Super Bowl game was fun, the rest was embarrassing

By Jeff

The game portion of the Super Bowl was great. It wasn't the prettiest game, but it had fans excited for all four quarters. Just look at the estimated television viewership. More than 110 million people watched the game. That's a third of the country's population.

Too bad the game didn't overshadow some embarrassing factors surrounding the rest of the event.

First, Dallas and the NFL really screwed up with this ticket problem. Hundreds of people who traveled to Dallas and paid for hotel rooms were denied entrance into the game despite having tickets. The temporary seating that Jerry Jones had built was not approved by the fire marshall. So imagine yourself in the shoes of these people. You're all stoked for the biggest sporting event of the year; you've spent hundreds, probably thousands of dollars on the tickets, travel, food and accommodations; and then you walk up to the ticket window and are told that they can't let you in.

OK, maybe you would turn these people away too.

Sure, getting free tickets to the next Super Bowl is nice, but who says they want to go to the next Super Bowl? These were probably Steelers or Packers fans and there is no guarantee they will be in the big game next season. It also doesn't factor in the time and maybe work days that these people missed in order to attend the game. It's one of the biggest failures in sports I have ever heard of.

One more thing on the tickets issue. I get that the workers installing the seating were trying like hell to get it done in time for the game. Problems arise and I don't have a problem with the seating not being ready for the game. My problem is that these fans had no warning. They showed up at the stadium and were told their seats we no longer available. Would it have been so hard to notify these people and keep them in the loop? Blindsiding fans like that is not acceptable.

Second, Christina Aguilera botched the national anthem for the world to see. I can't make fun of her too much.  No one has ever performed on a bigger stage in the history of television. Of course, it still looks terrible when you have someone that doesn't appear to know her country's national anthem. At least she sounded good.

Are flyovers really that cool?

Third, the flyover by the Navy jets was ridiculous. Many football venues do flyovers. Hell, Elon once had people parachute in before a home game. The problem arises when the venue that is being flown over is a friggin dome! The majority of people probably couldn't see the jets through the roof, so they watched it on the big screen. Why not just get footage of "Top Gun" and play it on the screen. It would have saved $450,000.

Fourth, The Black Eyed Peas were terrible. Can we please just stop the halftime show? Have a contest or something for lucky fans like the conference championship games in college do. When was the last time the halftime show was actually good? The sound quality is bad and the performers are forced to do medleys to get in the popular songs.

Maybe I'm just bitter because the Steelers lost.

Iron Maiden - Can I Play With Madness