Las Vegas, baby!

It seems that social media was not thrilled with Rhianna’s halftime show at Super Bowl 57.  Many felt her performance was very sexualized and unsuitable for family entertainment.  If anyone watching the show had previously heard her music or seen her moves, she is not shy with her lyrics or her crotch. She is three months pregnant, and she accented her growing baby bump.   The halftime shows always seem to get pilloried.  Adam Levine ripped off his clothes.  Justin exposed Janet’s right nip. Katy Perry had a renegade dancing shark. The first three Super Bowls had college bands for halftime entertainment.  Carol fricking Channing has been involved in two shows.  Up with People checked in three times to entertain the nation during the biggest game.  The show kicked into something different when Dianna Ross serenaded us all for the XXX Bowl.  Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, and Tom Petty have rocked it from midfield.  Yard favorite was Prince jamming Purple Rain in a driving rainstorm at SB XLI in Miami. We watched this year’s game and enjoyed the show.  The game was one of the best Super Bowls in recent history. It was thrilling from the opening drive to the first commercial and the final winning field goal.  There was a defensive touchdown, a 2-point conversion and 73 points. Prop bets were being cashed all day long.  The halftime show is a 15-minute diversion of this five-hour spectacle, get over it.

 

 

The Yard can no longer keep pace with the Super Bowl and the whole Roman Numeral thing.  Once we get into the “L’s”, it is over.  Las Vegas Baby gets SB 58.  We will figure out the ancient numbering system before February 11, 2024.   The Yard helped bring the Raiders to Las Vegas through our marginal grass roots blog campaign.  We are hoping owner Mark Davis remembers our unflinching support of the Raiders with a few passes for the game.  It will be historic.  The Super Bowl is one of the busiest weekends of the year in Las Vegas and the game is somewhere else.  There are usually 250-300,000 revelers in town to drink, bet, drink, gamble, drink and watch the game on television.  The NFL does not even allow the casinos to advertise that they have a Super Bowl party; everything must be called The Big Game.  We can only imagine how many fans show up when the game is in town.

 

Patrick Mahomes is brilliant.  He is signed for the next ten years, and the Chiefs will be 6-1 favorites to win the title every single one of those seasons if he stays healthy.  He is not the GOAT yet, but he is already grazing in the pasture.  Patrick is a great leader for coach Andy Reid.  He talks the talk and walks the walk although we think he walks funny.  He is on his way to Disneyland, and he is ready for Tomorrow Land.  We were disappointed when the Eagles went down with that last second field goal. We wanted to lay a Benjamin but backed it down to a Grant at kickoff.  Another dead president has left the wallet. The defensive holding call at the end was questionably decisive in the outcome.  Eagle James Bradberry admitted he grabbed JuJu’s jersey a smidge.  Up to that point there had been 8 penalties called for 42 yards. Nothing major and that penalty was only a five yarder.  It was critical because it gave KC a first down that allowed them to run down the clock and kick the winning score. We know Lebron was Twitter mad for sure.  Players want consistency from the officials and that type of call had not been made all game.  So why in the last 1:57 with an uncatchable ball does the ref make an unthinkable call?  With the flag in the pocket and not on the turf, KC still gets the FG, and the Eagles get the ball back with that 1:57 and a timeout.  That would have been a potential thrilling finish as well.  You know what they say about potential?

 

Jalen Hurts is brilliant as well.  He has not signed for ten years.  He is about to have his Brinks truck moment.  He should be an 8-1 SB choice for a decade.  Hurts had an MVP season. He has the passing precision and physicality that few QB’s except Josh Allen possess.  Mahomes was leading the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl in 50 years while Hurts was finishing his college career at Oklahoma.  Jalen had already been involved in two championships at Alabama.  His freshman year for the Crimson Tide was magical.  He was the first true freshman to start in over 30 years.  Alabama went undefeated and won the National Championship.  His sophomore year he played well until the National Championship game.  Nick pulled Jalen in favor of the much-heralded Tua Tagovailoa in the second half.  Tua rallied the title from a 13-0 to a second consecutive title.  Tua leap frogged Hurts as the starter for 2018 season.  Jalen stayed with the Tide and played often but was not the starter.  Tua got hurt in the title game and Hurts helped rally the Tide, but they went down to Clemson.  Jalen went to play for Lincoln Riley in Oklahoma for his senior year.  He ended up getting drafted as a second-round back up to Carson Wentz for the Eagles.  He was not given high consideration as an NFL starter.  He proved all the pundits wrong with his 2022 season of excellence.  His fumble returned for a TD was a disaster and potential turning point in the SB.  But Hurts came right back at the Chiefs with a 75-yard scoring drive on the ensuing kickoff.  He picked himself off the mat and kept his birds in the game until a squishy penalty decided it.

 

Enough already about football.  It is over and the Yard had another solid year of not losing too much trying to predict outcomes.  The important thing is catchers and pitchers have reported and Opening Day is about six weeks out.  It is time for Dodger baseball and the other guys also.  The Dodgers were relatively quiet during the off season while the Friars have been spending money like a 1970’s George Steinbrenner.  The $100 million + deals the Padres are inking seem unsustainable.  Manny thinks so also, and he will be opting out for 2024.  The Dodgers still have the best farm system in the MLB.  Let the O’Malley’s and Cohen spend to win.  The Dodgers are built to win, we hope they win another WS title soon!  This year’s edition will be missing pieces of their collective soul.  The 2023 season will start with Bellinger, Seager and Turner all wearing different uniforms.  Mookie and Freddie are the new leaders, and we think the kids could be alright.  Over the next few weeks, we will establish our spring training cadence. We do have a three-week planned diversion into the madness of College hoops and Bruin dreams. 

 

Postscript: Derek Carr is the Raider all-time leader in passing yards and touchdowns.  He has had a solid career with the silver and black.  Carr was a second-round pick in the 2014 draft and has earned his keep. Hell, the Raiders drafted Jamarcus Russell with the first overall pick in 2007 and he had 41 turnovers in 31 games and a 65 QB rating while slurping his drank.  So not sure how high the bar is set for that position on the Raiders.  Carr was ok.  He signed a team friendly contract with Josh McDaniels to lead the rebuild with the old build.  Derek is humble, religious. Better than average QB.  The Raiders are moving on and so is DC.  We will be missed but not mourned.