Super Bowl LIII: A Tale of Blown Calls
I find it extremely disheartening that I will be watching this year's edition of the Super Bowl knowing that what could've been is infinitely better than what we are actually getting on Sunday.
When it comes to the actual game, think about it. Instead of having the veteran New England Patriots (aka the Evil Empire), led by the seemingly immortal Tom Brady and Bill Belichick tandem facing the offensive powerhouse in the New Orleans Saints, we will get the Rams. Not to take anything away from Goff's team - but the refs missed a critical call in the last two minutes that would've sealed the victory for Brees. Whoever wins this game is going to walk out of Atlanta feeling like less of a champion than normally, one due to being consistently in championship conversations while the other is the victor of Refball.
That was the first missed call. The second missed call is the Super Bowl halftime Show.
While the past few years has seen some all around great performances from acts that should've been mediocre or affable at best (ex: Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, etc.), the world will have to endure Maroon 5 for fifteen minutes of our lives that we will never get back. The show is going to be a farce like the Black Eyed Peas or Katy Perry. All this because the NFL won't clear the air and acknowledge the right to free speech and the right to protest that ex-San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick has as an American citizen. The situation has caused so many of the world's top stars refuse the time honored show, from Jay Z to Cardi, all in support of Kaepernick.
Wherever you stand on the kneeling for the National Anthem issue (no pun intended), it's important to realize what we missed out on here.
If the NFL could put its big boy pants on, it would've been able to pull off one of the greatest Super Bowl Halftime Shows - and performances - ever by following a simple theme: Atlanta.
In my eyes, you can't deny the musical star power that comes from the city of Atlanta. I'm gutsy enough to say that of most cities in the past twenty years, it has been at the same level, if not better than New York, Los Angeles and Nashville when it comes to producing stars. Do I need to elaborate? If you need a pop, R&B and hip-hop show, this would be the city to focus on. From the all-time great group of TLC, shouldered by solo heavyweights in Ciara and Usher to represent pop rhythm and blues, to incorporating the new and the old in Hip-Hop guard with OutKast, T.I and Lil Yachty to give us fifteen minutes worth of relevant pop bangers as well nostalgia for weeks. And to add a bit to savor, if someone has to pull out, you can call upon Childish Gambino or Cee-Lo Green to fill in the gap. Amazing. Sad part is that humanity can't sit here and act like it isn't a possibility when the NBA's All Star Game in 2019 is in Charlotte and has J. Cole featuring Meek Mill (from Philadelphia, but also one of the hottest artists) as their halftime show.
While I personally don't know how the show would come together or how it would all be set up, but I know that this is a missed opportunity. Having a Super Bowl go the route of truly representing the city that they are in for the show would be momentous. On the social front, that lineup also serves as a love letter to the black community that they disregarded, ignored and made feel unimportant.
The Super Bowl halftime show is a blown call that Roger Goodell can not fix.