Elvis Presley and Ann Margaret in Viva Las Vegas
Hey Everyone:
I hope you’re enjoying this game more than I am.
Every year I am in a Super Bowl pool with questions like total number of fumbles, total number of interceptions, total number of sacks etc.
I always go for the low number on those items, the figuring being that these are the two best teams in the league competing for the championship.
This year I may actually get shut out. What a slop fest this has been, The Chiefs are acting like this is the first time they’ve played in a big game. I give the Niners credit for playing lock down defense and I have to tip my cap for that flea flicker.
Taylor Swift must be sitting there saying “I f-ck-ng flew all night for this?” Would have loved to see her reaction when her man had to be restrained from attacking coach Andy Reid.
As for the commercials, yeah, I choked up for the Gronk commercial when they thanked the late Carl Weathers. That campaign commercial for RFK Jr? I thought that was a Robert Smiegel SNL skit.
Anyway….
I've said here before that one of the iPhone features I enjoy using is the weather app. All week I tracked the weather in Las Vegas, and maybe I should have known this, but the weather wasn't great from what I could see. It actually rained out there Monday, Tuesday and Friday, and the temps weren't any warmer than they were here in NYC. It was 36 degrees in Vegas this morning, 46 here.
It's not affecting the game any, as Allegiant Stadium has a roof, but I always thought of Vegas as a warm weather city all year round.
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As we discussed last week, the biggest by far non-game story of Super Bowl 58 has been Taylor Swift's commute to the game from her concert in Tokyo.
According to EDNN, Swift's show at the Tokyo Dome finished up at 9:40 PM Saturday Night Tokyo time (7:40 AM- EST and 4:40 AM PST- Las Vegas).
At 7 PM EST (4PM PST) both EDNN and The Athletic were reporting that a private plane from Japan landed at LAX.
And at 4:40 PM EST, 1:40 PST and 6:40 AM Tokyo time (in case you were interested) Taylor Alison Swift arrived at Allegiant Stadium. Now we can get down to business.
I had suggested last week that perhaps a NORAD like tracker would be a great idea, but apparently who didn't like that idea was Swift herself....
Jack Sweeney, a 21 year old college student at the University of Central Florida, operated a social media account called TaylorSwiftJets, that operated on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Meta, the company that owns those three entities took Sweeney's site down after Swift's lawyers threatened legal action.
Per Time Magazine....
Using public flight monitoring data from the Federal Aviation Administration, Sweeney has created bots that track the routes, plane details, and other travel information of a number of celebrities and other people of interest, including Mark Zuckerberg, Kim Kardashian, Drake, Russian oligarchs, and Elon Musk—who in 2022 similarly threatened legal action against Sweeney over safety concerns. (The @ElonJet Twitter account was ultimately suspended, though Sweeney has since taken to Threads to continue tracking Musk’s jets and has another X account that posts tracking information on a 24-hour delay.)
The truth is that there are too many sickos out there who for whatever reason would want to do Swift harm Unfortunately that's the world we live in. So I get it that she wouldn't want the whole world knowing her whereabouts 24/7.
But for better or worse, this is a huge story, I've already said it's the big story of this Super Bowl it could arguably be the biggest non football story in the history of the Super Bowl. The last thing I want is for Taylor Swift to be fearing a stalker, but I still think it would have been fun following her journey from the land of the Rising Sun to Sin City.
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Another year, another Super Bowl sans our two local teams. The Giants have at least won a couple this century, the Jets haven't won since a few months before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
But the Jets made news the only way they can during Super Bowl week, by having someone in the organization do or say something. Owner Woody Johnson, at the NFL Awards gala the other night took a few digs at Zach Wilson and coach Rob Saleh, and essentially put Saleh and GM Joe Douglas on notice.
There was really noting newsworthy to what he said, it's no secret that the Jets are looking to deal Wilson, and the real news would have been if Woody came out and said Saleh and Douglas were safe no matter what happens in 2024. There are a huge contingent of media and fandom that wanted to see either one or both of them sent packing last month, especially in light of some of the coaches who became available. (For the record I'm not one of those fans-I think Douglas has made enough good decisions to deserve the benefit of the doubt, and I still believe Saleh can be an effective coach)
You know what I really would have been impressed with? If Woody himself had decided to take some of the accountability for this whole mess. I'm tempted to say that Woody acts as if someone else hired Douglas and Saleh, except that in fact someone else DID hire them (Woody's brother Christopher). If I'm going to point a finger at someone, it would be the Johnson brothers. Of course that's a waste of time and energy, they're not going to sell the team. They're just going to keep screwing it up. And we the fans are the ones who get screwed.
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For years, the commissioners of the four major North American Sports avoided Las Vegas like the plague. Phil Mushnick in his Friday Post column wrote about a slew of incidents that took place in Vegas involving athletes. From DWI's to shootings and bar room brawls. He didn't mention (probably because he wasn't an athlete) Tupac Shakur's shooting and subsequent death after a Mike Tyson fight in Vegas in 1996.
The real reason Vegas wasn't touched with a 10 foot pole by the respective sports caretakers was the association with gambling. More than steroids or narcotics or even guns for crying out loud, nothing made commissioners quake in their shoes more than their players being anywhere near gambling. This summer will mark Pete Rose's 35th year since he was kicked out of baseball for betting on his team. Sometime in the next few months, we're going to delve into that whole story again. Especially in light of how all 4 sports have now dove in head first into sports betting, (Fan Duel, MGM, Draft Kings et al) and have embraced Las Vegas as a sports city.
Indeed, the NHL (with the Golden Knights) the NFL (the Raiders) MLB (possibly the A's) and the NBA (who have held All-Star Games in Vegas, and whose WNBA team, the Aces just won the championship) all have their stakes planted in Sin City. It's really only a matter of time before the NBA puts a team there. And although MLB owners unanimously voted to allow the A's to move to Vegas, Carolyn Goodman, the Las Vegas mayor, suggested that the A's would be better off staying in Oakland.
The only other time I ever heard of a city NOT wanting a team to move there was with the Chargers. Their owner wanted to move to LA so they could play in the new stadium built for the Rams. (So-Fi Stadium-site of last year's Super Bowl). San Diego didn't seem all that broken up about the Chargers leaving, and Ls Angeles really didn't want them either. In fact while the new place was being built, the Chargers played in a 30,000 seat soccer stadium, and had games that didn't sell out.
My default stance on things of this nature is that teams should stay where they are, and that taxpayers shouldn't be footing bills for stadiums that host teams owned by billionaires. But we all saw what sorry shape the Oakland Coliseum is in, what with possums pooping in the visiting team's broadcast booth. (See WM April 23, 2023). The late Al Davis and his son, current Raiders owner Mark Davis, f-cked the city of Oakland and the A's in particular 9 ways to Sunday. It would be great if they could figure out a way to build a new stadium in Oakland, but failing that, I can't really blame the A's for wanting to head to Vegas.
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Of course I can't let this Super Bowl special go without my annual complaint about the game being played in February. This is the Niners 8th trip to the Super Bowl. They won in the 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989 and 1994 seasons. They lost in 2012 and 2019. Their first win was on 1/24/1982. Their second win was 1/20/1985. Three and Four were back-to-back 1/22/89 and 1/28/1990.
Their two losses were in February. 2/3/13 and 2/2/20.
I miss the Super Bowl in January. And I heard more about them eventually moving it to President's Day Weekend. I really hope not, but that seems to be the goal.
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This is the 20th anniversary of the Super Bowl of the Justin Timberlake/Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at halftime. I don't remember the final score of the game, but the Patriots beat the Panthers.
This is the 10th anniversary of the Super Bowl played here in NY. The Seahawks beat the Broncos 43-8. I don't remember who the halftime show was, but I'm sure my sister and my brother-in-law will remind me. 😆😆
Enjoy the rest of Super Bowl XLVIII.
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