Is it just me, or did last night’s Super Bowl kind of suck? I was bored by everything but the halftime show. Prince ROCKS “live,” and if you didn’t know that before last night, he certainly proved himself.

As for the game, it was as soggy to watch as the weather, and I wasn’t impressed with many of the much-hyped spots, either. I was surprised at how many I had seen already.

I bet when the media booked their plane fare to “sunny” Miami, they figured it would be SO MUCH BETTER than Detroit was last year; in reality, the Florida experience was obviously much less to their liking.

Since I was born in Detroit I tend to root for it, and last year it was obvious to everyone that they did a phenomenal job as Super Bowl host city. So good a job, in fact, that most sportswriters covering this year’s Super Bowl rated their experience in last year’s frozen Michigan tundra far better. Here’s why:

• People didn’t expect bad weather in Miami, and so didn’t dress appropriately. Most of the media activities were outdoors, and there were a lot of shorts and shirt sleeves in 40 and 50 degree rainy weather. Not pleasant. In Detroit, most of the activities were indoors, so coats weren’t even needed much of the time.
• Miami is a much-traveled tourist destination – the Super Bowl is no big deal to the people there. In Detroit, it was a HUGE deal – and organizers took it very seriously, treating everyone in that famously Midwestern way, with friendliness and courtesy.
• Ya gotta love a domed stadium. Snow? Rain? No problem!
• People who deal with Winter make the most out of Winter. Detroit, like Buffalo, doesn’t shut down when it snows. Folks up here know that if you dress warmly you can actually have fun on a cold Winter day. There’s a lot to do, whether you’re in a city or out in the country, from skiing and skating, to simply walking down the street admiring a crystalline wonderland. Snow is FUN!

And couldn’t CBS have done something about the rain droplets on EVERY camera lens? It’s unbelievable to me that a huge network, producing a worldwide broadcast, being watched by almost 100 million people in 50 countries, can’t keep its cameras from fogging up in the rain. The whole thing looked like a Division 3A college football telecast to me.

But Prince Rocked.

–Brian