Game Date:  Thursday, September 10, 2015

Teams:  Pittsburgh Steelers @ New England Patriots

Network:  NBC

A visually stunning show.  Superb camera work, even during some pretty heavy rain.  I liked the way the players introduced themselves in little headshots on the bottom of the screen when they took possession of the ball.  Was also impressed with the fancy graphic they had ready to summarize all the Brady to Gronkowski passes.  Musical score:  classic jock/gladiator music.  I also liked the split screen with the reaction time stopwatch showing how long the QB held the ball before passing it.

2/5.  I really tried to get emotionally engaged and to care about what happened, but it was hard.  There were some passes and touchdowns that were impressive — especially the ones New England made.  Those made me a little disappointed, but they also seemed like pretty lucky breaks.

This is who’s paying the bills.   During this show they cut away from the stadium about every five minutes in order to advertise.  There were 112 separate commercial messages between the opening credits and the end of the game (a few were repeated throughout the evening).  The first commercial of the NFL regular season was for the KIA Sorento.  Lots of fantasy football ads and NBC ads promoting other NBC programs.  Plenty of car, truck, and cellphone/smartphone ads, too.  Fewer beer commercials than I would have expected.  The full list is at the bottom of this report.

The kickoff was preceded by a Superbowl Celebration ceremony where the Patriots trotted out all four of their Superbowl Trophies.  The first three were carried by former players, and last year’s trophy was carried by the team owner.  Lots of loud music, smoke, fireworks.  Then the Patriots ran onto the field to the accompaniment of gladiator music.  There was a PSA for some 50th Superbowl promotion — something about passing a golden football across the US so kids can touch it?  The commentators liked pointing out whenever something was the “first of the season” — the first touchdown, the first interception.  There was also a kerfluffle about the Steelers’ radios not working.  Since I’ve decided to hate the Patriots, I’m going to go ahead and believe they intentionally sabotaged the radio equipment;  don’t try to confuse me with any facts like the NFL saying it was an electrical problem.  As if.

So much to learn

Some specific terms tonight that I didn’t understand:  touchback, nickelback, first & 10.  I recall the cheer from high school — “First and 10, do it again,” but I was just repeating what others said.  Not sure what a conversion is.  Also need to look into special teams and just what that means.

How do they decide which commercials to run during timeouts and injury delays?  Which little video clips and commentary topics are planned ahead of time, and which ones are spontaneous?  Do Fantasy Football businesses get a special deal on their advertising? — seems like the network could give them a discount since fantasy ball must increase network viewership.