XL

Who knew the NFL was so PC?

From all I saw of the Superbowl last night, which, granted, was not more than I was forced to view on a TV hijacked by rabid football fans at a birthday party I was attending, and which amounted to not more than the national anthem, and that only because I wanted to see the basis for the spoof SNL played the night before of Dr. John, Aretha, and one of those Neville brothers doing their pre-anthem sound check, the league has developed quite the social conscience.

C'mon. Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King? And some vague link between the great cities of American music: Detroit (okay, the game was played there and Ms. Franklin is the Queen of Soul, Motown and all, I get that) and New Orleans, to honor the folks of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf. Huh? Who cooked that up? Maybe Seattle and Pittsburgh are so lacking in culture, or mass entertainment, or tragedy, substitutes were required.

As for the fans, well, I still heard a lot of hooting and hollering during the Moment of Silence.

The one bone they threw the neglected aging white guy audience, probably their prime market -- although this segment of the population was perhaps acknowledged with the halftime show entertainment -- was the quick shot of Hank in the crowd. Whether he ever got to growl his trademark, "Are you ready for some football?" or not I can't say as I was certainly not and left before kick off.

We missed the halftime show once at home because neither of our two channels happens to be whichever network showed the spectacle, so tell me, did the Stones do "Brown Sugar"?