My first Super Bowl

Pittsburgh Steelers beat Seattle Seahawks -- that's about the only thing I can really say I understood about the game. Okay, maybe a little more:

• You get a lot of points if you run to the end of the opponents' side and "touch down" the ground
• The opponents can stop you by any means, except possibly hitting you on purpose

My first Super Bowl experience wasn't much about the sport of American football though. This media event, one of the most-watched TV programmes of the year, was known as Super Bowl XL -- as in 40 in Roman numerals and nothing to do with the size of the players or the event itself.

I've heard of it, but I didn't actually know what exactly it was. But the buzz started quite a few weeks ago, with advertisements coaxing customers to buy HDTVs to watch The Big Game. Only today morning did I find out at what time it was and which channel it was on.

The "pre-game" programme began about 3 hours before the actual start! I was just amazed when I thought of similar ones of half or one hour duration before cricket matches (that lasted 7-8 hours). Another comparison that came up was the kind of media pressure on the players.

There was some song and dance before the game, featuring many artists, of which I know only Stevie Wonder. The only thing I had heard earlier about the half-time programme was the infamous "wardrobe malfunction" starring Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. This time around, it was just a mini-concert of Rolling Stones -- don't know enough about that too to write anything much.

There were some special ads ("reports citing a record $2.5 million for a 30 second spot") too -- one set from Pepsi and another from Pizza Hut that I can remember. There were also trailers of big movies, mostly releasing far ahead in May, including MI-3.

Now back to the sport. One analyst showed excitement to the extent that viewers might believe that he was doing commentary and not giving an opinion! Some parts of the ceremony reminded one of Olympics! Finally, the chairman of the club and the coach lifted the cup instead of the players.....