O’Donnell: From Bad Bunny to Drake Maye, SB 60 had flaws
BEGIN WITH THE COMPULSORY PREMISE THAT if you weren't screaming “Bravo!” after Bad Bunny's halftime show at Super Bowl 60, your political sentiments must lie squarely on the red side of Main Street U.S.A.
Or maybe not.
But no less than Variety — the show business bible — declared: “Even if you don't speak Spanish, the visual storytelling evoked so many people living the American dream, from the workers in the opening segment, to elderly folks, female friendships, dancing, drinks, and unabashed jubilation and unity.”
ANYONE WHO WISHED THAT there had been subtitles or recurring graphics addenda to assist in the comprehension of artistic flow — mala suerte, amigo. (Insert subtitle here: Bad luck, friend.)
The National Football League was going to present an energized global halftime show. Spanish proficiency optional.
“GLOBALIZATON” IS A GOLDEN-TARGET WORD at a restless NFL HQ. Bad Bunny — one of the hottest young entertainers on the planet — played perfectly into that power grid on the prowl.
That is, unless a viewer had extremely limited or zero ability to understand the words driving the family-of-man jubilation and unity.
Then Bad Bunny had to be taken at his sounds, the stage settings and his relentless implication of alegria de vivir.
IT WAS SO MUCH EASIER BACK WHEN the mega-telegenic Odalys Garcia was presenting her talents alongside Don Francisco on Univision's monster weekly variety show “Sabado Gigante.”
Politics aside, those were plainly understandable as “Bravo!” moments.
* * *
FEW EXPECTED A SUPREMELY MEMORABLE SB 60 between the Seahawks and the Patriots.
Full truth, it loomed at best as a Week 11 interconference showdown rather than a worthy successor to the championship licks of Lombardi, Ditka, Brady, et al.
But few could have anticipated how weak the New England offense would be.
UNLESS YOU WERE AMONG the fortunate few who knew that Patriots QB Drake Maye was suffering significant diminishment from an aching right shoulder and received a pregame injection to help quell the pain.
That sort of withheld information greatly influences outcomes and wagering patterns.
On Wall Street it would be called “insider trading.”
In the run-up to Sunday at Levi's Stadium, Roger Goodell and cronies treated it as an oh-well circumstance.
FROM THE OUTSET, MAYE LOOKED NOTHING like the runner-up in 2025 league MVP voting to Matthew Stafford of the Rams.
His passes lacked pop. His knack for using his legs to get out of collapsing pockets was MIA. Even his elemental decision-making seemed sluggish.
He played more like Li'l Abner's Daisy Mae than the vaunted Drake Maye.
DOES THE NFL OWE THE GENERAL PUBLIC data-like word about Maye's infirmity and injection before kickoff?
In this age of astounding betting totals on “The League” — estimated at close to $20B alone on SB 60, legal and otherwise — the answer is a resounding “Yes!”
But who do bettors get to complain to after a scam-ola in plain sight like Sunday?
TO BORROW FROM the native tongue of Bad Bunny, “Nadie lo siento.”
Ultimate insiders won — and the ghosts of pioneering NFL owner/bookmakers like Tim Mara, “Blue Shirt” Charlie Bidwill and Art Rooney undoubtedly smiled.
STREET-BEATIN':
Some very astute people are insisting that Sunday's final round of the PGA's WM Phoenix Open was more exciting and competitive than Super Bowl 60. CBS coverage was crisp and entertaining. Chris Gotterup won — but Scottie Scheffler continued to show that he's every bit as good as Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods were in their prime. …
With the recent change in deck chairs at WFLD-Channel 32 Sports — Lou Canellis skulked over to faded WMAQ-Channel 5 — the Fox o-and-o has a great window to upgrade toward the standard Bruce Wolf set as lead sportsman starting back in 1987. For far too many years, with a handful of exceptions like Dawn Hasbrouck and Palatine's very own Dane Placko, the station's news operation has packed all the wallop of a rural resale shop. …
Herb Gould's “Lambeau: The Epic Life of Earl 'Curly' Lambeau” (Gonfalon Press, 2025) is getting a second wind after the late-season battle royales between the Bears and the Packers. (Gould was a sports mainstay during the last golden age of the Sun-Times.) His pacing and research deliver an engaging, textured book on the remarkably complex — and relentlessly roguish — Lambeau. …
Frosty winter memory: Speed skater Terry McDermott won the only gold medal for the U.S. at the 1964 Olympics. The 23-year-old Michigan barber was whisked from Innsbruck to the newly renamed JFK Airport in New York in time to be introduced from the audience on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The date was Sunday, Feb. 9, and the featured attraction was the breakout American TV appearance of The Beatles. (WXRT-FM 93.1's Terri Hemmert was not in the house.) …
Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears each week on Sunday and Wednesday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.