NFL 25-26: Blame The Refs for this Thread Title

[Scarlet]

Not sure where to put this nugget of info, as people have been very supportive of Puerto Rico on this board in other threads- but the halftime show is where you may have seen this:

Did you notice the lighter color blue in the Puerto Rican flag? The light color was all over the place- the band's shirts, Lady Gaga's dress....

But that light blue was the color of the flag before the US made them change it to match the blue in the US flag in 1948. Which was 50 years after the US colonized them and had been abusing them since. So showing that color of flag over the dark blue one was political.

Amazing piece of information! Thanks for sharing.

My one critique, if you want to call it that, was about the staging. Which, don't get me wrong, was amazing. I was just curious how it looked to people in the stands. I feel like the set was produced for viewing on screen and people there wouldn't get the full effect we all got watching it. I wasn't there so I shouldn't be so concerned but I was at a Super Bowl - the one where Lady Gaga was the half time performer, and I was able to see her whole performance. All that being said, I loved it and was so happy to see it. It was like a whole musical in 12-15 minutes. How do they top that for next year?

 

[St. Clown]

People started calling Kid Rock “Hillbilly Vanilli”!

 

[Kepler]

It quickly became obvious that he was lip-syncing his whole performance, giving the audience no more than a dance routine over the top of pre-recorded lyrics. The show, which was supposed to be a celebration of English-speaking Americans, didn't even feature a headliner singing in any language at all.

 

[French Rage]

I get that. I really do. That said, seeing so many things online about how this team didn't "deserve" it, I mean, come on. Softest schedule? Sure. But they won. The year before was also a soft schedule and they only won four games. This year, they won consistently, and their three playoff games were against some of the toughest defenses in the league. So, yeah, I think they did deserve to be there. Deserve to win? No. Seattle didn't "deserve" to win - at least not pronouncing they did before the game. After the game? Absolutely. Without question. They proved from the get go they were the better team

I don't think anyone was thinking they should exactly decline the invitation or anything like that, just that people felt much more confident picking the Seahawks to win and were not exactly shell-shocked when the Seahawks dominated more or less from the start. They won what they were supposed to to get there, not their fault Nix was hurt, I don't think any team would be expected to pass up a much easier CCG than expected.

Overall this NFL season was one of muted feelings. There was no dominant team from start to finish; it felt like every 2 or 3 weeks there was a team that was a favorite to make it to the SB and then they would lose a couple and suddenly were no longer the favorite. Usually there's one team that appears head and shoulders above everyone else, and some people get behind them because they want to see one team steamroll, and others get behind their opponent because they want to see the upset, so at least the camps get clearly defined; no such team this year. In the 2010s both the Patriots and the Seahawks were easy teams to hate, so you'd think them facing off would raise the temperature, but the 2020s teams aren't the 2010s teams; it's harder to get your blood boiled when you can't name hardly anyone on either roster. Heck, the fact they both came out of nowhere with almost-no-name rosters made it that much harder to strongly dislike either team, you had to give both credit for being strong as teams. Moreso in an era where teams spend $60M on "elite" QBs and then Sam Darnold and Drake Maye made it; a nice little finger to the insane QB spending.

It does make you wonder what would had happened if the Bills had beaten the Broncos and then the Pats. The chance to see them finally win would have been a much bigger story than the Seahawks and Patriots going yet again. But then we're on like year 6 of "this is the Bills year" and bad-ref-call or not they need to shit or get off the pot.

 

[French Rage]

My one critique, if you want to call it that, was about the staging. Which, don't get me wrong, was amazing. I was just curious how it looked to people in the stands. I feel like the set was produced for viewing on screen and people there wouldn't get the full effect we all got watching it. I wasn't there so I shouldn't be so concerned but I was at a Super Bowl - the one where Lady Gaga was the half time performer, and I was able to see her whole performance. All that being said, I loved it and was so happy to see it. It was like a whole musical in 12-15 minutes. How do they top that for next year?

True but the Super Bowl has been meant for TV consumption first and foremost for awhile now. Heck, all football it seems. College games don't tell you their start time until six days out because it's about optimizing the best games at the best times and figuring the people physically showing up will find a way to make the time.