Why the Denver Broncos will win Super Bowl XLVIII

Why do I think that the Denver Broncos will defeat the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLVIII? I'll give you three (3) reasons.

1. Peyton Manning, the Super Bowl-winning quarterback of the Denver Broncos, who holds the record for both touchdowns and passing yards this season. And happens to be very funny (though I can't stand those Papa John's commercials).



2. Puppies. As we all know, puppies are hardly ever wrong when picking the winner of the Super Bowl. (They are also incredibly cute.) And this year, both Jimmy Fallon's puppies and Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl X puppies BOTH went for the Denver Broncos.



3. It is the Chinese Year of the Horse. Broncos. Year of the Horse. Enough said.

UPDATE: Who knew puppies could be so wrong? Worst Super Bowl ever. So disappointed. Though the Bruno Mars halftime show totally rocked. 

Are you ready for some Puppy Bowl?!

Coming this Sunday, February 3, at 3 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time on Animal Planet.... It's Puppy Bowl IX!



And now, for the first time ever, here is an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Puppy Bowl, titled "Any Given Puppy Bowl."



(For a true behind-the-scenes look at Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, including some interesting facts and figures, read this fascinating article in Forbes.)

Sure, puppies are cute and fun to watch, but can they do something useful, like predict who will win the Super Bowl?

Let's go to the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Puppy Predictor to find out!



Don't like that result, 49ers fans? No problem. Just check out the Animal Planet Super Bowl Puppy Predictor instead!

No matter which team you are rooting for, though, looks like a doggone good time.

Top 3 Super Bowl XLVI ads?

You know how you can tell a great Super Bowl? When the game is more exciting than the Super Bowl commercials. And yesterday's Super Bowl -- featuring the New York Giants vs. the New England Patriots -- did not disappoint. At least Giants' fans. (GIANTS WON! GIANTS WON!) The ads, on the other hand, did. Though a few stood out.

Herewith my Top 3 Super Bowl XLVI ads -- plus honorable mentions.

My favorite? Honda's CR-V ad featuring Matthew Broderick (click the link to see the ad). Though I prefer the extended version.

My second favorite ad, M&M's "Just My Shell":



(Any ad that features M&Ms and LMFAO's "I'm sexy and I know it" is tops with me.)

And in third place, we (meaning I) have a tie, between Sketchers' "GO RUN Mr. Quiggly" ad, featuring the French bulldog:



and Dorito's "Man's Best Friend" ad, even though it is offensive to cats and their owners.



Honorable mentions go to the Acura NSX ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld, Hyundai's "All for One" ad featuring the theme from Rocky, and to Budweiser for promoting rescue dogs (though I still will not drink Bud Light).

So which were your favorite Super Bowl XLVI ads? Let me know via the comments.

Which Super Bowl XLVI car ad will win?

Forget Giants vs. Patriots, this Super Bowl (XLVI), it's all about Volkswagen vs. Acura (and Audi).

Capitalizing on last year's uber successful Darth Vader Super Bowl ad, titled "The Force," Volkswagen now gives us "The Dog Strikes Back," advertising the new and improved (?) Volkswagen Beetle. (Be sure to watch it all the way through to see the Star Wars connection.)



Personally, I think the ad is nowhere near as entertaining as "The Force" (which featured the same or a similar dog, being accosted by Little Lord Vader)...



or even its "Bark Side" teaser:



But I don't think the ad for the new Acura NSX, titled "Transactions" and featuring Jerry Seinfeld (never got him, never will)...



or Audi's "Vampire Party" ad...



is any funnier. (Seriously, vampires are so last year.)

So which ad(s) do you like? And would you buy one of these cars based on the ad? (I hate the Jerry Seinfeld Acura NSX ad, but I totally want that car. ) Leave me a comment.

UPDATED: How could I have left out Honda's ad for its new and improved (?) CR-V featuring Matthew Broderick?! Friends, I believe we have a clear winner after all. (And I may need to be tested for early onset dementia.)

Matthew Broderick's Day Off (Honda 2012 Super Bowl ad)

Oh yeah.



Honda's 2012 Super Bowl ad for it's "all new" CR-V, featuring Matthew Broderick as a grown-up Ferris Bueller, is brilliant.

What do you all think? Anyone...? Anyone...?

(I haven't counted all the Ferris Bueller's Day Off references and quotes, but there have got to be at least a dozen. I personally like when the valet calls out "Broderick...? Broderick...? Though it would have been funnier if Honda had gotten Ben Stein to play the valet.)

Top 3 Super Bowl XLV ads

Come on, admit it, half (or three-quarters) of the reason you watch the Super Bowl is for the ads. As per usual, most of this year's Super Bowl ads disappointed. (Actually, I thought this year's Super Bowl ads SUCKED -- and were needlessly violent, creepy, and/or inappropriate or offensive.) But I felt these three were blog worthy.

First up, Volkswagen's "The Force" ad for the Passat (which has over 13 million views on YouTube, over 12.7 million of which were before the Big Game):



[Click here to see a short interview with the boy who would be Vader, who looks exactly like a young Luke Skywalker.]

Next, even though I am neither a Justin Bieber nor an Ozzy Osborne fan, I thought this Best Buy spot was amusing:



But perhaps my favorite Super Bowl ad (which I'm not 100 percent sure actually aired during the Super Bowl) is Old Spice's new Scent Vacation ad featuring the Man Your Man Could Smell (but Probably Never Look) Like, Isaiah Mustafa.



[I don't care if this ad is basically like all the other Isaiah Mustafa Old Spice ads, I still like it.]

Honorable mentions to Bud Light, Volkswagen (the Black Beetle ad), and to CarMax (though the spouse thought it was "a lame commercial").

FYI, to see more Super Bowl XLV ads, and how they rate, go here.

No cheerleaders at Super Bowl XLV?!

That's positively Un-American!

It's also yet another reason why the Jets should be playing in Super Bowl XLV instead of the Steelers. ;-)

According to this MSNBC clip, this will be the first time in over 40 years that the Super Bowl will be cheerleaderless -- as both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers don't have cheerleaders. (They are two of six NFL teams that don't have cheerleaders; the other four being the Chicago Bears, the Cleveland Browns, the Detroit Lions, and the New York Giants.)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

As Super Bowl XLV is being played at Cowboys Stadium, I think the least Jerry Jones could do would be to loan the NFL the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders for the occasion, don't you?

Sigh. Guess male viewers will have to make do with the ladies of GoDaddy and Hooters.

Four best Super Bowl XLIV ads

Good Super Bowl (congrats to the New Orleans Saints), not so good ads. Still a few (or should I say "four") of the ads really stood out, in terms of their creative humor, such as...

this ad for McDonald's with LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Larry Byrd:



(Great ad, but I still have a soft spot for the original McDonald's basketball shooting contest featuring Larry Bird and Michael Jordan.)

We also got a kick out of the Snickers ad featuring Betty White and Abe Vigoda (who is still not dead):



And I got a chuckle out of the FloTV ad featuring CBS sportscaster Jim Nance:



But our favorite Super Bowl XLIV commercial had to be this promo for "Late Show with David Letterman," featuring David Letterman, Oprah, and Jay Leno:



Got a favorite Super Bowl XLIV ad, which I didn't include? Let me know via a Comment.

Happy Post-Super Bowl, Groundhog, Pre-Blogroll Amnesty Day!

This weekend I discovered, thanks to Jon Swift and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, that February 3 was Blogroll Amnesty Day (though it is actually being celebrated January 31 - February 3, making it more of a Blogroll Amnesty Long Weekend), "the blogosphere's greatest (and, so far, only) holiday... a day when we salute all of the great smaller blogs that don't get the recognition they deserve," per Mr. Swift. To which I say "here, here" -- as in, send your readers here, here, to J-TWO-O, a Lilliputian-sized blog with big dreams, Mr. Swift and Mr. Bush Kangaroo! (Hmm... Maybe they should have called it National Blog Whoring Day.)

And while I think giving voice/linkage to deserving small blogs is a most noble idea, and I do my bit every day by linking to many fine small (and some large) blogs (at right), which I encourage everyone reading this to click on and explore, I am suffering a bit from "special day" overload. Take today, for example, which is Groundhog Day. And this just in from Gobbler's Knob, Pennsylvania: Six more weeks of winter. Curse you, Punxsutawney Phil! (No wonder he's packing heat. He's going to need it after that forecast. Feh.)

It is also Post-Super Bowl/Big Game Day (more on this below). And now Pre-Blogroll Amnesty Day (which should really be called Support Your Favorite Small Blogs Day). And in less than two weeks it will be Valentine's Day. And then before we know it it'll be St. Patrick's Day, which is really just an excuse to drink way too much beer, act like an idiot, and piss in an alley.

Enough with the "days" already.

What's next, Stimulate the Economy Day? A Day without Rod Blagojevich Day? (Though that would be nice. Ditto A Day without Sarah Palin Day.) Rush Limbaugh Day? (Though really every day is Rush Limbaugh Day, at least at MSNBC.) Oh and don't get me started on National Boss Day. (What are the self-employed supposed to do, celebrate themselves?)

But as today is the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday it behooves me to briefly discuss the Big Game, even though neither the New York Giants nor the New York Jets played this year. Herewith, J.'s Thoughts on Super Bowl XLIII (typed during the Big Game):

First Half:
* Is make-up speed anything like make-up sex?

* Is it me or were this year's commercials way better than last year's? (The spouse and I particularly liked the Pepsi commercial featuring Bob Dylan and Will.i.am, though Pepsi? And I did chuckle at the GoDaddy.com ad with Danica Patrick in the shower and the Cars.com ad. Though I still HATE those dumb eTrade ads with the baby(ies). Btw, you can watch all the Super Bowl ads on Hulu.com.)

* Apparently, per the announcers, Kurt Warner had yet to "find his rhythm" and is "a rhythm quarterback." Considering the guy has seven kids (though three are adopted, I believe), I would say the rhythm method hasn't been working for Kurt for a while now.

* Second quarter, just over 8 minutes left, looked like we had a game -- and Kurt found his rhythm! Steelers 10, Cardinals 7.

* Just wondering, how many letters can fit on the back of an official NFL jersey? Good thing Ben is so Big, otherwise Roethlisberger would never fit; ditto Rodgers-Cromartie.

* Phenomenal end to the half, if you are a Steelers fan -- 100 yard interception return by No. 92, James Harrison, the youngest of 14 kids. (Whoa.) Was the longest interception return in Super Bowl history. Though totally sucked if you (like me and the spouse) were rooting for the Cardinals. Gotta admit though, that was pretty incredible. Did not see that one coming (nor, apparently, did Kurt Warner and the Cardinals. Again, so much for the "rhythm" method).

Half Time:
* I am so not feeling you Sobe. And what is with all the 3-D sh*t?

* Listening to the NBC Gatorade half-time team, I am not listening. Commentary overload. Let's not go back to the first possession of the game, Bob... (Clearly they were playing for time and praying for Bruce Springsteen to start playing.)

* Re Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, how much do you think they made for 12 minutes/4 songs? Not a huge fan of The Boss, but the spouse and I thought he put on a very good show -- and the saxophone player kicked butt. Also liked the girls with guitars. (And hey, it beat the heck out of listening to Bob Costas, Chris Collinsworth, and the rest of the NBC Gatorade half-time crew prattle on for another 12 minutes.)

Second Half:
* Harrison almost did it again. Almost.

* End of the third: Pittsburgh 20, Arizona 7. Yawn. Give me Super Bowl XLII. (Even the commercials had gotten boring.) But then...

* 7:33 to go in the fourth and Larry Fitzgerald scored a touchdown for Arizona -- 20 - 14, Steelers. And, okay, that Alec Baldwin Hulu.com commercial and the latest "Heroes" ad were pretty funny. Things were looking up!

* 6:39 to go and Roethlisberger gets sacked. Better...

* Et tu Richard Dean Anderson? Pepsuber? Really? Worse...

* You call that a penalty?! Harrison should have been thrown out of the game. Talk about unnecessary roughness. Those were low blows.

* Wow. Safety. Pittsburgh 20, Arizona 16. Less than three minutes to go... Things were starting to get interesting again.

* 2:37 Larry Fitzgerald goes ALL... THE... WAY! WoW. Arizona 23, Pittsburgh 20. Whoa. Talk about an amazing race... (And Matt Leinart makes a cameo.)

* Holy cow! Pittsburgh scored a touchdown with 35 seconds left in the fourth quarter! Another amazing play. No sh*t, Sherlock -- I mean Santonio, who went on to become the MVP. So much for boring. Though you gotta feel a little bad for Warner, Fitzgerald, and the Cardinals.

* And it's over. The Pittsburgh Steelers win 27 - 23, becoming the first franchise to win six Super Bowls.

Oh and do check out my Super Bowl Pre-Game Wrap-Up if you have not already done so -- and check out some small blogs this week!

The J-TWO-O Not-So Super Bowl XLIII Blog Post -- with the Skivvies on All the Action

This was going to be the Super Bowl Thong Report, until I discovered there is NO SUCH THING as an Arizona Cardinals thong. What kind of self-respecting National Football League team does not have an official NFL thong?! What's wrong with you people in Arizona?

I Googled and searched and Googled, and all I came up with was a lame-looking bikini and these really lame boxers. Feh.

And here I was all set to root for the Cardinals and Quarterback Kurt Warner. (I love you, man! The Giants should have kept you!) But now... Dunno.

On the other hand (or insert appropriate body part here), you have the Pittsburgh Steelers. Now that's a team that understands the importance of having an official NFL thong -- as well as a good offense and defense. Though the Cardinals' offense isn't too shabby either. Should be a good, or at least an okay, match-up. That is, if you care. And I'm not sure that I do, as both my beloved Giants and Jets will not be playing.

From what I've read and heard, the odds are in the Pittsburgh Steelers' favor. Sorry Arizona. Though, hey, you never know. If Big Ben, aka Steelers Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, gets hit or is otherwise injured and has to be removed from the game (i.e., is carted off the field again), that could do some serious damage to Pittsburgh's chances of winning. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Of course, I doubt that Super Bowl XLIII will even come close to the excitement that was Super Bowl XLII, otherwise known as THE BEST SUPER BOWL EVER (except to New England Patriots fans). Not even the commercials will be as good. (And last year's weren't even that good.) But the spouse and I will still probably watch (February 1 at 6 p.m. ET on NBC), because a) it's the last football game of the 2008-2009 season; b) we have nothing better to do; c) it's an excuse to drink beer; d) the spouse thinks Faith Hill is hot.

And speaking of Super Bowl ads and hot women, check out this Super Bowl ad from PETA, which NBC actually banned for being too sexy. Bet you guys will want to eat your veggies now. ; )


'Veggie Love': PETA's Banned Super Bowl Ad

(I was going to close with "may the best team win," but the best teams didn't even make it to the finals this year. Pathetic. Oh, and next year, the NFL should wait until after the playoffs to award the MVP. Unless by "MVP" they mean Most Valuable Pitchman. In which case Peyton Manning deserved the award.)