• by John Gaffney , January 27, 2003

More Super Bowl Riffs:

I already ran my mouth in Media Daily News this morning about the big game. But there are still a few things I can’t let slide. Like:

No Disrespect: But I think the start of the Bob Hope centennial celebration should have been held at the first tee at Pebble Beach ... Who needs the Miller “catfight” ads when you have Shania Twain? ... What were they thinking?: Terry “Reebok” Tate, Yahoo’s rainbow ad, Hanes and Jackie Chan, and Levi’s and the bison….Didn’t Pepsi pay a lot of money to have Beyonce? ... My personal MVPs: Tampa’s Joe Jurevicius, Yogi Berra in the Visa Check Card ad and Al Michaels for making the following product placement actually fit within the flow of the game: “If Tampa Bay didn’t hire Gruden, would they have posted the (head coaching job) on Monster.com?”

Reader Riff Of The Game: Mike Skillrud says he now has more respect for the marketers that skipped the game. “I'm going to run to McDonald's for a Coke, then snack on some Tostitos as I shop for those new Nikes, as my sales assistant is making Xerox copies of documents generated on her Apple - then I'm going to invest with E-Trade what remaining money I have.”

And Let’s Not Forget: Sometimes in the rush of words messages and drama of good vs. evil and Raiders vs. Buccaneers, you can still actually read something that gets to the heart of the matter. Yesterday’s New York Times Magazine piece on Warren Zevon, the songwriter who is dying of cancer, was one such instance. One part of the article describes Zevon’s recent meeting with his idol Bob Dylan: “Soon Zevon was ushered upstairs to Dylan's dressing room, where the two songwriters traded a long glance. Dylan mumbled something about how sad he was to hear about Zevon's illness. ‘I have come to value every moment,’ Zevon replied.”