Christy’s take on the Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is one if those events that brings Americans together.
Even if your hometown team didn’t make it to the end, like one of mine did, you find something in one of the teams to root for. I felt particularly anxious for the mother whose two sons both gave it their all as they coached the competing teams, the Niners and Ravens through a historic game at the Super Dome in New Orleans last night. Just seven years after Hurricane Katrina survivors sought refuge in the Dome, we watched New Orleans host a game that was unprecedented on many levels.
Here are a few parts of the game we found particularly moving, amazing, inspiring and just a little bit sad.
Brothers coaching rival teams — What does it say about a mother when both her sons achieve this level of professional success in one sport? It says she drove them to thousands of work-outs, practices and games, organized their lives so they could complete their educations and nurtured them to grow up as brothers who didn’t kill each other with rivalry. Every mother learns to raise the child in front of her to be who he is ultimately supposed to be. When that means raising two children to be national championship coaches; that says something about the mother too. Mrs. Harbaugh, we salute you.
Sandy Hook chorus — America the Beautiful is among the most moving songs because of its power to stir pride, patriotism and a sense of awe in even the most cynical American. That it was sung with such simplicity by the children in the Sandy Hook chorus was enough to make us weep, as we notice, a few of the players also did. Jennifer Hudson came in to add support to the performance at just the right moment, when we all began to feel a little shaky in the presence of these children who have born such pain and yet showed they are still capable of singing from the heart.
Alicia Keyes and Beyoncé’s performances along with Jennifer Hudson, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams showed just what a proud day it was for African American women who each brought the house down (and some might say, the power grid for about 35 minutes) with powerful, inspiring and exciting performances. Beyonce’s half time show was a white-hot performance made only better in our opinion by the fact that her daughter just turned one in January. In fact, Jennifer and Alicia Keys are also fairly new moms and I hope you agree, bringing these babies into the world has only enhanced these incredible women.
It was the longest Super Bowl in history and sad (in my opinion) for San Francisco to lose, but all in all, it was good television. Unlike many Super Bowls, the game held us till the end.
As I land in the Bay area today, the town won’t have the celebratory spirit I’d hoped to find, but we’re not defeated. There will be other Super Bowls and other championships my team will win. Who knows, maybe next year, the competing teams will include New York and then I will be the conflicted one who has to choose between two hometowns.
