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The dark magic of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick has just secured the Patriots their 6th Super Bowl title in 18 seasons. With this final stone in their NFL Infinity Gauntlet, the Brady/Belichick hydra has set some interesting records. Most of them have to do with being very old.
Our photo editors have been gathering dozens of the best action shots from the field and in the stands at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Here they are.
ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response,” that tingling feeling you get at the back of your neck and over your scalp when you hear a certain sound or experience a certain stimulus. It’s a big trend right now, and there are countless videos on YouTube of people whispering directly into microphones and tapping their fingers on things to try and stimulate an ASMR response for viewers.
A lot of people find it relaxing.
Others, well, they find it horrifying. So Michelob Ultra’s ASMR-themed Super Bowl ad, featuring Zoe Kravitz in what looks like Hawaii, had a lot of people feeling attacked. Listen at your own risk:
It’s not Kravitz that’s the problem, it’s just that ASMR is not for everyone! For every person that chills out to the sound of someone rubbing velcro or sipping from a beer bottle, there’s someone else who thinks ASMR feels like being haunted by a very quiet ghost with no sense of personal space.
Imagine how much worse it might be if this Super Bowl was actually exciting.
Here’s an incomplete list of the current and former players who appear in the NFL’s new ad celebrating its 100th anniversary:
Peyton Manning
Jim Brown
Franco Harris
Joe Montana
Christian McCaffrey
Richard Sherman
Michael Strahan
Larry Fitzgerald
Dick Butkus
Barry Sanders
JuJu Smith-Schuster
Marshawn Lynch
Mike Singletary
Brian Urlacher
Deion Sanders
Jerry Rice
Baker Mayfield
Von Miller
Todd Gurley
Terry Bradshaw
Aaron Donald
Tom Brady
LaDanian Tomlinson
Ed Reed
Drew Brees
Odell Beckham Jr.
You know what makes a football game exciting? Touchdowns. Scores. Points. Any points, really. (Unless you are one of those studied football men who proposes that a low-scoring tie is exciting.) Three whole quarters into Super Bowl LIII, the score is a paltry 3-3. Unless things heat up really quickly (and they could! We’re from Atlanta, we know all about eventful fourth quarters), this punter’s duel could make history. A few relevant records to consider:
Seriously, even brands are making jokes about how boring the actual game is.
Of course, as soon as we say this, something legendary will happen. That’s just the way it is.
No, you didn’t nod off during this remarkably dull football game and plunge into a nachos-fueled dream sequence – there really was a SpongeBob SquarePants clip during the halftime show.
But for why?
After SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg passed away last year, more than 1.2 million fans signed a petition to have the song “Sweet Victory,” featured in an iconic SpongeBob episode, performed at the Super Bowl.
And wow, it happened. Kinda. During the halftime show,a few seconds of the “Sweet Victory” clip played before rapper Travis Scott’s appearance.
Wow, that halftime show was … a lot.
In 13 eager-to-please minutes it served up something for almost everyone: rock, pop, hip hop, rap, a drumline, a gospel choir, illuminated lanterns, pyrotechnics, a huge M-shaped stage and artists arriving via vintage convertible and what looked like a cartoon comet fireball.
Headliner Maroon 5 got most of the spotlight. Frontman Adam Levine sped through truncated versions of “Harder to Breathe,” “This Love,” “She Will Be Loved” and “Girls Like You” (nope, no Cardi B.), shedding his shirt by the end to reveal his sweaty torso and lots of tats.
Rapper Travis Scott joined the proceedings two songs in, seemingly introduced by SpongeBob SquarePants and plunging in from the sky in a flaming meteor. Thirty seconds later, he was gone.
Last up was Big Boi, the Atlanta hip hop prince who made a grand entrance in a Cadillac convertible, sporting a ginormous puffy fur coat and singing “In the A,” his ode to his hometown. He then segued into a few verses of OutKast’s “The Way You Move” before yielding the stage to Levine, who wrapped things up with “Moves Like Jagger.”
So … how was it? Well, it was no Prince. Or Beyonce. Or even Bruno Mars. The show felt thematically all over the place, like the producers decided to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall and hope that something stuck. Mostly it didn’t.
Big Boi looked fabulous, though.
Looks like the National Corn Growers Association is taking exception to Bud Light’s boast that they don’t use corn syrup to brew their beer.
This is absolutely the kind of Super Bowl beef we signed up for.
Pepsi knows it’s in a Coke town
It’s no secret Atlanta is the Coca-Cola capital of the world. So Pepsi has some cojones pushing this star-studded and surprisingly self-aware Super Bowl ad. “Is Pepsi okay?” is the anthem of many a food-service employee, but Pepsi recruited Steve Carell, Lil Jon and Cardi B to play some defense: It’s more than okay, they say. It’s OKAYYYYY. Okurrr?!
Also, Cardi B’s sparkly dress/nails combination belongs in the Smithsonian.
Pringles, are you okay?
Pringles! They’re yummy! Once you pop, the fun don’t stop! The robot servants haunting your house are bereft; of souls, of sense, of the capability of feeling joy! Even sadness is beyond their grasp, yet there is no other word for the deep void from which they scream! Eat Pringles!
And by the way, this is 2019, so no commercial would be complete without a tight and well-planned social media tie-in. You can witness even more existentialism on the Pringles Twitter account, which has been (temporarily?) taken over by their Sad Device. Now it’s just responding to all of the other Super Bowl commercial brands with increasingly dismal messages.
The Dude abides … and now drinks Stella
Cheers to Stella Artois for an ad that cleverly plays with the famous drink choices of some iconic characters. Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw (“Sex and the City”) and Jeff Bridges’ The Dude (“The Big Lebowski”) walk into a swanky bar and order not their trademark Cosmopolitans or White Russians but … glasses of Stella Artois. Like that would ever happen.
There will be dozens of great (and not-so-great) commercials in the next few hours, so we’ll update every once in a while with a few of our favs. So far…
That Backstreet Boys commercial is a bop
The Backstreet Boys + Chance the Rapper + some unholy Doritos creation was bound to be a winner. Honestly, their remix of “I Want It That Way” shouldn’t sound so good. And yet, it does.
Bud Light still reigns
Bud Light’s first “Dilly Dilly” ad aired in August 2017, and somehow they’ve managed to successfully stretch the joke for two entire NFL seasons. Judging from the latest sojourns of the Bud Light Kingdom crew (A kraken! Mordor? OTHER beer kingdoms?!), we’re going to be Dilly Dillying for some time to come – whether we like it or not.
BUT WAIT!!!
We spoke too soon! A second Bud Light commercial, starring the Bud Knight, quickly evolved into a fire-breathing, head-smooshing affair that could only be the work of…
….GAME OF THRONES.
Fakeout! Yes, a Bud-Light x “Game of Thrones” crossover ad. Almost as shocking as the Rams intercepting Tom Brady.
Before the coin toss, CBS aired a clip highlighting unity in the league and featuring words and wisdom from Martin Luther King, Jr. It makes sense – Atlanta is a cradle of the civil rights movement as well as King’s hometown. It’s also Black History Month. However, given the ongoing tension about kneeling during the National Anthem and social justice activism in the NFL, some people weren’t buying it.
Looking like a literal empress in a bejeweled, be-caped white ensemble, the Empress of Soul kicked off SBLIII in masterful fashion with her rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.
Given the years-long controversy over the place and purpose of the anthem at NFL games, there was going to be grumbling no matter who was chosen to sing it. However, Knight is a Georgia native, and said in a statement before the game that she was hoping to use her performance “to unite and represent our country in my hometown of Atlanta.”
Wow, that intro to CBS’ telecast of the game, featuring Peyton Manning in a boardroom full of TV execs and John Malkovich in the Colosseum (yes, the one in Rome), was was almost five minutes long. And actually pretty funny.
As far as we know, Cardi B isn’t performing during the Super Bowl. The rapper has said she turned down an offer to perform during the halftime show out of support for ex-NFL star and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick.
But it still feels like Cardi B is everywhere in Atlanta this weekend. Consider:
The Maroon 5 connection has fueled speculation that Cardi will make a surprise guest appearance with Adam Levine & Co. at halftime. It doesn’t seem likely, but you never know. She does like to make money moves.
The streets surrounding Mercedes-Benz Stadium this afternoon are a sea of NFL jerseys – seemingly all of them paying tribute to Tom Brady. By our unofficial count we saw roughly 10 Patriots jerseys for every Rams jersey. A few poor guys held up signs marking “Rams Friends & Family” meetup spots. They were virtually alone.
As you may know, Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium has a fancy retractable roof, and a lot of attention has been given to the status of the roof at game time. The latest word, from an NFL official:
On-field warm-ups: Roof closed
Pre-game festivities, including National Anthem: Roof open
Everything after that: Roof closed
That’s the plan, assuming the weather (and the roof, which can be temperamental at times) cooperates.
