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🇺🇸 To boo or not to boo? During the Winter Olympics opening ceremonies, CBC viewers in Canada heard a chorus of boos when U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife, Usha, were featured onscreen. American viewers watching NBC did not, and the primetime replay featured a different audio edit than the live broadcast. NBC told Awful Announcing that it “did not edit any crowd audio” of the ceremony.

🌁 McAfee loves SF. Nobody tackled the politics around the Super Bowl LX host city more than Pat McAfee. The ESPN host discussed San Francisco’s sociopolitical situation with 49ers great Joe Montana, mayor Daniel Lurie, and current star George Kittle throughout the week. Ultimately, McAfee determined SF is not a “sh*thole” but a “beautiful place.”

🏈 Pro Bowl flop. The reformatted Pro Bowl Games, airing on a Tuesday night in the host market, drew just 1.9 million viewers. The number puts the Pro Bowl Games below most other leagues’ All-Star events. After questions arose about whether the NFL would continue the event, the ratings mark may prompt further reconsideration.

🏈 Brady loses his vote. Las Vegas Raiders owner and Fox Sports analyst Tom Brady is no longer a voter for AP NFL awards. The roster of voters turns over somewhat each season, but no official reason has been given for Brady's absence. Good news for those who took issue with the clear conflict of interest around Brady’s multiple roles within the NFL.

📱 Russillo’s mistake. During Super Bowl week in San Francisco, a photo appeared on the Instagram story of Barstool host Ryen Russillo of a nude breast. The photo was taken down within an hour, and Russillo has not addressed the incident.

After another bad Super Bowl, the question is: Is this what Super Bowls are now?

The answer is most likely a simple no. Two years does not make a trend, even though our eyes won’t soon recover from what we just watched.

But Kansas City vs. Philadelphia Part II was over by halftime last year, and Seattle vs. New England Part II was arguably just as bad on Sunday. A few trends appear to be converging, at least indicating that this type of Super Bowl is far more likely than it had been for the preceding decade.

Defenses dominated the past two NFL seasons as well as the past two Super Bowls. Philadelphia’s defense forced six sacks and three turnovers last year, and Seattle had six sacks and a forced fumble in this year’s version.

Both winners, along with last year’s Chiefs and this year’s Texans and Broncos, were defined by elite defenses. Teams seem to be unlocking a level of versatility and mystery within their defensive schemes that offenses have yet to figure out. It’s one thing for Drake Maye to fall victim to it, but we watched the same thing happen to Patrick Mahomes a year ago.

Speaking of Mahomes, we are no longer in the comforts of his reign. With the Chiefs and Mahomes in the mix, shootouts and comebacks were always on the menu. I won’t count Mahomes out forever, but he missed the postseason this year and will miss most of next season recovering from a torn ACL. The transition out of the Chiefs dynasty leaves us with Super Bowls featuring Maye and Sam Darnold, with youngsters like Bo Nix, C.J. Stroud, Brock Purdy, and Caleb Williams knocking on the door.

Some of those guys will be Hall of Famers. Others will just be guys who led great teams. It’s a far cry from the familiar experience of Mahomes or Tom Brady playing into February.

Neither of these things spells out why the past two Super Bowls have been decided by a combined 34 points. Defensive battles don’t necessarily mean bad games. Those Giants-Patriots duels were low-scoring classics. And new faces can mean fresh stories.

By next winter, we could be celebrating the ascension of Williams or Maye or some other newcomer who thrills us and delivers an all-time Super Bowl.

In the previous decade, Mahomes and Brady led the way in an era of high scoring, delivering great games in February more often than not. Two years in a row, we’ve had clunkers in which one defense took over completely.

The potential for bad Super Bowls certainly seems higher, with scoring in decline and no single dynasty dominating, at least for now.

Interesting maneuvering by Melissa Stark and the NBC crew to address Drake Maye’s shoulder injury right after a pregame interview with him.

The opening moments of Mike Tirico’s first Super Bowl call…

Something was off with Kid Rock’s audio during the Turning Point USA halftime show.

Nevertheless, many people did watch the alternative halftime show.

If you wanted to know how The Bill Simmons Podcast went after the Patriots lost…

“…I grew up wanting to be on a newspaper, and now I face the reality that the capital of the United States of America does not have a newspaper. It just does not. Not a full newspaper.” - Former Washington Post sports columnist Tony Kornheiser on the demolition of the paper by owner Jeff Bezos.

“You know I got your back, RKK. Get that 7th ring so we can match.” - Tom Brady, (slightly) changing his tune on his rooting interest in Super Bowl LX after saying he did not have a horse in the race.

“Junior was my teammate for three years. Those two apparently were really close, but he ended up being his drinking buddy. And then he was still prescribing him pain pills and Ambien, even after that first suicide attempt, and I think he played a role in that.” - Ryan Leaf, elaborating on his altercation with Dr. David Chao last week on Media Row in San Francisco.

“I still read, I still hear people say that you and I ruined sports media. That we destroyed it with our style or whatever it is. … And if I may say so myself, I think we revolutionized it.” - Skip Bayless, in conversation with Stephen A. Smith, defending the legacy of First Take.

Bad Bunny just corrupted the hearts and minds of 100 million Americans.

Did anyone think of the families? The millions of children who should not dare be subjected to a Spanish-speaking singer? How are they supposed to comprehend what just happened, both literally and metaphorically? This is no laughing matter.

OK, actually, it kind of is.

As a few million people opted to flip to Kid Rock’s halftime extravaganza on Turning Point USA’s YouTube channel, exponentially more well-adjusted Americans watched what proved to be an incredible halftime performance by Bad Bunny that will go down in Super Bowl history.

Click to read more from Awful Announcing's Drew Lerner on the highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show, in which the Puerto Rican hip-hop artist was ultimately far more uplifting than attempting to be an activist.