A weird Super Bowl

Somewhere I suspect Dandy Don Meredith is smiling. If there was ever a time when his services were needed to sing "turn out the lights", it was at this Super Bowl.

Indeed, mysteriously the Superdome was plunged into darkness during the middle of the game. Then half the lights came back on. It wasn't until about 30 minutes later that somebody finally figured out how to turn the other half back on.

Yours truly has no idea how the Superdome's electrical system works, but one would think in this day and age that it just shoudn't be that difficult to turn the lights back on, especially when it was reported the power company had stated the outage appeared to be within the stadium itself. No surrounding areas were affected. Given the Super Bowl was being watched by hundreds of millions of viewers world-wide, that was an embarrassment to the NFL. Somewhere I also suspect commissioner Roger Goodell was not exactly a happy camper to see his showcase so rudely interrupted. Though we may never know, odds are pretty good somebody somewhere got fired over what happened, or at the very least has some serious 'splainin to do.

Regardless, what a game. Baltimore came out in the first half and were having their way with San Francisco. After the lights came back on in the second half, the tables turned and the 49ers got on a roll. Though at one point trailing by over 3 touchdowns, at the very end of the game San Fran had a chance to pull it out, being inside the Baltimore 10 yard line, trailing by only 5 points, with several cracks at the end zone to win it as time all but expired. But they just couldn't quite get it done. It appeared as if on San Fran's last chance one of the Baltimore cornerbacks was guilty of holding a 49er receiver, but it wasn't called, and those things happen.

So Ray Lewis indeed got to go out on top, and Baltimore will have a parade in a few days. Head coach John Harbaugh will be the toast of the town. Good for them. On the other hand, head coach Jim Harbaugh and his 49ers have to make the long trek back to San Fran and wonder what might have been. But hey, let's not forget the San Francisco Giants won the World Series last year by sweeping the Detroit Tigers, so that city has enough glory for a while. It's been a long time since Baltimore got to celebrate a championship of any sort, so why not?

Besides, the 49ers aren't exactly going to self-destruct. They're a relatively young team and could well compete for several more Super Bowls in the near future. I wouldn't be a bit surprised to see them back in the big game next year.

And yeah, I went with the odds-makers and predicted the 49ers to win. I was wrong, but actually I can't remember the last time I got one right. At least I'm consistent.

On a related note -- there's no doubt that Baltimore's last offensive play of the game involved a lot of money changing hands. By that I mean all those football pools out there, where people buy "squares", and whichever numbers (scores) pop up after each quarter, plus the final score, pay out a certain amount of money, depending on how much the squares cost in the first place. For example, if 100 squares were going for $50 bucks apiece and it paid out quarterly, that would be $1250 each to 4 lucky winners. When the Baltimore punter ran out of his own end zone for a safety, rather than risk having his kick blocked, those numbers changed on all those football pools. All those people sitting on the lucky numbers before that play probably figured it was "in the bag". When the 2 points for a self-inflicted safety went up on the scoreboard, those same people watched their potential winnings go poof. Yet at the same time, an equal amount of people were likely thrilled with their last second stroke of luck.

Guess that's why they call it gambling. As they say -- Ya pays yer nickel, and ya takes yer chances.