XLVII

Super Bowl 47. What a roller coaster ride and a train wreck all at the same time.

We thought that much would be made about the brothers Harbaugh coaching against each other. We thought that Ray Lewis would cry more times than he would tackle. We also thought he'd mention God at least twice as many times as he'd cry.

We thought that Colin Kaepernick would outshine Joe Flacco. We thought that the Ravens defense wasn't quite as good as the 49ers' offense. 

We thought that after the inauguration debacle, Beyonce wouldn't dare lip sync. We thought that Jay Z would come out and perform. And hell, we even hoped that JT would show up (although, I'm not sure he's allowed within two states of a Super Bowl halftime show). 

What we DIDN'T think was that the Ravens would look like they had one foot in the Magic Kingdom before the second half kicked off. We didn't think that Joe Flacco would drop an F Bomb on live television after being named MVP. But then again, we probably didn't think Joe Flacco would tie Joe Montana's record for most postseason touchdown passes thrown (11) with no interceptions.

We didn't think that the lights would go out in the Super Dome mere minutes after halftime ended. At least, I don't think we did. 

We didn't think that after the lights came back on, the Niners would score consecutive touchdowns to cut a 22 point deficit to five with 3:10 left in the 3rd quarter. We didn't think that it would come down to a two point conversion in the 4th to prevent a tie game. And we didn't think that a late safety, after a potentially controversial no-pass interference call on a San Fran 4th down, would make the final score 34-31.

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Yet, what we thought and didn't think would happen was just mere speculation...and most of it was wrong. It's why a game is played, and why fans love to watch. The unpredictability of sports is entertainment at its finest.

Colin Kaepernick settled into the second half to play lights out, shining once more like the bright star he's been all post-season. But despite that, Joe Flacco shined brighter. Case in point, the beautiful bomb thrown to Jacoby Jones. That in itself warrants incurring the FCC's wrath.

Our girl Beyonce...she got around that pesky lip syncing bizness by...you know...not really singing. Still, her dancing was off the hook. Though Jigga and his new partner in crime JT didn't make an appearance, the ladies of Destiny's Child did. And let's be honest, you can never go wrong with a Destiny's Child reunion.

Although having a power outage that resulted in a 34 minute delay wasn't probably what the NFL envisioned for its championship game, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. San Francisco had their switch flipped back on with the rest of the stadium lights, and a new game was born.

But most surprising is that Ray Lewis only mentioned God once in his post-game speech. I mean, seriously, did any of us see that one coming?

All in all, Super Bowl 47 had enough drama to last us until August, when NFL returns to pre-season action. Until then, we're all undefeated.

Image provided by huffingtonpost.