I ended up watching the Super Bowl with a few friends out in the middle of Cary. As Tampa had the coach who was previously with the Raiders, it was as though he could forsee nearly every move from his new opponents, and the score simply reflected this fact.

Unfortunately, the team from California lost. Not only did the Raiders lose, they actually lost by a large margin — only to be trampled by the Buccaneers with another slap in the face — one that was literally in the last couple seconds in the game. The score ended with Tampa more than doubling the team from Oakland in this 48 to 21 game. (Tampa has a great flash ad on their site, by-the-way.)

At least the Raiders ended up scoring a few more points in the end of the third quarter and middle of the fourth. If they had not, having a mere three points would have been beyond embarassing. It would have been humiliating.

On the lighter side, there was a big bounty of food while we watched the dual of the pirates. Chips and dips, veggie chilli, cornbread, and home made desserts were served up in plentiful proportions. While crunching the corn chips, we watched the game, made comments, and displayed our enjoyment of the commercials with lots of laughter.

Speaking of the commercials, AOL posted most of the notable advertisements on their website. It’s definately worth a gander. All of us at the party agreed that Terry Tate’s office skills definately won our “best commercial” prize (which happens to be our appreciation only). Second place went to some skillful monkeys who prove that a hot day at the zoo can be improved with a little inguinity and a bit of inspiration provided by the 2001 theme song. Third in line was the chewing gum endorsement.

Honerable mentions include: The captivating Russian Space program (because space is cool), the Matrix sequels (because like the first Matrix movie, these should also be cool in a geek way), and “monster” truck madness (watching a driverless semi flying down the road at high speeds while the trucker eats in a diner could actually be the essence of a Hollywood movie plot).

The most talked about (but usually not in good ways) commercials were: “Everything’s muddy but the Pepsi product” (as it was pretty much a dumb, dirty commercial), Yahoo!’s HotJobs “Rainbow Connection” was captivating (but made no sense really), Michael Jordan vs. his younger self (if Gator Aide causes one to sweat in strange colors and hallucinate enough to not only talk to one’s self, but play basketball too, then I don’t want any, thank you…), and Jackie Chan in an uncomfortable Hanes t-shirt with Michael Jordan’s smiling stock footage (should have been funnier and more action packed with Jackie Chan in the starring role).

The TV’s content was a let down as the Raiders lost in a game with large margins, and the commercials were much better in the dot-com heyday. Despite those downers, the party was a success (despite the large crowds not showing up). Those of us who were together to witness this year’s Super Bowl experience had fun hanging out and watching the events unfold.

It was definitely better than being stuck at home, too. (: