MONDAY COMMENTARY: JUST IMAGINE

(Listen daily for the Rod Pedersen Commentary on Cat Country 98 & Rock 98.5 FM)

It was a Super Bowl for the ages.

I’m guessing you were one of the 135-million people who watched it on this continent.

And if you’re the NFL, you truly couldn’t have asked for more.

The Kansas City Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII 38-35 thanks to a last-second field goal, devastating the Philadelphia Eagles in Glendale, Arizona.

The Super Bowl is still the greatest sports and entertainment night of the year, but it’s also still just a football game. And this one came down to the same old things: turnovers, the line of scrimmage battle, covering kicks, and of course penalties.

The sports world is reacting to the holding penalty on Eagles DB James Bradberry on KC’s final drive, which decided the game. Fox colour commentator Greg Olsen criticized the call on the broadcast, saying it was too soft at that point in a game of that magnitude.

It reminds me for all-the-world of the 2014 Grey Cup, and the blocking-from-the-back penalty on the last second kick return touchdown which cost Hamilton the Grey Cup against Calgary at BC Place.

It both cases, it was a penalty.

I remember talking to the referee after that Grey Cup and he said, “Imagine if we didn’t call it.”

That’s one of the biggest travesties in society right now; vilifying people for simply doing their jobs correctly.

Anyway, as Cactus Jack says, “It all turned out nice again”.

Kansas City coach Andy Reid got revenge on the team which fired him 14 years ago. NFL analyst Jeff Reinebold said on the RP Show that assuredly would’ve been motivation for Reid going into the game. Jeff said if it wasn’t, “Andy’s either not that competitive or has amnesia.”

The halftime show was great featuring Rhianna. I love her music so it would’ve taken a lot to screw that up.

All in all the NFL can take a bow. The world’s biggest football game came off without a hitch. It was two weeks of over-the-top build-up which is only getting bigger by the year and next season it’ll be in Las Vegas; a city which knows a thing or two about being over-the-top.

And sorry to say, it was the last football game of the year.

Time for hockey to take centre stage.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm ET on Game+ TV, WQEE Radio and YouTube Live)