So much could have come out of the first two weekends of February that showed so much promise. There was a Championship game, an All-Star weekend, the biggest race of the year and even a worldwide sporting event.
Super Bowl XLIV seemed to be completely void of excitement, all except for two plays. The New Orleans Saints opened up the second half with an onside kick, and then with roughly three minutes to go, the Saint’s Tracy Porter returned a “pick six.”
Both teams played it safe, which made the only excitement of the game the tight score.
The halftime show continued the bland theme, since no one can live up to the 2004 Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction. The aging “Who” put on a decent show but the lighting was better than the actual performance.
Even without the action that we have grown accustomed to, the game was still able to dethrone MASH as the all-time most viewed show with an estimated 106.5 million viewers.
February’s second weekend appeared as though it would bring even more excitement with three major events.
NBA All-Star weekend was set to kickoff with a celebrity game, a game of HORSE, the skills competition, the dunk contest and then, finally, the actual All-Star game.
The All-Star weekend was held in Dallas, but instead of the NBA’s Dallas Maverick’s American Airlines Center, the festivities took place in the new $1.2 billion Dallas Cowboys stadium.
The first three events for the weekend seemed like the typical lack-luster events but there was hope in the dunk contest. By the performance that the players put up it might as well been canceled. Nate Robinson won his record third dunk contest but no big names were in there to challenge him, thus making this event irrelevant again.
Mike Bass, the NBA's senior vice president of marketing, told Tim Macmahon of ESPNDallas that a crowd of more than 90000 was expected for the Feb. 14 game.
Sunday’s game was the typical NBA All-Star where everyone showboated and no one played defense. The NBA did have better singers perform but the halftime seemed like 40 minutes of a bunch of mediocre performances all around.
The last nine minutes of the game seemed to make up for the silliness. The players actually discovered how to play basketball again and, finally, almost made a game of it.
With 108713 fans in attendance, the game broke the all-time attendance record for an NBA game.
To challenge the NBA was the long awaited Winter Olympics. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge had high hopes and even said, “Vancouver will serve as the blueprints for the future.”
Rogge continued with “hosting the games is always a complex and challenging undertaking, VANOC and its partners rose to the challenge without compromising the original vision for these games."
The Winter Olympics kicked off with a dark cloud over it, when Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian luger died while on a practice run.
Even with the USA leading in the medals race as of Monday night, this sad event will be remain the story line for these Winter Olympics.
The last hope for a good performance was left up to NASCAR and their own Super Bowl, the Daytona 500.
There was some concern from racing officials due to a decline in attendance and TV ratings.
Sadly NASCAR broke its foot. Quite literally.
A huge pothole developed and caused two delays combining for nearly two and a half hours.
The race wasn’t won by a star as hoped and ended in controversy.
For the biggest race of the year, track and NASCAR officials sure did fall flat on their faces.
For all the potential these two weekends had, all events turned into busts. Hopefully the upcoming weeks will make up for it with spring training, March Madness, and the NBA playoffs just around the corner.
-By Clayton Fawcette
