The Super Bowl - and its commercials

Super Bowl Sunday held special meaning in my family this year as the Pittsburgh Steelers returned. Yes, I'm a Steelers fan from way back when.

Interestingly enough, it was my Mom who was - and still is - the #1 football fan in our family, and it was her fondness for Terry Bradshaw that caused our tv to be turned to whatever channel featured the Steelers. My sister and I grew up trying to decide whether it would be Franco Harris or Lynn Swan who was going to get the play. Quite naturally, both of us turned out to be devoted fans.

So it was the two of us that the rest of my family and friends had to tolerate last night. We jumped, clapped, yelled, cringed, and celebrated. We annoyed everyone with our own instant replays and critique of the game. We decided we really liked the ref, even though his call on the Rothlisberger touchdown will be discussed for weeks. And now it's over...left-over sloppy joes and brownie crumbs are all that's left of the party and it will be months before we'll see our beloved team on the field again.

So now it's a question of what we'll do with Sundays for the rest of the winter.

Which is why, we've decided, Super Bowl commercials have taken on such interest. We watch them during the game, but they're not really the focus, so now we have them to look forward to.

I admit that some of them I didn't quite get. We weren't really sure what to think of the rather elaborate production of dancing women that turned out to be a Burger King commercial. In case you missed it, the women were in costumes that turned out to be a bun, a burger and all the trimmings - jumping on top of each other at the end to form a whopper. Very, very strange - but then - most of the newer BK "king" commercials are.

We thought the Clydesdale pony getting help from "mom and dad" to pull the Budweiser wagon pulled at the heartstrings. We loved the "rotating wall" to hide the refrigerator full of beer - only to have the neighbors in the apartment next door bowing toward the source of a fully-stocked refrigerator (this is a must see if you missed it).

But my favorite was the cell phone commercial with the "anti-theft" device. I only saw part of it, so I don't even know which company it was for...and I missed the last couple of lines as I tended to refills for my guests - but it was, by far, the one we all liked best and I'll look forward to seeing it again.

Good fun with the commercials, a good game (especially since we won), good food and good friends to share it all with - Super Bowl Sunday.