The championship feeling

It should be a fun Super Bowl, if today's championship games are any indication. As much as I wanted to see the Saints in there, at least we have a different socially conscious storyline that will overdone by Thursday -- the first big game with an African-American head coach, and there's one on each sideline. (That New Orleans one would've been pulverized by Tuesday afternoon.)

Which gets me to a couple of interesting observations I picked up on a couple of the sports talk shows over the weekend. One host wondered if the Falcons violated the Rooney Rule before hiring Bobby Petrino, or at least thought their "minority" candidate interview of the Bears' Ron Rivera seemed fishy. I guess being of Hispanic descent doesn't count as minority in his mind. "Minority" doesn't automatically mean African-American -- no matter how some groups want to paint that term. I mean Norm Chow would definitely fit the "minority" candidate bill, and he did get a few interviews this offseason. (BTW, looks like the Steelers will be fulfilling their end of that rule if the hire of Mike Tomlin actually comes through.)

And on a similar note, another host put the Giants' hiring of Jerry Reese as GM in an interesting light. If you knew nothing about his race, he's a decent hire -- a guy who worked his way through the team's system and became a logical successor. But it's a groundbreaking hire because he's African-American.

Back to some fun stuff. I guess we'll get a whole new slew of Super Bowl ads, which is good in a way since I've already tired of the ones constantly playing this postseason (and that includes missing good chunks of the divisional playoff games last week).

For instance:
-- What's with the guys eating Wendy's and mini-Wendy's in the library, $2.99 deal or not?
-- Nice to see McDonald's rescuing Growing Pains' Jeremy Miller away from another VH-1 or TV Land talking head show. DiCaprio gets in Oscar-nominated films. Miller advertises the Dollar Menu. OK fine.
-- The disclaimer on the Ford Edge ad: "Yes this is a fantasy. Vehicles can't drive on buildings." Rrreallly??
-- How many ads are we going to see of the new sitcom with Puddy, David Spade and Kate Hudson's brother during the Super Bowl?
-- And how many ads will feature Peyton Manning? D-Caf? Senor Manning for the cell phone?