One of the best Super Bowls we’ve ever seen. Let’s get right to it:

Five things we can’t believe:
*Belichick leaving the field early. Seriously, we don’t care how much the game hurts. That was unconscionable. Completely classless. If that sort of move put Randy Moss on the train out of Minnesota (or at least onto the light rail to the airport, where he could then get out of Minnesota), what does this do to Belichick’s reputation? With Spygate resurfacing this weekend, it hasn’t exactly been a great time to be Bill. “I’m disappointed in Belichick,” the RandBall Better Half said. “What kind of message is that?” That’s worse than angry. But she’s right. That was a big middle finger extended to everyone except him — his team, the Giants, the league, everyone.
*Eli Manning somehow escaping the rush to make the play of the game, when David Tyree made the catch of the game, on that final drive. That kind of play draws gasps in the preseason. And this was the Super Bowl.
*Just how bad Tom Brady looked. The defense played a huge role in that, but we’re wondering if the ankle really was more injured than was let on. We can’t explain all the throws he missed or his poor mechanics any other way. All of the underthrows. Missing Moss in the end zone on first down late (before eventually hitting him on third down). That never happens.
*The 8-8 Vikings defeated this year’s Super Bowl champion 41-17. The Giants were laughably bad in that game. Eli Manning was a complete joke. Just how far that team and QB came this year is astonishing. Also: When was the last time the Vikings defeated the eventual Super Bowl champs. Good question. So we looked it up. Many years they didn’t play the champ. Three times they lost. Until we get back to … 1996 regular season? Ding! The Vikings defeated the eventual Super Bowl champions 30-21 in Week 4 (and also lost 38-10 in Week 17). Said champion escapes us.
*Watershed victories for the Mannings in back-to-back years, both against Tom Brady and the Patriots. We have to admit: We were riveted whenever they showed Peyton. Everything about it was very real.

Plays that time will forget that could have been storylines if not for the insanity of what eventually happened in the fourth quarter:
*The Giants’ 10-minute opening drive. Loved it. There’s your unsung reason for being in the game early. That thing took one-third of the entire first half.
*12 men on the field on the punt giving the Patriots a first down. Seriously, how did that not doom the Giants?
*Belichick eschewing a field goal on 4th-and-13 from the 31 and instead going for it. How on earth does he make that call? Oh, right.
*How the Patriots didn’t recover the Bradshaw-Manning fumbled exchange.
*Eli missing a wide open Plaxico and then Toomer getting stopped a yard short of a first down midway through the fourth quarter with the Giants having a chance to perhaps move down the field for a crippling score. We really thought that was going to be the turning point, and it almost was.

It almost seems wrong to talk about non-football things at a time like this. But:
*Commercials we liked: Pepsi Max “What is Love?” Effective, with humor that pertained to the message. Cars.com: One of the funniest of the night, with the ring of fire. Tide stain remover commercial: Our personal favorite, at least before halftime. Just perfect. Shaq as a jockey. But we forget what he was endorsing.
*Commercials we didn’t like: The one with Derek Jeter and Peyton Manning. The Bud Light wine and cheese party commercial. Because guys can’t do anything with their special lady friends unless they get to sneak beer and TV into the mix. This dead horse is dead. And not funny. Did we mention dead? Stop beating Barbaro, Budweiser.
*Commercials that were offensive in the worst kind of way: Sales Genie. Seriously, folks, who approved this? (The folks at MVN obviously agree).
*Commercial that made the RandBall Better Half say, “He gets his butt touched for buying a computer?” Dell.
*Commercial that we missed half of because we were eating chips in the kitchen: The new Twins ad. Looked decent enough for what we saw.
*Page view competition: Mysapce.com/superbowlads vs. GoDaddy.com and its not-so-clever use of a certain animal.
*It’s official: We want to see, “Wanted” even though we don’t really remember what it’s about.
*American Girl. Won’t Back Down. Free Fallin’. Runnin’ Down a Dream. Tom Petty should be allowed to play every Super Bowl. He is beloved across generations (even if he looked “weird” according to us and, as Local Quipster said, a little like Chris from Family Guy).

Final thoughts:
*With about 10 minutes left, we thought about how we maybe wanted New England to win. It was just a genuinely great season. Right now, we’re conflicted. (To prove it, we haven’t even e-mailed Lizzy). We didn’t have a great rooting interest either way. Going into the Giants’ last drive, we could have accepted either outcome. It was a great game. That’s all we wanted.
*What happens to Belichick now? Seriously, is this the start of some sort of tragic fall?
*We heard a pre-game radio interview with Randy Moss (Jim Gray, we believe) in which he said all the right things before slipping up and (we can’t remember the exact words) thanking the Patriots organization for getting him a ring. That was our first serious inkling that New England might be in real trouble.
*At least 12 more months of Mercury [redacted] Morris.

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