British Expatriate Network

So did anyone watch the US global sports spectacular last night?
I watched it right up to the part where Pittsburgh did the flea flicker gadget play and then I knew it was all over for Seattle. sad

I can't stand all this american pomp surrounding the Superbowl, they even had some old fossils from the british museum on at halftime wink
dont get me wrong I watch the games in the season and playoff games but once it's Superbowl week the american media machine just goes haywire. I can just see it now when the World Cup finally starts. It's going to be cheapshot after cheapshot about the competition, about the host country and it prostitutes, and the human rights records of the various countries in the world cup, not to mention the obligatory comments of hooliganism and crowd violence and how 'boring' the game is and how, nobody doesn't care how the USA team roll

We had the usual snacks and beer whatever to munch on during the game, but after the first quarter it kind of fizzled out for me.
So did you watch the Superbowl along with an anticipated 1 billion viewers or did you just watch the commercials? wink

We "watched" it for the first time because Hector has got into it, but wtf? Apart from the fact that I just don't "get it", how on earth can it take FOUR HOURS for one hour's play? And I don't even understand the fuss about the commercials -what was so special about them? Mind you, I don't regularly watch TV, so perhaps regular commercials are of a much poorer quality (scary thought shock)

Was rooting for Seattle 'cause they had nicer uniforms and nicer bums, so that really was the kiss of death for them. It was all my fault ;)

I can't fathom this 3-4 hour game stuff either? It's all TV timeouts punctuated by 12 second plays :shock: But those commercial breaks are what have helped make the NFL so rich (along with the sponsorship deals and TV deals)
You just made some NFL and Network TV execs day Monster just by watching the commercials :wink:

My sister back home texted me last night to tell me that she was rooting for the Seahawks because they had 'the best packages' :roll:
women eh? :wink:

Who let those people sing the Star Spangled Banner?

Worse than the 4 hours it takes to complete 1 is the ridiculous assertion that a 300 pound fat man is "quite an athlete." Add that the fatter men seemed even fatter when Mick Jagger came on looking like a preying mantis advertising clothes from Top Shop. God the half time show is dull now. McCartney was fairly dull but this was painful. It looked like Mick's implanted defibrillator kept going off the way he was jerking all over the place.

truly awful.

Didn't bother with it at all - was surprised the "local" team made it that far, to be honest but less surprised to see them lose. They were regarded as a bit of a joke since I've lived here.

The "World Champions" thing is always good for a laugh. I'd bet 70% or more of the entire world could not even tell you where Pittsburgh is and probably 50% of Americans aren't too sure either.

I celebrated the Super Bowl by washing the car and going shopping - lovely, clear roads and stores.

I enjoyed it. Mind you I had my laptop on my , er, lap, was playing a computer game at the same time. There was some good gridiron football last night mixed in with the pap.

And the Stones got censored too. I liked Mick's line (righ before satisfaction) " We could have played this at Superbowl 1".

and proberly the other 50%of americans couldnt care less

The commercials do extend the time the game is played and that is by design, if there is not enough ad time taken by legitimate team *time outs * the refs can call a time out to make up the differance .

The redeming feature to me ,and sports is mostly all i watch on commercial supported tv is that the event is live and you dont miss a second of action, to see the event in real time would cost a lot more than the fee for the tv service that month

Where as most tv fare movies etc are extended beyond there normal time by copious amounts of ads and then they cut of the end of sentences or leave in the middle of a scene thus spoiling the continuity , your nightly * situation comedy * and such like have a run time of about 35 mins every hour the rest is ad time .

I didn't bother to watch either. I am somewhat culturally myopic when it comes to sports. Football, cricket and more football.

Of course here in Canada all they seem to watch is endless games of roller-derby they call the NHL.

I was just watching the England/Wales highlights on the BBC website. It's still a much tougher game than gridiron (I have the collarbone to prove it). The first time my father-in-law saw rugby he asked me where their helmets were!

A little math:

35 minutes out of 60 = 58% programming, 42% ads.
1 hour our of 4 =25% play 75% bullshit.

not the same thing at all. And neither are desirable, imo.

I prefer the UK approach where the ad breaks fit around the game, but then in the UK, we have games with a natural flow that keep on going instead of "one throw, put it down, take a tea break" :roll: :lol:

When was the Superbowl?

Probably the day Monster took a rather fine creation of hers out of the kiln!

:oops: shucks

..... wasn't yesterday, then, as I was too sick to go to pottery with Hector and had to send Beest instead! :lol: His creation is currently awaiting the test of fire......