COMMENTARY
NEW ORLEANS – Not only did Super Bowl XLVII produce an all-time great contest, it had more storylines that a Steven King novella or Quentin Jerome Tarantino motion picture.
Questions, questions!!!
Which quarterback will come through with the key play? Can the Ray Lewis and the Ravens’ defense keep the electric 49ers’ pistol offense misfiring? Could Joe Flacco’s big arm bring some excitement to Super Bowl XLVII? Which Harbaugh brother would hoist the Vince Lombardi trophy? Would the New Orleans Saints loyal fandome accost NFL Commissioner Rodger Goodell after the failed bounty-gate scandal? Could second year Niner quarterback Colin Kaepernick keep the magic going? Would the Super Bowl commercials be the most memorable aspect of the broadcast?
All these and more were answered at the conclusion of the NFL’s 2013 Super Bowl XLVII.
As I perused New Orleans beyond the City Center, it is still evident that after enduring Hurricane Katrina, one of America’s worst tragedies.
First, Super Bowl XLVII was a storybook ending for future NFL Hall of Fame middle linebacker Ray Lewis. After suffering a possible season ending arm injury, he came back just in time for the Raven’s playoff push.
How important is Lewis to Baltimore? The Ravens were 5-1 to start the season and after he went out they went 5-5. After his return the team went 4-0. What more needs to be said?
Lewis has the ability to galvanize a collective like no athlete ever. The Ravens would not have won this title without Lewis . . . plain and simple.
Lewis joins Jerome Bettis and John Elway, just to mention a few that announced their impending retirements and won a NFL title after it.
Baltimore’s Joe Flacco showed all that he is the real deal. The first half was all about Flacco. He went 13 for 20 for 192 yards and the three scores over the opening two quarters, becoming only the sixth quarterback in 47 Super Bowls to throw for that many TDs by halftime.
Flacco finished 22 of 33 for 287 yards in winning Super Bowl XLVII MVP. Keeping up with his noteworthy playoff run he crushed the Niners’ defense. To get to the Super Bowl, he led the Ravens past Denver’s Peyton Manning and New England’s Tom Brady for two of his league-record six career postseason road victories by a quarterback.
Then there was Jacoby Jones seemingly breaking the game wide-open with a Super Bowl record 108-yard sprint with the second-half opening kickoff. That came after Jones latched onto a thrilling 56-yard catch and run touchdown from Flacco.
A New Orleans native, Jones, one of the heroes in a double-overtime playoff win at Denver, could have been or should have been the MVP.
Next, John Harbaugh beat his younger brother Jim to claim the title a Super Bowl winning coach. In the 47-year history of America’s Game, there have never been two brother oppose each other in a Super Bowl. Hey, there have never been two brothers even coach in the NFL, let along challenge each other in the Big Game.
Baltimore’s John Harbaugh is 15 months older than San Francisco’s Jim Harbaugh.
San Francisco second year quarterback Colin Kaepernick fell inches short of joining Doug Williams as the only African-American quarterback to lead a team to Super Bowl glory.
Instead he joined Donovan McNabb and Steve McNair as African-American signal callers that led their teams to the Super Bowl but fell just short of the big prize.
Kaepernick couldn’t get the Ravens into the end zone on the final three plays—there was contact on Crabtree on the final pass that appeared incidental, and Jim Harbaugh insisted it was pass interference. But that is what it is.
Before the game began, with 100 million or so Americans expected to tune in on TV, a chorus of 26 children from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. — where 20 students and six adults were killed in a shooting rampage in December — sang “America the Beautiful,” accompanied by “American Idol” alum Jennifer Hudson.
My personal highlight was Grammy winner Alicia Keys performing the national anthem. She joined Marvin Gaye and José Feliciano with iconic renditions of America’s anthem.
Beyonce rocked the Super Bowl 2013 halftime show. She brought out her girlmates from Destiny’s Child to help her bring the noise.
Leland Stein can be reached at [email protected].
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