The Super Bowl is done, and after millions of words of pre- game analysis and predictions and after millions of words of post - game analysis and defensive excuse making by anyone who predicted a Broncos victory, what was clear - before all that analysis - is that Seattle had the better, much, much better, team. There is no "I" in team and after hearing about how Peyton was going to cement his legacy in this Super Bowl, and how he was the best QB EVER, and how he set every offensive record this year, and how Denver was the most prolific scoring machine in NFL history, Seattle showed why there is no "I" or "Peyton" in team. Seattle dominated every aspect of the game. Their big, strong secondary took Peyton's precision passing game away. Their pass rush gave Peyton no time to drop back and pass his precision passes. They made the Bronco running game non-existent. Seattle made Denver look ill prepared to play this game - from the first snap of the game!
The crowds were out enjoying the balmy NJ winter weather. Many of the NFL fans paying hundreds for parking, thousands for a game ticket and $20 for hot chocolate. Millions more fans were watching the game on TV, or online - those cable or satellite challenged happily discovering FOX was streaming the game Live! So, most of America (and who knows how many people all over the world were watching America's biggest sporting event) while munching, drinking, and watching, if we are honest, a fairly boring game after the first quarter, had little left to do but to evaluate the commercials.
Perhaps the biggest winner in last nights game was Nike, who outfitted both teams. Seattle's uniforms got a major overhaul in 2012 when Nike became the exclusive outfitter of the NFL. The Super Bowl is truly super for Nike who had the best commercial seen every time a camera was pointed on the field.
Seattle's uni was totally redesigned in 2012. Their uniforms have been widely hailed as adventurous and "out there" in the context of the mostly stodgy old NFL. The Bronco's last redesign was in 1997 and their team may need a whole redesign for the 2014 season. Their conservative play, like their uniforms, did not hold up well against Seattle's cutting edge fashions.
Peyton's Bronco jersey is the number one best selling NFL jersey but Seattle has three jerseys in the top ten, no other team has that. And, that was before the Super Bowl and a previously unknown, except to devoted Seattle fans, Malcolm Smith was declared the MVP. Seattle may be a trend setter. Jacksonville had a minor redesign in 2013 (didn't help them much) and the Dolphins and Vikings tinkered a bit with theirs, too. No doubt, though, that Seattle's exciting uniforms matched their exciting and fast paced play.
One more thing. Nike, of course, was the Greek goddess of victory. She had her own temple next to the Parthenon which Biblical scholar N.T. Wright called a "stunner, one of the two most beautiful constructions ever made by human hands," the other being the Parthenon itself. Both of which, the apostle Paul called in Acts 17, a waste of space! They were pagan temples, after all, built to house no -gods. Yet, Paul cautioned that is not the same as saying their was nothing there. In Wright's words, the idol reality is dependent on people to give them the powers they posses.
In the games of Super Bowl 48, the power of NIKE was displayed on every play. Of course, she has no power in and of herself, only what we give to her. And by the looks of Super Bowl 48, we give her a lot.
