Just be happy it’s finally over.
Super Bowl XLVIII was billed as an epic matchup between one of history’s most prolific offenses against the league’s most vaunted defense. Instead, we were all treated to one of the most lopsided, sad games of tackle football I can remember.
It was a strange game from the first play from scrimmage, and it devolved into a total blowout before halftime.
Despite catching a huge break weather-wise in the form of a pristine February evening in New Jersey, the game peaked when Joe Namath, white fur coat and all, false started on the opening coin flip.
Seattle return man Percy Harvin took the opening kickoff of the second half back for a touchdown and the NFL might as well have shut off the lights as he broke away.
It happened during last season’s Super Bowl in New Orleans, and that game was way more competitive.
After a run of classic Super Bowls, we were due to get stuck with a clunker, but I doubt anyone could have imagined it would get this ugly.
Sunday will go down as a wasted evening for the millions who tuned in around the world, all of whom will quickly forget the hard-to-watch details.
Unfortunately for Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning, I have a strong feeling he won’t be so lucky.
Manning has had more than his fair share of heartbreaking defeats during his long career, but this one will haunt him for a while. He wasn’t just beaten, he was humiliated on the world’s biggest stage as his team was utterly outclassed by Seattle in all three facets of the game.
On the heels of arguably the greatest regular season any quarterback has ever compiled, Manning could do nothing against the Seahawks. His record-setting offense was reduced to running out the clock on itself as Seattle began its celebration with a decent bit of time still on the clock.
The Seahawks won so easily that coach Pete Carroll actually got two separate Gatorade baths from his players. The second was perfectly framed to feature a defeated Wes Welker moping off the field in the foreground of the shot, which pretty much summed up the evening for the Broncos.
Manning will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.
That legacy is cemented, but it will forever be accompanied by the asterisk of Manning’s postseason failures. For all his MVP trophies and passing records, Manning’s story will also end with the dubious title of “regular season quarterback.”
Everything was set up for Manning to erase that asterisk with a second Lombardi Trophy, but instead Sunday will be remembered as another playoff game that proves the asterisk’s worth.
It wasn’t as if Manning played well before throwing it away in the final minutes like his Super Bowl XLIV loss to New Orleans — he was overmatched throughout.
Manning looked scared to challenge Seattle’s secondary and throw the ball downfield for much of the game.
Denver’s first four possessions ended in a safety, a punt and two interceptions, and from that point on Manning seemed shell-shocked and content to throw screen passes and hope Seattle missed tackles. The Seahawks didn’t, and Carroll never let them take their foot off the gas.
As the clock struck triple-zeroes, we were all freed from the boring nightmare that was Super Bowl XLVIII. But for Manning it’s only beginning.
James Moran is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Beacon, N.Y.
Here are all the LSU players in the NFL, including the three who played in the Super Bowl: Tharold Simon and Spencer Ware for Seattle and Trindon Holliday of the Broncos.
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