My takes from the night: watching Xavier Worthy limply drop the ball after getting the Chief's first touchdown 30 seconds to the end of the third was hilarious. Like a man who just finished the worst raw-dogging of his life rolling off the bed.
Second: while there was clearly some satire at play with Lamar's set (Jackson's Uncle Sam being a primetime-friendly jab at American patriotism), it definitely seemed to be more of a self-congratulatory finale to his and Drake's beef, masqueraded as a Half-Time show. It had the vaguest air of protest art, inoffensively dressed in patriotic colors while lyrically trading its barbs, while really just becoming a slam-dunk on last year's saga. It felt like stumbling into the finale of a show you never watched.
No doubt - the fact he kept teasing "Not Like Us", which he knew was the one song people wanted to hear, leads me to agree. I was a little disappointed he didn't do "Good Kid Maad City" since I do like that track, but I have a feeling it was probably too spicy for primetime television (as if calling Drake a predator isn't? Whatever).
The entire Chiefs team looked so exhausted by the end I couldn't help but snicker a little. You could tell they just wanted the pain to end. Two minutes left on the clock and they just gave up to spare themselves the misery.
It legit has been ages since I listened to Kendrick, so I felt like how most of the boomers probably felt watching and not knowing the tracklist except for "Not Like Us" lol. I think, even without the whole "clowning on Drake" shit swallowing the set whole, it's a testament to how defeated the Entertainment-Industrial Complex is. There's clearly been a sea-change, the old apparatuses are not the true center of culture, just the dilapidated pipelines for mainstream culture. They blew all their capital on a botched candidacy, and people now realize just how atomized the culture and its various pipelines are. When people heard the stadium erupt in an ovation for Trump, I'm pretty sure no one was planning on playing a real "resistance" that night, even someone who has the poison pen to do it like Kendrick. You saw it in the limp-wristed adverts this year, you saw it in the sleight jabs and Uncle Sam's brief interludes. For now, it's game-set-match, and people have to start building their credibility back before anyone takes their politics series (if they ever at all).
As someone who didn't really attention to football this season (other than the Redskins somehow managing to reach the NFC Championship game before being brought down to Earth), I was also shocked to see the Chiefs laying an egg like that. Honestly it felt like the NFL were setting up the Chiefs to fail on national television for maximum humiliation. And by humiliation, I mean Taylor Swift's. Because we all know that the right-wing by and large despises her.
If you look around at sportsball news, you'll see the vibe shift long before the Super Bowl. There's Christian Pulisic (the US soccer player) who did a Trump dance after scoring a goal against Jamaica (IIRC). I mean yeah, Pulisic's a Catholic from Pennsylvania so maybe he's just of that demographic but it's still a little strange to see. But the giveaway for me is Stephen A. Smith who is now a Trump/MAGA guy. SAS is a snake (just ask Jason Whitlock), but that's the point. The dude adapts to where the wind blows, and the wind is blowing right.
If you take the view that sports is rigged (not completely, but enough to tell a story), then everything makes sense. Personally, I think the next sacred cow to be dethroned is Lebron James since basketball fans now just want him gone. The Luka trade is good for the Lakers in the long run but it seems to show that Lebron's day is numbered, but that's just my take. I don't have a crystal ball, lol.
That's an interesting hypothesis. I've seen at least one person muse that the game was either A) fixed but not for the Chiefs, but to "embarrass" them as part of the story since they'd become so unpopular or B) they gassed them up on purpose because it was a win/win whether they won or lost for "the story". This person was a Chiefs fan so I imagine they're trying to cope with the loss but it's also interesting that more and more people are beginning to view the NFL as a sort of pre-scripted WWE-style entertainment organization that's mixing sports with scripted entertainment. It might be true - it's certainly hard to explain away some aspect of it.
Also, I can't remember exactly what team it was (I think it was Minnesota because their players had very elaborate touchdown celebrations), but they started a trend of doing the Trump YMCA dance in the end zone. Very funny.
As for Lebron, I hope so - he should be taken down a peg, but I don't think it's coming. He's still a good player in spite of his age and I can't imagine a generational talent like Luka won't supercharge the team and, together, they'll win a title or two so that Lebron can gracefully ride into the sunset while Luka remains as the face of the team. As a former Mavs fan (I don't watch basketball anymore), all I can say is that, love him or hate him, the team was better under Cuban. He sold, what? A year or two ago? And now this? It only makes sense if you believe the theory that they really dumped Luka because he's apparently Pro-Trump (or at least agnostic on him) while the Mavs leadership is staunchly not. Again, even Cuban, politically partisan for the left as he is, was smart enough to not let his politics get in the way of running the team.
I try not to get too deep into the sportsball crystal ball because like all conspiracy theorizing, it’s easy to get too focused on one aspect and then get blind-sided. But it’s definitely hard to think that it’s all just random, especially when money’s involved.
The Lebron thing is one where I’m honestly flip-flopping. The Luka trade is weird since him and Lebron are both ball dominant players with great offense but are defensive liabilities. And they both have similar skillset, so it strikes me as Lebron training his replacement. After all, the guy they traded away (AD) was the Lakers’ best defender and arguably was their best player. So it’s strange for Lebron, who is definitely in “win now” mode, to do that. That’s why I thought that this might be the Lakers finally standing up to LeGM and telling him to suck it up. But by all accounts, Lebron was absolutely ecstatic to play with Luka so far, so that theory seems unlikely. The media tried to run a story of how Lebron was absolutely shocked about the trade, but they’re quietly dropping that story now. So we’ll see how that team gells (right now they’re definitely going for the “best defense is a good offense” setup but next season might be a different story).
The Mavericks, though, I think is more straightforward. Mark Cuban’s actually not the Mavs’ majority owner anymore. I think he sold much of his shares last year or so, which makes sense since he was on record saying that he will never trade Luka no matter what. So who’s the new majority owner? Miriam Adelson, a casino owner based in Vegas… and also Trump’s political ally (the plot thickens). So the theory goes that Adelson and co are looking to tank the Mavs fanbase in preparation to moving the team to Vegas. That damn city already have the Golden Knights, the Raiders, and apparently the A’s too. So the Mavs will be the final piece of the North American sports puzzle.
Also, sports gambling is apparently not legal in Texas (at least not yet). So there’s another reason for Adelson to want to take the Mavs out of Dallas.
The Eagles beat the Ravens, and the Ravens played this exact game against their chief rival, the Steelers. So the Eagles definitely had an edge. My guess is that (if we set aside questions about rigging) the Chiefs got demoralized by the strong offense, as the Steelers did, and found it impossible to recover quickly enough to save the game. I think morale can be a strong thing in a football game since plays for the players go back to back.
This was a really fun analysis and very cogent to the times. Sometimes the Superbowl definitely seems to reflect the zeitgeist for whatever reason. The Patriots winning in 2002 and 2017 for instance.
I always root for the Eagles, especially against the Deadskins, and watching them humiliate a guy that likely will become the GOAT and an overrated team that was helped along to keep the Swifties involved was so fitting and delightful. The Eagles defense was something special and a Superbowl with the equally fearsome Houston defense would have been awesome but the NFL doesn't care about good games, only stories it seems; oh and gambling.
To be fair, stories sell better than games, though if allowed to play out unmolested, the games will become stories unto themselves. Someone should really tell that to Roger Goodell. While I do think the Chiefs were, by and large, lucky throughout the season and didn't need help (they are still a good team at their core), I watched the Bills game for the AFC championship and there were calls that were 100% fixed for the Chiefs. Ultimately, I would have loved to see a Bills/Eagles game because I think Josh Allen deserves to go (it's unfortunate generational talent like Burrow and Allen and Jackson are effectively locked out of the Super Bowl by dint of the Chiefs strangehold on the AFC and Goodell's affection for them). But at the same time, I'm also glad that the Eagles didn't have to play a team I like. It's also worth noting that the Eagles played such a good game that even if the refs had stepped in, it wouldn't have mattered. It was kind of like when the World Cup was in Brazil and the refs were very obviously biased for Brazil, but they couldn't officiate the team out of the 7-point deficit Germany put them in.
I've also got a piece on sports gambling coming up shortly - it's a rabbit hole unto itself.
It seemed like an ill omen when Sam Hamm's voice broke when he introduced the Chiefs as they took the field to resounding boos.
I grew up in KC, so I wanted the Chiefs to win, but I can totally appreciate how it would be satisfying to see them get demolished after the corporate media spent so much time and money telling you that you are required to love them.
And the thing is, so many people would if they weren't so over-exposed! Like, I really can't stress enough that I don't want to see the Chiefs suck and I was all for them winning the Super Bowl (except when they played the Eagles), but my fondness for Andy Reid was tested with those "bundlerooski" commercials. If it's any consolation though - and I'm sure you know as a KC fan - they'll still be competitive if nothing else for a long time to come. I highly doubt this was the last time they'll get to the Super Bowl.
I’m an ultra casual Chiefs booster; the kind who doesn’t follow the regular season and mostly watches the Super Bowl for the commercials when the Chiefs aren’t playing.
Didn't watch the game (Chargers fan, so hate the Chiefs by default, and not too big an Eagles fan sorry), but there was some schadenfreude to be had seeing that score.
No hard feelings - the Eagles are a difficult team to like and, also, it's sports so I try not to take team allegiances to seriously... except for the Commanders...
I actually missed this, but I haven't been really following the NFL since my boy Brady retired. The Chiefs triumvirate is great...I like Reid too, Mahomes is incredible and Kelce...once I heard that he's the next Gronk but I think he was much more likeable. Yeah, I'm biased.
Immediately the 28-3 came to my mind and it was too after a Trump victory interestingly. It was one of the greatest nights of my life as far as watching sports go...right up there with the Bayern-Chelsea Champions League final and the 2-2 against Barcelona a few weeks before that. (My father is a Barcelona fan and we watched together that one.)
Don't know if you are familiar with the Jon Bois documentaries but they have one about the Atlanta Falcons and if you only watch one then it should be the Super Bowl episode.
But I see the narrative that you described and can't agree more. I too never had anything in particular against Swift but she was shown here too (in Hungary) everywhere. Never understood why Drake is popular too. Especially funny was when he tried to cry about how hard his childhood was. Man...you were in Degrassi...it's obvious that he was an industry plant all along. (Maybe hot take...but I don't get the hype about Beyoncé too...she's...mid.) The local "intelligentsia" was also infatuated with Kamala and she was not even mid(ass). But it looks like the higher educated you are, the further away you are from what is right before you.
As I see it, it was truly a celebration of liberty. We had metoo, pedo scandals and constant media flood about how we should love each other, "we're all in this together", while nobody was allowed to really address the perpetual sorry state of the entertainment industry.
Let the hate flow. If someone is a pedo, call them out before a 100 million people. If you're tired about hacks telling you what to think, let them know.
I remember that Super Bowl. That was Brady and Belichick at their finest, back when they could take dominant teams and just pick them apart in that way only the Patriots could. Personally, I'm more partial to when Big Dick Nick Foles as the back-up quarterback took the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win against the Pats for my favorite, but that one was good, too.
As for Drake, I think that he's the finest example of how someone who's thoroughly mediocre can be manufactured into a pop star by brute force of media presence alone. Beyonce and Swift are over-hyped to high hell, yes, but it would be disingenuous to say that they aren't talented in their own right. Beyonce, though she doesn't make music I like at all, is a legitimately good singer, and Swift... well, she's not a bad singer by any means, but she's also a consummate showman (showwoman?) who knows how to work a crowd. I'll admit I've seen her live before she became the Swift we know today, when she was just a regularly successful pop star, and she does a good job on stage even if you don't particularly care for her music (like me). I don't think they're really as good as they're hyped up to be but, take away the media hype and you'd still have performers who are competent. I don't think Drake has Beyonce's vocal talents or Swift's charisma. In my opinion, Drake only got where he did through connections in the industry and basically being foisted on people for well over two decades. If I've learned anything about music, it's that the majority of people will not seek out any of it that is not put squarely in front of them, whether it be on the radio or on streaming platforms. One would think that the highest charting artists in foreign countries would be native artists - at least some of them - but if you look at who gets the most streams in any given country on Spotify, its by and large the same names as in America. Why? Because most people are content to listen to whatever is shoved on them. And if that's Drake? They'll listen to Drake? However, part of the vibe shift that we really saw kick into gear over the past few years was a growing intolerance for those who are creeps towards minors, especially in the media industry. Drake has had a long history of being suspect around girls as old as thirteen, and for a long time, people were willing to look the other way. Not anymore, thankfully. Like I said, I think "Not Like Us" struck a chord with a public that is sick to death of these celebrities using their influence and power to exploit minors (it helps that it is catchy). It doesn't help that Kendrick Lamar was willing to launch a fucking blood feud of biblical proportions against him - notice how during his performance of "Not Like Us" at the Super Bowl he looked directly at the camera and smiled when he said "Say Drake - I hear you like them young." Fucking vicious.
Hah...sure...Nick Foles was glorious too. But I didn't miss my first day of semester for that. (By the end of the match we were toast and it was like 6 AM here.)
I agree. Swift certainly has a talent and something to work with. It would seem that I outright hate Beyoncé, but I actually think that she's really talented. Just not the "second coming" as I see many times. But with Drake? I never understood the apparent hype and never met a single person who was "fuck yeahn Drake!" and that's already telling.
With the advent of the internet it's really hard to keep foreign(american) influence out and this might be a hot take, but even if I don't necessarily agree with them, but I understand why China tries so hard to limit these things. Here in Europe it is the French who are always fighting hard to protect their own cultural space but by now they can't do much. It sucks because it has a clear homogenising effect and I still remember the times when we were outside the country and every place had their own flavour of music. (I remember hearing the Dragostea din tei in Romania months before it got really big.)
And in the long run the local music becomes almost the copy of the "original". Like how here in Hungary Azahriah got REALLY big, but as someone who still tries to listen to many stuff...it's gen Z mumble rap/pop...just in hungarian. At the same time we have a pretty vibrant alt music scene going on, and it's popular and all. But I would bet on that 85-80% of the people never heard anything about them.
And I know it too as an extreme metal fan. If I don't put in extra work to look for the new stuff, I would stuck listening to the same stuff all over. Which I do, because lately I haven't had the time to spend time on it. And it doesn't help that Covid killed off a lot of places where smaller bands could come and try to put out their stuff. Another part of that shitshow I didn't hear much about. But the damage is there.
But to get back to the new world.
Jay-Z
As an artist? Ehhhhhh...nothing particularly up there. But he is one of the masterminds out there as in business and connections. How he does it? Idk, but it's not that important. It is known that there are/were some kingmakers in the industry and he's one of them. Just like Diddy was...but his time is also looks to be ending (good riddance bitch). As far as I know, the Roc Nation has the Super Bowl halftime show, and that's why you see who you see there. But to not just complain about his influence...at least that bunch still seem to care about authentic talent. Who is behind Drake?
And as for Kendrick and the show? I agree. That's why I said to let the hate flow. There are too many times when we know about the slimyness of people out there but can't say anything for lack of concrete evidences(and because they are protected by some "people"). Don't want to really go into politics here (clearly leftist artist going against pedos and such) because it doesn't reall matter. They have a clear role in keeping up public decency. Something they've been neglected lately. Come on! Let's say what the people already knows.
And I love that he adressed this part too. He can be sued by Drake and co. while for a common person this could be really dangerous. Really appreciate it. I won't be listening to Kendrick Lamar more(not really my style), but he has my approval.
A Patriots fan in Hungary... I love it. Reminds me of this random Dutch kid who stopped me at a Beirgarten in Munich because he heard my accent and hoped that I knew enough about the NBA to talk about it with him (if I recall correctly he was a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, of all things?).
You're describing one of the worst effects of the internet - it's rapidly accelerated the creeping assimilation of basically every Western culture into America Lite. I noticed when I was in Europe almost every public space played American music, and you didn't hear much native music. Maybe that's just because I went to all the wrong places but even sitting in a pub in rural Austria in a town of 800 people they were playing 80's American music. Now, I love foreign music - it's most of what I listen to. I love hearing other cultures take our genres and put their own unique spin on it. Filipinos made better 60's/70's kitschy pop music than we did in the 80's. Japan and Indonesia put out soft rock that could stand with the best American offerings of the genre today. South America and Mexico have some great harder rock/light metal bands. I even fell down the rabbit hole of Russian rap. Like, of all places, Kazakhstan has a neo-crunk scene in Astana that sounds puts out club bangers that sound like they wouldn't be out of place in an Atlanta strip club circa 2006. I have no problem at all when foreigners adopt American styles of music. Except for the kind of rap that's dominated the charts during the 2010's, which seems to be the most dominant. My favorite thing about Russian rap is, while it's no more degenerate in lyrical content, so much of it is at least dynamic, energetic as opposed to the slow, mellow, and listless mumble rap scene, and has a sense of facetious humor where you can tell they aren't taking it all as deathly seriously as rappers who posit themselves as stone cold gangsters. Same with the surprisingly robust rap scenes in China, Korea, and Japan. I think the reason they aren't promoted in America is because A) the typical American is piss scared of lyrics in foreign languages and B) people would be mad that Chinese kids, of all people, are playing the game better than 90% of current American rappers.
But I digress. This is all to say that people all over the world make music of every genre, and often do it better than Americans - why do they not play German rock in German pubs? Fuck, why do they not play British music in English pubs? Are you telling me ANY current slop artist in America is better than Oasis?
I hate, hate, HATE the stagnation of music, and loathe seeing is spread globally like a cancer.
COVID also did a number on the American indie circuit. A lot of small music venues and clubs folded and never reopened. I lived in Austin and legendary venues that were world famous, places people came from across the globe to see country artists perform, were just left to rot by the city while they funneled public money into keeping stupid shit open instead. It was criminal.
As for who's behind Drake, I believe he was in with Lil Wayne's Young Money crew before splitting off to make his own cabal, OVO. He's pretty much self-sustaining now - or he was - and doesn't need a block like Young Money or Roc Nation to support him. Roc Nation also has an exclusive deal with the NFL to do half-time shows that they inked in 2022 I believe, which is why half-time shows have been mostly rappers since then (or rap-adjacent like Rihanna). That being said Jay-Z is in his own puddle of shit right now so that could change.
Interesting take. I wonder if the Swift booing was just Eagles fans being Eagles fans or maybe people are getting a bit tired. I’ve already thought she made songs for pre-teen girls who wanted to pretend they were experiencing grown up problems. I hold no grudge against her for that. None of us owes the world any massage it wants to hear. Those are the songs she likes and is good at writing. I understand why she’s popular and well liked but never quite understood the unending adoration. It never felt entirely on the level to me. Can people over-25 really listen to Swift’s music and see it as genius? There are certain phases we’re supposed to grow out of eventually.
Otherwise I actually loved the game. The Eagles front four were the MVPs but of course the QB got it—a sort of Swift dynamic there too, I suppose. Sacks that don’t come from overload blitzes or gap stuffing are exhilarating television. Defensive line are the most explosive and entertaining athletes who don’t (or rarely) score. Like many, I was tired of the Chiefs scratching out victories and was happy to see they did not finesse another win. The best football team won and that’s good news for the health of the sport even tho I’m not a huge Eagles fan either.
For what it's worth, I think it's a little of both. Perhaps it wouldn't have been as loud but I think Taylor Swift would've gotten booed by any fan base because I do think people are simply tired of her in the same way a lot of people are tired of seeing Pat Mahomes in every other commercial. For every reaction there's an equal and opposite reaction, so it would make sense that the gradually mounting Anti-Swift sentiment is going to come just as hard as the unadulterated glazing of her has been post her breakthrough as the definitive pop star of the post-COVID epoch. The reason it feels off the level is because it is - it's the work of a small army of advertising execs who, for better are worse, very good at what they do, and they managed to build an artificial hype engine around her that at some point became entirely self-perpetuating as people began to genuinely buy into it. The thing about Swift's popularity - at least in this era of her popularity, since her early years and stardom are markedly different in her exposure and the content of her music - is that, now, it's largely bouyed by either very young girls or women in Swift's own age cohort (with a good chunk being older, too) that do seem to think she's a genius. While I will never say Swift is not talented, I think the real geniuses are her marketing team and the cabal of writers she collaborates with to write her music. From what I understand, Gen Z largely sees Taylor Swift as what has been described to me as "Millennial Ick", which is a term that's picking up steam in Gen Z circles that refers to Millennials that are approaching forty acting like they're still 18 - 22, and just seems "cringe". My Gen Z friend described it as "Your lame older sister who's a CPA trying to be cool with your friends by getting drunk on boxed wine and singing vulgar rap songs when she's got two kids and a husband." TL;DR - I think the Swift booing was (mostly) because the audience is tired of her.
That being said, I thought the game was fun to watch myself, though, as an Eagles fan, I know I'm biased. I think Hurts deserved the MVP nod for this game in particular because Barkley really didn't do much (I give the Chiefs credit for knowing he was a threat and acting accordingly, though IMO they hyperfocused on him and let the Eagles' other weapons slide through), but overall I think the fact there wasn't more talk of the general MVP for the season going to Saquon Barkley was a crime. I'm not going to say they wouldn't have made it to the SB without him but he certainly was a big factor in their success.
It's too bad the villain of the current NFL story had to be the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs, located in flyover country, are the only NFL team to keep their "offensive" mascot since the Washington Redskins bent the knee, and that's only because the "backwards" people of Kansas City would start shooting if the NFL tried to take it away. For nearly 50 years, they were a bad-to-mediocre team whose bright spot was Marty's tenure, when they were a fundamentally solid team that won in the regular season with hard work and then got knocked out early in the playoffs (a very Midwestern sort of thing). Their biggest rivalry was with the Raiders, which was very clearly seen (at least in the Midwest) as "clean fair Midwest versus dirtiest part of California."
The whole three-peat/rigged/Madison-Avenue/Taylor-Travis thing would make a lot more narrative sense if it were happening to a coastal team with a long history of success and media adulation like the 49ers.
Thanks Alexander, I appreciate it. The Eagles... they're a hard team to like if you don't have a connection to Philadelphia. But for what it's worth, Brady and Belichick will always be the GOATs and I don't think the Chiefs will ever top them. Here's to hoping that Vrabel can get the Patriots back on track next season, too.
My takes from the night: watching Xavier Worthy limply drop the ball after getting the Chief's first touchdown 30 seconds to the end of the third was hilarious. Like a man who just finished the worst raw-dogging of his life rolling off the bed.
Second: while there was clearly some satire at play with Lamar's set (Jackson's Uncle Sam being a primetime-friendly jab at American patriotism), it definitely seemed to be more of a self-congratulatory finale to his and Drake's beef, masqueraded as a Half-Time show. It had the vaguest air of protest art, inoffensively dressed in patriotic colors while lyrically trading its barbs, while really just becoming a slam-dunk on last year's saga. It felt like stumbling into the finale of a show you never watched.
No doubt - the fact he kept teasing "Not Like Us", which he knew was the one song people wanted to hear, leads me to agree. I was a little disappointed he didn't do "Good Kid Maad City" since I do like that track, but I have a feeling it was probably too spicy for primetime television (as if calling Drake a predator isn't? Whatever).
The entire Chiefs team looked so exhausted by the end I couldn't help but snicker a little. You could tell they just wanted the pain to end. Two minutes left on the clock and they just gave up to spare themselves the misery.
It legit has been ages since I listened to Kendrick, so I felt like how most of the boomers probably felt watching and not knowing the tracklist except for "Not Like Us" lol. I think, even without the whole "clowning on Drake" shit swallowing the set whole, it's a testament to how defeated the Entertainment-Industrial Complex is. There's clearly been a sea-change, the old apparatuses are not the true center of culture, just the dilapidated pipelines for mainstream culture. They blew all their capital on a botched candidacy, and people now realize just how atomized the culture and its various pipelines are. When people heard the stadium erupt in an ovation for Trump, I'm pretty sure no one was planning on playing a real "resistance" that night, even someone who has the poison pen to do it like Kendrick. You saw it in the limp-wristed adverts this year, you saw it in the sleight jabs and Uncle Sam's brief interludes. For now, it's game-set-match, and people have to start building their credibility back before anyone takes their politics series (if they ever at all).
As someone who didn't really attention to football this season (other than the Redskins somehow managing to reach the NFC Championship game before being brought down to Earth), I was also shocked to see the Chiefs laying an egg like that. Honestly it felt like the NFL were setting up the Chiefs to fail on national television for maximum humiliation. And by humiliation, I mean Taylor Swift's. Because we all know that the right-wing by and large despises her.
If you look around at sportsball news, you'll see the vibe shift long before the Super Bowl. There's Christian Pulisic (the US soccer player) who did a Trump dance after scoring a goal against Jamaica (IIRC). I mean yeah, Pulisic's a Catholic from Pennsylvania so maybe he's just of that demographic but it's still a little strange to see. But the giveaway for me is Stephen A. Smith who is now a Trump/MAGA guy. SAS is a snake (just ask Jason Whitlock), but that's the point. The dude adapts to where the wind blows, and the wind is blowing right.
If you take the view that sports is rigged (not completely, but enough to tell a story), then everything makes sense. Personally, I think the next sacred cow to be dethroned is Lebron James since basketball fans now just want him gone. The Luka trade is good for the Lakers in the long run but it seems to show that Lebron's day is numbered, but that's just my take. I don't have a crystal ball, lol.
That's an interesting hypothesis. I've seen at least one person muse that the game was either A) fixed but not for the Chiefs, but to "embarrass" them as part of the story since they'd become so unpopular or B) they gassed them up on purpose because it was a win/win whether they won or lost for "the story". This person was a Chiefs fan so I imagine they're trying to cope with the loss but it's also interesting that more and more people are beginning to view the NFL as a sort of pre-scripted WWE-style entertainment organization that's mixing sports with scripted entertainment. It might be true - it's certainly hard to explain away some aspect of it.
Also, I can't remember exactly what team it was (I think it was Minnesota because their players had very elaborate touchdown celebrations), but they started a trend of doing the Trump YMCA dance in the end zone. Very funny.
As for Lebron, I hope so - he should be taken down a peg, but I don't think it's coming. He's still a good player in spite of his age and I can't imagine a generational talent like Luka won't supercharge the team and, together, they'll win a title or two so that Lebron can gracefully ride into the sunset while Luka remains as the face of the team. As a former Mavs fan (I don't watch basketball anymore), all I can say is that, love him or hate him, the team was better under Cuban. He sold, what? A year or two ago? And now this? It only makes sense if you believe the theory that they really dumped Luka because he's apparently Pro-Trump (or at least agnostic on him) while the Mavs leadership is staunchly not. Again, even Cuban, politically partisan for the left as he is, was smart enough to not let his politics get in the way of running the team.
I try not to get too deep into the sportsball crystal ball because like all conspiracy theorizing, it’s easy to get too focused on one aspect and then get blind-sided. But it’s definitely hard to think that it’s all just random, especially when money’s involved.
The Lebron thing is one where I’m honestly flip-flopping. The Luka trade is weird since him and Lebron are both ball dominant players with great offense but are defensive liabilities. And they both have similar skillset, so it strikes me as Lebron training his replacement. After all, the guy they traded away (AD) was the Lakers’ best defender and arguably was their best player. So it’s strange for Lebron, who is definitely in “win now” mode, to do that. That’s why I thought that this might be the Lakers finally standing up to LeGM and telling him to suck it up. But by all accounts, Lebron was absolutely ecstatic to play with Luka so far, so that theory seems unlikely. The media tried to run a story of how Lebron was absolutely shocked about the trade, but they’re quietly dropping that story now. So we’ll see how that team gells (right now they’re definitely going for the “best defense is a good offense” setup but next season might be a different story).
The Mavericks, though, I think is more straightforward. Mark Cuban’s actually not the Mavs’ majority owner anymore. I think he sold much of his shares last year or so, which makes sense since he was on record saying that he will never trade Luka no matter what. So who’s the new majority owner? Miriam Adelson, a casino owner based in Vegas… and also Trump’s political ally (the plot thickens). So the theory goes that Adelson and co are looking to tank the Mavs fanbase in preparation to moving the team to Vegas. That damn city already have the Golden Knights, the Raiders, and apparently the A’s too. So the Mavs will be the final piece of the North American sports puzzle.
Also, sports gambling is apparently not legal in Texas (at least not yet). So there’s another reason for Adelson to want to take the Mavs out of Dallas.
The Eagles beat the Ravens, and the Ravens played this exact game against their chief rival, the Steelers. So the Eagles definitely had an edge. My guess is that (if we set aside questions about rigging) the Chiefs got demoralized by the strong offense, as the Steelers did, and found it impossible to recover quickly enough to save the game. I think morale can be a strong thing in a football game since plays for the players go back to back.
This was a really fun analysis and very cogent to the times. Sometimes the Superbowl definitely seems to reflect the zeitgeist for whatever reason. The Patriots winning in 2002 and 2017 for instance.
I always root for the Eagles, especially against the Deadskins, and watching them humiliate a guy that likely will become the GOAT and an overrated team that was helped along to keep the Swifties involved was so fitting and delightful. The Eagles defense was something special and a Superbowl with the equally fearsome Houston defense would have been awesome but the NFL doesn't care about good games, only stories it seems; oh and gambling.
To be fair, stories sell better than games, though if allowed to play out unmolested, the games will become stories unto themselves. Someone should really tell that to Roger Goodell. While I do think the Chiefs were, by and large, lucky throughout the season and didn't need help (they are still a good team at their core), I watched the Bills game for the AFC championship and there were calls that were 100% fixed for the Chiefs. Ultimately, I would have loved to see a Bills/Eagles game because I think Josh Allen deserves to go (it's unfortunate generational talent like Burrow and Allen and Jackson are effectively locked out of the Super Bowl by dint of the Chiefs strangehold on the AFC and Goodell's affection for them). But at the same time, I'm also glad that the Eagles didn't have to play a team I like. It's also worth noting that the Eagles played such a good game that even if the refs had stepped in, it wouldn't have mattered. It was kind of like when the World Cup was in Brazil and the refs were very obviously biased for Brazil, but they couldn't officiate the team out of the 7-point deficit Germany put them in.
I've also got a piece on sports gambling coming up shortly - it's a rabbit hole unto itself.
Forgot the blurb that Goodell has been a horrible commissioner and needs to go. He'll happily destroy the fan base for culture war virtue signaling.
Funny that my dad and I had the exact same discussion about how well the Eagles played. Most of the penalties were the field goal unit.
I look forward to that article!
I'm not into sports, but I did catch on Fox, yes I know, the interception by the rookie for a touchdown. Happy Birthday to him! 🎉👍
Go Birds!
You can't see me but I'm doing the arm flapping gesture in solidarity.
Great write up. We won this one for America 🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
Wait is that image for real? Was the code for the eagle legit "furrybait"? I really can't believe that.
You know, I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. I can't imagine it was but at the same time... I really can't say. I hope not though.
Yeah, I admit it's a sad state when you see something nowadays and you're like... "50/50 chance it's real or fake"
I really feel bad for the satirists. They just can't keep up any more.
At this point Poe's Law is so dead even the carrion feeders won't touch it.
I’ve said more than once to someone, “I can’t tell if you’re being serious or not and I hate that the Internet has done this to me.”
Filing this one away, nicely done. The times they are a-changing.
Thanks Joseph, glad you enjoyed.
It seemed like an ill omen when Sam Hamm's voice broke when he introduced the Chiefs as they took the field to resounding boos.
I grew up in KC, so I wanted the Chiefs to win, but I can totally appreciate how it would be satisfying to see them get demolished after the corporate media spent so much time and money telling you that you are required to love them.
And the thing is, so many people would if they weren't so over-exposed! Like, I really can't stress enough that I don't want to see the Chiefs suck and I was all for them winning the Super Bowl (except when they played the Eagles), but my fondness for Andy Reid was tested with those "bundlerooski" commercials. If it's any consolation though - and I'm sure you know as a KC fan - they'll still be competitive if nothing else for a long time to come. I highly doubt this was the last time they'll get to the Super Bowl.
I’m an ultra casual Chiefs booster; the kind who doesn’t follow the regular season and mostly watches the Super Bowl for the commercials when the Chiefs aren’t playing.
Huh. All these coincidental staggering upsets make my tinfoily sense tingle. But for now I'll take the win.
Didn't watch the game (Chargers fan, so hate the Chiefs by default, and not too big an Eagles fan sorry), but there was some schadenfreude to be had seeing that score.
No hard feelings - the Eagles are a difficult team to like and, also, it's sports so I try not to take team allegiances to seriously... except for the Commanders...
I actually missed this, but I haven't been really following the NFL since my boy Brady retired. The Chiefs triumvirate is great...I like Reid too, Mahomes is incredible and Kelce...once I heard that he's the next Gronk but I think he was much more likeable. Yeah, I'm biased.
Immediately the 28-3 came to my mind and it was too after a Trump victory interestingly. It was one of the greatest nights of my life as far as watching sports go...right up there with the Bayern-Chelsea Champions League final and the 2-2 against Barcelona a few weeks before that. (My father is a Barcelona fan and we watched together that one.)
Don't know if you are familiar with the Jon Bois documentaries but they have one about the Atlanta Falcons and if you only watch one then it should be the Super Bowl episode.
But I see the narrative that you described and can't agree more. I too never had anything in particular against Swift but she was shown here too (in Hungary) everywhere. Never understood why Drake is popular too. Especially funny was when he tried to cry about how hard his childhood was. Man...you were in Degrassi...it's obvious that he was an industry plant all along. (Maybe hot take...but I don't get the hype about Beyoncé too...she's...mid.) The local "intelligentsia" was also infatuated with Kamala and she was not even mid(ass). But it looks like the higher educated you are, the further away you are from what is right before you.
As I see it, it was truly a celebration of liberty. We had metoo, pedo scandals and constant media flood about how we should love each other, "we're all in this together", while nobody was allowed to really address the perpetual sorry state of the entertainment industry.
Let the hate flow. If someone is a pedo, call them out before a 100 million people. If you're tired about hacks telling you what to think, let them know.
I remember that Super Bowl. That was Brady and Belichick at their finest, back when they could take dominant teams and just pick them apart in that way only the Patriots could. Personally, I'm more partial to when Big Dick Nick Foles as the back-up quarterback took the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win against the Pats for my favorite, but that one was good, too.
As for Drake, I think that he's the finest example of how someone who's thoroughly mediocre can be manufactured into a pop star by brute force of media presence alone. Beyonce and Swift are over-hyped to high hell, yes, but it would be disingenuous to say that they aren't talented in their own right. Beyonce, though she doesn't make music I like at all, is a legitimately good singer, and Swift... well, she's not a bad singer by any means, but she's also a consummate showman (showwoman?) who knows how to work a crowd. I'll admit I've seen her live before she became the Swift we know today, when she was just a regularly successful pop star, and she does a good job on stage even if you don't particularly care for her music (like me). I don't think they're really as good as they're hyped up to be but, take away the media hype and you'd still have performers who are competent. I don't think Drake has Beyonce's vocal talents or Swift's charisma. In my opinion, Drake only got where he did through connections in the industry and basically being foisted on people for well over two decades. If I've learned anything about music, it's that the majority of people will not seek out any of it that is not put squarely in front of them, whether it be on the radio or on streaming platforms. One would think that the highest charting artists in foreign countries would be native artists - at least some of them - but if you look at who gets the most streams in any given country on Spotify, its by and large the same names as in America. Why? Because most people are content to listen to whatever is shoved on them. And if that's Drake? They'll listen to Drake? However, part of the vibe shift that we really saw kick into gear over the past few years was a growing intolerance for those who are creeps towards minors, especially in the media industry. Drake has had a long history of being suspect around girls as old as thirteen, and for a long time, people were willing to look the other way. Not anymore, thankfully. Like I said, I think "Not Like Us" struck a chord with a public that is sick to death of these celebrities using their influence and power to exploit minors (it helps that it is catchy). It doesn't help that Kendrick Lamar was willing to launch a fucking blood feud of biblical proportions against him - notice how during his performance of "Not Like Us" at the Super Bowl he looked directly at the camera and smiled when he said "Say Drake - I hear you like them young." Fucking vicious.
Hah...sure...Nick Foles was glorious too. But I didn't miss my first day of semester for that. (By the end of the match we were toast and it was like 6 AM here.)
I agree. Swift certainly has a talent and something to work with. It would seem that I outright hate Beyoncé, but I actually think that she's really talented. Just not the "second coming" as I see many times. But with Drake? I never understood the apparent hype and never met a single person who was "fuck yeahn Drake!" and that's already telling.
With the advent of the internet it's really hard to keep foreign(american) influence out and this might be a hot take, but even if I don't necessarily agree with them, but I understand why China tries so hard to limit these things. Here in Europe it is the French who are always fighting hard to protect their own cultural space but by now they can't do much. It sucks because it has a clear homogenising effect and I still remember the times when we were outside the country and every place had their own flavour of music. (I remember hearing the Dragostea din tei in Romania months before it got really big.)
And in the long run the local music becomes almost the copy of the "original". Like how here in Hungary Azahriah got REALLY big, but as someone who still tries to listen to many stuff...it's gen Z mumble rap/pop...just in hungarian. At the same time we have a pretty vibrant alt music scene going on, and it's popular and all. But I would bet on that 85-80% of the people never heard anything about them.
And I know it too as an extreme metal fan. If I don't put in extra work to look for the new stuff, I would stuck listening to the same stuff all over. Which I do, because lately I haven't had the time to spend time on it. And it doesn't help that Covid killed off a lot of places where smaller bands could come and try to put out their stuff. Another part of that shitshow I didn't hear much about. But the damage is there.
But to get back to the new world.
Jay-Z
As an artist? Ehhhhhh...nothing particularly up there. But he is one of the masterminds out there as in business and connections. How he does it? Idk, but it's not that important. It is known that there are/were some kingmakers in the industry and he's one of them. Just like Diddy was...but his time is also looks to be ending (good riddance bitch). As far as I know, the Roc Nation has the Super Bowl halftime show, and that's why you see who you see there. But to not just complain about his influence...at least that bunch still seem to care about authentic talent. Who is behind Drake?
And as for Kendrick and the show? I agree. That's why I said to let the hate flow. There are too many times when we know about the slimyness of people out there but can't say anything for lack of concrete evidences(and because they are protected by some "people"). Don't want to really go into politics here (clearly leftist artist going against pedos and such) because it doesn't reall matter. They have a clear role in keeping up public decency. Something they've been neglected lately. Come on! Let's say what the people already knows.
And I love that he adressed this part too. He can be sued by Drake and co. while for a common person this could be really dangerous. Really appreciate it. I won't be listening to Kendrick Lamar more(not really my style), but he has my approval.
A Patriots fan in Hungary... I love it. Reminds me of this random Dutch kid who stopped me at a Beirgarten in Munich because he heard my accent and hoped that I knew enough about the NBA to talk about it with him (if I recall correctly he was a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, of all things?).
You're describing one of the worst effects of the internet - it's rapidly accelerated the creeping assimilation of basically every Western culture into America Lite. I noticed when I was in Europe almost every public space played American music, and you didn't hear much native music. Maybe that's just because I went to all the wrong places but even sitting in a pub in rural Austria in a town of 800 people they were playing 80's American music. Now, I love foreign music - it's most of what I listen to. I love hearing other cultures take our genres and put their own unique spin on it. Filipinos made better 60's/70's kitschy pop music than we did in the 80's. Japan and Indonesia put out soft rock that could stand with the best American offerings of the genre today. South America and Mexico have some great harder rock/light metal bands. I even fell down the rabbit hole of Russian rap. Like, of all places, Kazakhstan has a neo-crunk scene in Astana that sounds puts out club bangers that sound like they wouldn't be out of place in an Atlanta strip club circa 2006. I have no problem at all when foreigners adopt American styles of music. Except for the kind of rap that's dominated the charts during the 2010's, which seems to be the most dominant. My favorite thing about Russian rap is, while it's no more degenerate in lyrical content, so much of it is at least dynamic, energetic as opposed to the slow, mellow, and listless mumble rap scene, and has a sense of facetious humor where you can tell they aren't taking it all as deathly seriously as rappers who posit themselves as stone cold gangsters. Same with the surprisingly robust rap scenes in China, Korea, and Japan. I think the reason they aren't promoted in America is because A) the typical American is piss scared of lyrics in foreign languages and B) people would be mad that Chinese kids, of all people, are playing the game better than 90% of current American rappers.
But I digress. This is all to say that people all over the world make music of every genre, and often do it better than Americans - why do they not play German rock in German pubs? Fuck, why do they not play British music in English pubs? Are you telling me ANY current slop artist in America is better than Oasis?
I hate, hate, HATE the stagnation of music, and loathe seeing is spread globally like a cancer.
COVID also did a number on the American indie circuit. A lot of small music venues and clubs folded and never reopened. I lived in Austin and legendary venues that were world famous, places people came from across the globe to see country artists perform, were just left to rot by the city while they funneled public money into keeping stupid shit open instead. It was criminal.
As for who's behind Drake, I believe he was in with Lil Wayne's Young Money crew before splitting off to make his own cabal, OVO. He's pretty much self-sustaining now - or he was - and doesn't need a block like Young Money or Roc Nation to support him. Roc Nation also has an exclusive deal with the NFL to do half-time shows that they inked in 2022 I believe, which is why half-time shows have been mostly rappers since then (or rap-adjacent like Rihanna). That being said Jay-Z is in his own puddle of shit right now so that could change.
Interesting take. I wonder if the Swift booing was just Eagles fans being Eagles fans or maybe people are getting a bit tired. I’ve already thought she made songs for pre-teen girls who wanted to pretend they were experiencing grown up problems. I hold no grudge against her for that. None of us owes the world any massage it wants to hear. Those are the songs she likes and is good at writing. I understand why she’s popular and well liked but never quite understood the unending adoration. It never felt entirely on the level to me. Can people over-25 really listen to Swift’s music and see it as genius? There are certain phases we’re supposed to grow out of eventually.
Otherwise I actually loved the game. The Eagles front four were the MVPs but of course the QB got it—a sort of Swift dynamic there too, I suppose. Sacks that don’t come from overload blitzes or gap stuffing are exhilarating television. Defensive line are the most explosive and entertaining athletes who don’t (or rarely) score. Like many, I was tired of the Chiefs scratching out victories and was happy to see they did not finesse another win. The best football team won and that’s good news for the health of the sport even tho I’m not a huge Eagles fan either.
For what it's worth, I think it's a little of both. Perhaps it wouldn't have been as loud but I think Taylor Swift would've gotten booed by any fan base because I do think people are simply tired of her in the same way a lot of people are tired of seeing Pat Mahomes in every other commercial. For every reaction there's an equal and opposite reaction, so it would make sense that the gradually mounting Anti-Swift sentiment is going to come just as hard as the unadulterated glazing of her has been post her breakthrough as the definitive pop star of the post-COVID epoch. The reason it feels off the level is because it is - it's the work of a small army of advertising execs who, for better are worse, very good at what they do, and they managed to build an artificial hype engine around her that at some point became entirely self-perpetuating as people began to genuinely buy into it. The thing about Swift's popularity - at least in this era of her popularity, since her early years and stardom are markedly different in her exposure and the content of her music - is that, now, it's largely bouyed by either very young girls or women in Swift's own age cohort (with a good chunk being older, too) that do seem to think she's a genius. While I will never say Swift is not talented, I think the real geniuses are her marketing team and the cabal of writers she collaborates with to write her music. From what I understand, Gen Z largely sees Taylor Swift as what has been described to me as "Millennial Ick", which is a term that's picking up steam in Gen Z circles that refers to Millennials that are approaching forty acting like they're still 18 - 22, and just seems "cringe". My Gen Z friend described it as "Your lame older sister who's a CPA trying to be cool with your friends by getting drunk on boxed wine and singing vulgar rap songs when she's got two kids and a husband." TL;DR - I think the Swift booing was (mostly) because the audience is tired of her.
That being said, I thought the game was fun to watch myself, though, as an Eagles fan, I know I'm biased. I think Hurts deserved the MVP nod for this game in particular because Barkley really didn't do much (I give the Chiefs credit for knowing he was a threat and acting accordingly, though IMO they hyperfocused on him and let the Eagles' other weapons slide through), but overall I think the fact there wasn't more talk of the general MVP for the season going to Saquon Barkley was a crime. I'm not going to say they wouldn't have made it to the SB without him but he certainly was a big factor in their success.
$1.4 Billion was bet on the Super Boring
And I guarantee the next one will have even more bet on it. The sports betting crisis is only getting worse.
It's too bad the villain of the current NFL story had to be the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs, located in flyover country, are the only NFL team to keep their "offensive" mascot since the Washington Redskins bent the knee, and that's only because the "backwards" people of Kansas City would start shooting if the NFL tried to take it away. For nearly 50 years, they were a bad-to-mediocre team whose bright spot was Marty's tenure, when they were a fundamentally solid team that won in the regular season with hard work and then got knocked out early in the playoffs (a very Midwestern sort of thing). Their biggest rivalry was with the Raiders, which was very clearly seen (at least in the Midwest) as "clean fair Midwest versus dirtiest part of California."
The whole three-peat/rigged/Madison-Avenue/Taylor-Travis thing would make a lot more narrative sense if it were happening to a coastal team with a long history of success and media adulation like the 49ers.
For more hard hitting analysis on the periphery, check this out. It’s short and will make you smart even harder:
https://undergrounddesigns.substack.com/p/super-bowl-review
Thanks Alexander, I appreciate it. The Eagles... they're a hard team to like if you don't have a connection to Philadelphia. But for what it's worth, Brady and Belichick will always be the GOATs and I don't think the Chiefs will ever top them. Here's to hoping that Vrabel can get the Patriots back on track next season, too.