars wins Super Bowl Sunday as explosive half-time performance catapults him to world-class entertainer status

Unless you were a Seahawks fan, Super Bowl 48 wasn’t much for football.

But if you didn’t know how good Bruno Mars was, you found out on Sunday night.

After Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos were shutout by the Seattle defense in the first half, Mars came on the field with enough energy to match both teams.

With an intro by a diverse chorus of young singers in front of a U.S. flag, Mars appeared center stage banging the drums like he was announcing a new America—or at least its soundtrack.

In Mars, we have the perfect representative: half-Filipino on his mother side, Puerto Rican and Hungarian/Jewish on his father’s side, born and raised in Honolulu, with soulful R&B pop roots that enable him to go from pop to hip-hop to James Brown.

As Brown might say, “Good God,” he’s got the moves.

Mars may just become the new “hardest working man in showbiz.”

With his drumming, his singing, his dancing, his stage presence, Mars put to rest any doubters who wondered why New Jersey artists like Bon Jovi or Springsteen weren’t asked to perform.

The NFL said Mars was always its first choice. Now we see why.

Still, even though Mars has been established since 2010 with multiple Grammy victories and nominations, doubters questioned his selection. His tour-de-force  half-time show was like his debut as world-class performer.

In the end, in the close-ups you could see the sweat drip from his brow. Then the wide shot revealed Mars, post-bow, humbled by the stadium’s roar of approval.

Quite a night for a Filipino kid from Honolulu.

I first sensed his greatness two years ago on Saturday Night Live.

Even there, there was some doubt whether he could host the show.

In the opening monologue he sang, “Can I be like Timberlake?”

It was a reference to the one-time boy band sensation now international star.

Then he delivered the punchline. “Underneath this trendy suit,” Mars sang,” hides a scared Filipino…”

To dispel all doubts, Mars broke into a gospel-like refrain. “I’ll be amazing,” he sang. “I can do it.” 

On Sunday he showed the world once again, that yes, this Filipino boy can.  

 

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Sherman’s March to the “C” leads to rant that exposes NFL’s unsporting ways (UPDATED with Sherman comment)

 

 

In this case, the “C” stands for Crabtree, as in Michael  the 49er wide receiver Sherman was guarding. And it was less a march than a leap and a tip, but it defined Sunday’s San Francisco-Seattle NFC Championship game. It also led to Sherman’s now-infamous scorched earth rant, where super classless Dick Sherman is very much less than civil.

The thuggy Stanford grad gives sports a bad name. Football is a game. It’s not war. It’s an escape from real life. When the game ends, we go back to it–life that is.  But loutish players like Sherman do not for a good time make.  The game lingers and stings. Add to that, the refs’ bad calls on unreviewable plays and one comes away from this year’s NFC championship with a sense of “jock injustice.”  

Sportsmanship makes it all palatable. But when none exists, sports becomes exposed as just another example of corporate showbiz.

Not with my money.

It’s all bad for the NFL product, the game, which has become the national game.

Sherman, no doubt is encouraged by the Seattle 12th man concept which sets back sportsmanship and football to Neanderthal times. Promoting loud and unruly behavior that goes beyond cheering to the point of hurting another team’s performance can only lead to fan hooliganism (they do serve alcohol at games), and as we see, extreme player taunting.  It’s said both teams have to play in the environment created by the 12th man, so things are equal. Right. What would make it even more equal is to play on neutral fields for all championship games. Either that, or bring a little tennis into the NFL. The crowd and the players need a shhhsh-ing.

Sherman’s end of game exclamation point simply promotes a side of the NFL that makes it ugly and unwatchable.

Far from sporting. Far from super. 

UPDATE:

Sherman wrote an act of contrition for SI today. But it seems like he sees what he did totally different:

“To those who would call me a thug or worse because I show passion on a football field—don’t judge a person’s character by what they do between the lines. Judge a man by what he does off the field, what he does for his community, what he does for his family.”

“But people find it easy to take shots on Twitter, and to use racial slurs and bullying language far worse than what you’ll see from me. It’s sad and somewhat unbelievable to me that the world is still this way, but it is. I can handle it.”

 

http://mmqb.si.com/2014/01/20/richard-sherman-interview-michael-crabtree/

 

Uh, Sherman, it’s all the same.  The way you play on the field and the way you deport yourself after the game. You are that character between the lines.

And that post-game interview on FOX was disgusting.

 

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The Nevada Caucuses aren’t the Super Bowl, Thank God: Who will win the really big game and why

Mitt Romney may have won in Nevada as predicted, but a caucus is not a Super Bowl. It’s not even the AFC wild card game. If you’re a candidate, the best thing you can say after leaving Nevada is, at least Sheldon Adelson still likes me. And if you’re Romney, you’re happy that your Mormon homies thought enough of you to back you. And then you move on to the next state before you say something dumb about poor people.

I’ll refrain today from saying any more, except that Newt Gingrich, who lost in Nevada, was on “Face the Nation” this morning referring to what he called Obama’s attack on Catholics.

What he do? Take away their rosaries?

This is a real B.S. GOP ploy, and I’ll have more on that tomorrow.

But you know it’s B.S.GOP ploy when Bob Schieffer, the FTN moderator doesn’t take the bait. Nor should you.

The GOP sure likes to take up religious wars.

No, the only war that applies this Sunday, even among Catholics (especially those who pray to “Touchdown Jesus”) is on the football field.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. We are now in the middle-aged Super Bowls, where the Roman numerals require translation.  I remember seeing the first one on TV with my buddy Frankie Veracruz over on 18th Street in San Francisco, just down from the Castro. A lot has changed since then.

When your team(s) aren’t in the big game, it just feels like an obligatory thing. Like going to church. So my heart’s not into it, but I’ll genuflect to the NFL just the same.

Here’s my analysis:

I’ve been following the NFL more this year than in the past because I realized I needed a new mid-life addiction: Fantasy Football.

Because of this, I know the Giants well.  If Eli Manning can throw to Victor Cruz regularly, it’s a signal that his game is on and the Pats defense is vulnerable.  If you see Manning throwing more  to Nix and Manningham more, then the game will be much closer.

Cruz is the key to the air attack. When he gets open, Manning marches down the field. As the defense adjusts, then the running game does its thing.  On the ground, it’s all about Bradshaw. When he was hurt in the middle of the season, Jacobs filled the void well, so well that Bradshaw had a hard time getting back into it. If Manning establishes the run with both running backs, the Patriots defense will be struggling to keep up.

I like Brady to Welker for the Pats, and my days around Boston, as well as Brady’s local Bay Area ties to his Catholic high school, make me want to root for the Pats.

But I think the Giants will be too much for the Pats’ D.

Besides, actress Rooney Mara is a granddaughter of the Giants’ owner. Have you seen her in “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”?

MY PREDICTIONS

The score goes 7-0, 7-7,  heavy eating ensues, 14-7, 14-14, halftime, all toilets flush, Madonna has  a career malfunction when at least half the audience wonders why Lady Gaga has tamed her act and is singing all those old songs,  21-14, 21-21, we all eat more bad food, 28-21, 28-28, drink more here,  31-28. … done. NY Giants over the Pats.

The “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” beats “Victoria’s Secret.”

Too bad, 49ers. Coulda shoulda…