THE SUPER BOWL

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted February 7, 2005)

Just a couple of quick thoughts about the Super Bowl.

My favorite moment of the telecast actually happened before the game started.

It was the moment I saw the on-screen announcement -- shortly before game time -- that the spectacle would, after all, be shown in High Definition on the local cable service.
Until that moment, I had planned to take the family out to eat.

I had recently purchased fairly modest high definition TV (which was still too expensive)..... and since then had been eagerly awaiting the Super Bowl in the splendor of HDTV.
Then came the unsettling realization just a few weeks ago, that it was not scheduled to be shown in Nashville in HDTV.

That sad prospect became the talk of snobby HDTV elitists all over town.
But alas, all was well.

Here's the bad news about watching sports in high definition. You can't go back.
It's so much better than regular TV, that you're immediately hooked.

For a few minutes, I walked into the kitchen and watched a bit of the game on our small, cheap TV.... a TV I'd always been perfectly content with. Now, it felt to me like watching blurry old home movies. I realized I was hopelessly spoiled.

And this from me.... a man who's always felt that color TV was a passing fad, and eventually we'd revert to black & white, the way TV ought to be.

The game itself was OK. Still not as good as the Jets over the Colts in Super Bowl III in 1969.

I enjoyed hearing the various NFL quarterbacks -- including Steve McNair.... singing "Tomorrow" from the show "Annie".

And it was oddly amusing to see former Presidents Bush and Clinton sitting side by side, in matching blue suits.

And my six year old discovered a new song she really liked... "Hey Jude".

_____________________