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'Parish' the thought: An all-happy Super Bowl
Published: 2/8/2010 5:07 PM
Last Modified: 2/8/2010 5:07 PM

Is it just me or did the Super Bowl seem less than super?

The game was cleanly played and the outcome wasn’t decided until the final minutes, but it still seemed like a really good Week 12 regular season game instead of a scrum for all the marbles.

At least that’s what I was thinking. Then I heard Big Al Jerkens say something that put everything in perspective. He said there was no one to dislike -- no villain -- in this year’s Super Bowl. And everything suddenly made sense.

People tend to have strong feelings when franchises like the Cowboys, Patriots or Steelers play in Super Bowls. On this side are legions of rooters. On that side are fans who cheer against what they assume to be evil empires.

But this Super Bowl was a feel-good match-up -- Drew Brees and the post-Katrina Saints vs. Peyton Manning, a quarterback who is such a stand-up guy that he became a victim of too-good-to-be-true backlash when Heisman votes were counted.

Pop culture warning: I recall an episode of “The Simpsons” where Lisa was reading a Tiger Beat-type publication called “Non-Threatening Boys Magazine.” Brees and Manning both could have been cover subjects. They’re the kind of lads moms and dads would love for their daughters to date. What kind of deviant would cheer against either of them?

So we were left with a Super Bowl that was going to make most people happy, regardless of the outcome, and therefore, nothing emotional was at stake unless you were a participant or you lived in Indy or the state with parishes.

P.S.: Among people happy for Brees is Oklahoma basketball coach Jeff Capel, who met Brees at the 2009 Iba Awards in Tulsa. “Amazing” was the word Capel used to describe Brees.

“I got a chance to visit with him behind the scenes a little bit and you could feel his energy,” Capel said Monday. “You could feel his confidence. You could feel that he was a leader and that he was very passionate about anything he was involved in. We heard him speak up there at the Iba Awards and you could feel the connection that he had with the city of New Orleans, just how appreciative he was of the organization really taking a chance on him (after a shoulder injury), because that’s what it was, a chance.

“I was really happy for him last night, just how well he played and for him to win the Super Bowl and be the MVP. Again, we are not friends or anything. But just being there and being around him and getting a chance to visit with him a few minutes, I was just really happy for him. I know it’s something that means a lot to him.”


Reader Comments 1 Total
2curious (3 years ago)
and - besides the Dorito's commercials...the entire evening was very un-entertaining.
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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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