Dave’s Football Blog

We’re rewinding the Prince concert and watching it again. I told you to expect the unexpected, didn’t it? Seriously, you didn’t a marching band to introduce “Baby I’m A Star,” did you? You didn’t expect him to bust out “Proud Mary,” “All Along The Watchtower” and “The Best of You,” did you? I love how he had this look on his face that said, “I just did a Foo Fighters song, and this whole crowd fucking loved it.”

Of course, the curtain shot during “Purple Rain” — an entirely appropriate song, given the downpour he played in — was the money shot. You’ll see that picture all over the Internet tomorrow. I couldn’t get a good shot of it, though, but I’ll try to post it here later.

3rd quarter is starting. Time for some chili…

Money went bankrupt at the end of the half. Adam Vinatieri missed a 36-yard field goal as time expired, and the score remains 16-14 at the half. Of course, this followed two more turnovers on two consecutive plays. That’s happened twice now. Both teams have 3 turnovers. Did I mention it’s raining?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a halftime show to enjoy. This requires more drink…

7 plays and 58 yards later, the Colts have taken the lead on a Dominic Rhodes 1-yard TD run. Very solid drive by the Colts. Manning wanted to go for two, but Dungy decided not to chase points. So the Colts now lead, 16-14.

Some of these ads are a little rough. A robot committing suicide? A bunch of thug diseases beating the shit out of a guy in a heart suit? Nearly all of these commercials are just taking it one step too far. I’m sure a lot of people like that, but this room isn’t feelin’ it right now…

Budweiser scored a winner with the stray dog spot. Then Garmin scored a winner with the Japan-inspired Mapasaurus spot. Grab Your Garmin and Go! may have replaced Fantastic Voyage as the jingle of the nigh… wait, no, we’re still singing Fantastic Voyage. Good attempt, though…

Oh, yeah, Adam Vinatieri got a field goal. The Colts now trail the Bears, 14-9.

Can anyone hold onto the damn ball? Cedric Benson joined the turnover party, coughing up the ball after getting blasted on a run. Dwight Freeney recovered, prompting the one girl at the party to declare, “That guy’s ass is huge!”

Then, when CBS showed a photo of Cedric Benson while trainers were attending to him, we started singing, “Come along and ride on a Fantastic Voyage!” And we haven’t stopped.

Peyton Manning and the Colts O-line both look shaky out there early, while the Sex Cannon is firing on all cylinders, slinging bombs down the field like there’s no tomorrow. Thomas Jones has the big play so far, though.

As for the commercials, Bud Light’s doing okay, and GoDaddy grabbed all the guys attention again. (Kevin Rose got half a second of XLI airtime. Congrats.) For the most part, though, I’m not so impressed…

More like salesweenie. How are you gonna spend all that money on the ad spot, then spend next to nothing on the ad itself? Lame. Worse than Peyton Manning’s interception on that first drive…

Of course, Manning made up for it with a 53-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Reggie Wayne. Then Hunter Smith pulled a Tony Romo on the extra point and bobbled the snap. Just in case the 1080i picture didn’t make it clear that it was raining…

Bears lead 7-6. The FedEx moon office commercial took the lead.

Oh, and now we’ve had two fumbles and two turnovers — one on the kickoff that the Colts recovered, then one on a botched handoff to Joseph Addai that the Bears recovered. Then Thomas Jones ripped off a 53-yard run that set up a Rex Grossman TD pass to Muhsin Muhammad. Yeah, that Rex Grossman is just THE WORST EVAR!!!!

So, Bears lead 14-6. Time for more commercials. And more rain…

Let’s just let Devin Hester return the first kick for a TD, get the first score out of the way and get right to the commercials. I don’t think Adam Vinatieri will be kicking to Hester again tonight.

Thankfully for Chicago fans, the Bears didn’t jump all over Hester like the Buckeyes did on Ted Ginn Jr. Hester’s still in it, and Chicago’s up early, 7-0.

That little spinny thing CBS did for player intros? That’ll be in Madden 08. Just watch…

…or was that the pre-game performance on the field? Seriously, it was like Timothy Leary vomited all over Steve Sabol. Horrible.

Here inside the Rebel Base, we fart in the general direction of your copyright laws. We will watch this game using a DLP projection blasting a 100-inch 1080i image on the wall, and there is nothing you can do to stop us. Nothing.

So fuck you and your lawyers. This is our Super Bowl party, and we’re going to party our way. Bitches.

I have arrived at the party, such as it is. Lots of people are calling me begging out of this thing, so it’s probably not even going to be a party at this point. I’m going to have so much leftover giant sandwich that I won’t have to buy lunch for a week.

Right now, though, we’re watching the Duke-Florida State basketball game, because we’re in North Carolina, and that’s what we do in February in North Carolina. Watch basketball. The other option is two hours of pre-game crapola, and quite honestly, I’ve had enough of pre-game crapola. An actual game — any actual game — is more interesting. Manchester United at Tottenham Hotspur was more interesting than nearly all the pre-game crapola.

So let’s get the spectacle started already, eh?