SPORTS COLUMNIST PETER JAKEY:Not even the nags can get the call right
While it may not rank up there as some of the best commercials ever from Super Bowl Sunday, there were some good ones. My favorite was the Budweiser horses, who we?ve watched for years playing football, during Super Bowl games. This year we find them reviewing a play, to see if one of the horses stepped out of bounds. The commercial starts off with them rewinding the play over and over. At first I was asking myself, ?what the heck is this??
The commercial then shows the zebra looking in the box, as officials do on instant replays, with the two teams of horses standing by, awaiting the final decision. I couldn?t help but laugh. It rated as my favorite commercial of the Super Bowl and the next morning received some of the highest marks in a USA Today poll. The most entertaining commercial was provided by Reebok. It begins with an office manager talking about increased productivity with the hiring of professional football player Terry Tate to enforce company polices.
One office worker, leaving a break room, disappears from the television screen as he is tackled in the hallway by Tate, with Tate screaming ?break was over 15 minutes ago.? Another shot showed a board room meeting with Tate chasing a worker in the hallway, while the meeting continues undisturbed, as if it happens all the time. At the end of the commercial, Tate creamed one last policy breaker playing solitaire on his computer. The employee reached a high game, and was about to do a victory dance outside of his cubicle, when Tate blindsided him.
I would like to see that one again. In fact, here?s an idea for television executives. After the big game, or the next day, they should put all the commercials together for a TV special. The Cadillac commercial, with Led Zeppelin music, kept me entranced for 60 seconds. It started out with a man in a subway car, traveling along through time, watching the evolution of the vehicle outside his window. That commercial alone, with a rate of $2.1 million for a 30 second ad, had to be more than $4 million. If there is a commercial I would have done differently, it would have been the one with the Osbornes, who I believe are down to their last 30-seconds of fame, and that was on Super Bowl Sunday. The commercial had Ozzy?s children turn into Donny and Marie Osmond. They break into the song they made famous on their variety show a couple of decades ago. Ozzy screams, ?shut up.? It was cute, but it would have been better if the Osmonds responded to Ozzy, only to bleeped out, much the way Ozzy is bleeped out on his MTV program.
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Viking basketball coach Ron Misiak keeps a steady rotation of players coming and going from the Posen bench during the course of a game. It?s been quite a challenge in giving everyone enough playing time, but he?ll have a deep, experienced team when the post-season rolls around. A fan favorite is junior Craig Latz, who received one the loudest reactions of the players coming off the bench. After some of the students started cheering for Craig, everyone was watching him. He got a pass to the right of the basket but missed the shot. Latz got his own rebound, because he was one of the taller players on the floor. He made another attempt at a shot, and with a big groan from crowd, missed again. Latz again got the rebound, but was fouled before he put up his third attempt, which went in. Latz didn?t get the points, but certainly brought a lot of excitement late in the game. The fans love him.
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The Huron volleyball team has some powerful hitters at the net. I watched them against Rudyard on Monday, and even though I was told it wasn?t their best performance, it was still a win, and what a front line they have. Senior Lauren Fairbanks is worth the price of admission. She is an incredible athlete. I was sitting about three-quarters of the way up the bleachers, and could see the other side of the net.
I watched one kill from Lauren, and it looked like a fastball tailing away from the batter, or in this case, a defender. Ashley Fleming and Becky Bruning also provide their share of highlights at the net, providing a well-rounded attack. Fleming, when she leaps high enough, can do pretty much what she wants with the ball when she gets above the white strip on the net.
Bruning, Fleming, and Fairbanks have the players to get them the ball, which bodes well for the
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The Lions are always full of surprises. On New Year?s Eve, team president Matt Millen says Marty Mornhinweg was his coach for the next year. Monday, at a press conference, he told us he changed his mind. I like the decision, but didn?t care for the way it was done. I guess maybe I wanted to see Marty come out of his office with a coffee cup in his hand and get tackled by Terry Tate. That would have been better. I think if the Lions hire former 49ers coach Steve Mariucci, who is from Iron Mountain, it?ll take pressure off Millen, who is handling his job as well as Marty did.
I haven?t heard one person complain about the firing of Marty, and the possible hiring of ?Mooch? or Denny Green. The coaching change has brought renewed optimism among Lions fans. I?m hoping Mooch gets the job.
