In the pregame show, CBS pointed out that all-star grounds crew members from across the NFL had flown into Houston to tend to the turf. Well, the All-Stars didn't do all that impressive a job as players in the secondary were slipping and sliding everytime they tried to cut. Fortunately, the poor traction didn't overshadow an exciting game.
The Super Bowl was my first extended exposure to CBS HighDef, rumored to offer the best production values of any of the major networks in the HD game. Even projected onto a massive screen, the CBS footage confirmed everything I'd heard. The shot of Reliant Stadium from across the parking lot was so sharp and vivid I could spy loose change on the sidewalk. Awesome.
The sharp picture came in handy during the halftime show that ended with Justin Timberlake revealing Janet Jackson's right breast. When it happened, a few of us screamed with both horror and pleasure.
"Omigod! What was that? Was that a breast?!"
"Holy ----! Is this on Tivo? Rewind it!"
I have a hard time believing it was truly unrehearsed, but if it was, it will go down as one of the funniest and most bizarre Super Bowl halftime bloopers ever, and if it wasn't, well then thank you Justin and Janet. I look forward to seeing the footage on the Internet shortly. This begs for one of those shorthand movie scenes in which some detective or agent stands over the shoulder of a video computer analyst, analyzing some grainy video footage.
Detective: "Zoom in here. Okay, now clean up the picture a bit. Wait, rewind a bit. There, freeze it! Now zoom in again, right there."
Video analyst: "Dear God! Is that Janet Jackson's breast? Then the murderer is..."
Detective has already sprinted out of the room.