A Few Super Bowl Observations:

• The big halftime fiasco: I didn't see it. But considering that the media has been awash in surgically modified Jackson family appendages recently, the thought of being subjected to yet another one induces little more than a yawn in me.



• Historically, the Super Bowl has been synonymous with "anticlimax." But since 1998, every other game has actually been quite exciting. The Super Bowl is still far from money in the bank from an excitement standpoint, but this year's game was full of tension and thrills, as were the terrific games between the Pats and the Rams in '02, the Titans-Rams in '00, and the Broncos victory over the Packers in '98. The Super Bowl used to be a guaranteed snooze-fest. Now it's only a snooze-fest half the time.



• I know it's an accepted part of the game, but I still can't seem to shake the feeling that winning a game on a field goal kick is kind of wimpy. Football is such a hard-fought game; it just doesn't seem right to have a bruising NFL football game ended by an effete European in a soccer shoe. Of course, the fact is that most overtime and close games are settled by field goals, and that's the way it's always been. Still, it doesn't sit well.



• Tom Brady deserves a lot of credit for leading his team to victory again. He's accomplished much in a young career. Still, the Joe Montana comparisons I heard all week are absurd. Please. Don't get me wrong--Brady is a top-notch QB. He's on a pace for easy entry into the Pro Football Hall of Fame if he can even put up merely respectable numbers for another seven or eight years. But to paraphrase Lloyd Bentsen, I watched Joe Montana. I saw Joe Montana play. And you, sir, are no Joe Montana.



• The Patriots deserved this victory, though the Panthers suprised everyone by putting a scare into them. Jake Delhomme showed he belongs among the big boys in the NFL quarterback ranks. But the play that cost Carolina the game was the atrocious kickoff by John Kasay after the great Panther TD drive to tie the game with just over a minute left. He practically handed the Patriots field goal position, giving Adam Vinatieri the chance to win a second Super Bowl with his foot.