In the longest running feature on site, I have analyzed the commercials for every Super Bowl for the past several years, and I’m back again for the 2021 edition. But the results of this year’s analysis has me wondering if I’ll be back again in 2022 for Super Bowl LVI. I may be getting ahead of myself a little, though, so let’s get down to basisc. Every year I start…
I Grew Up Loving the Sport of Gridiron As a native of Washington D.C., born in the city and raised in its suburbs, I was lullabied in fight songs about victory and swaddled in burgundy and gold. The then-named Redskins won a Super Bowl shortly before I was born, and then the team won two more in my formative years, including a performance against the Denver Broncos in January of…
2020 marks the fourth anniversary of my Super Bowl commercial recap blog post here at Rampant Discourse. With four years down, we’ve rotated around through all of the hosting channels, NBC, ABC and for both 2020 and 2017, FOX. Having run this blog for a number of years now, I’ve gotten familiar with the trends. Every year has its own trends, but the generic trends of Super Bowl ads on…
The NFL regular season is over and the post-season has begun. Paul and Travis return to look back on their NFL season preview. Which picks do they get to crow about, and which should make them eat crow? What interesting story lines emerged throughout the season and what teams are we keeping an eye on for next year? We end with our updated playoff picks and who we think has…
Paul and Travis discuss the upcoming NFL season. Which teams do we think have improved over the off-season and which have taken a step back? Get your bookie on the phone* and find out who we think will win each division and which teams will snag wildcard spots. Don’t have time to listen? Our playoff teams are listed below: Want to hear our Super Bowl picks? In that case, you’ll…
The Super Bowl was two weeks ago, which makes now a perfect time to revisit what has to have been almost everyone’s favorite part. The memes about the low scoring, “boring,” game are fading, and our attention has turned to the long off-season. In this downtime, there’s a chance for reflection on what might have been the best part of our Sunday experience. I’m in the minority in that I…
The 2018 NFL regular season is over, and so it’s time to take a look back on my division winner picks to see how I did. Since I have nobody to compete against this year, I’ll be competing against my score from last year when I get a respectable 10 points. As a reminder, here is the scoring system: 5 points are awarded for correctly picking the division winner 1…
My Rampant Discourse co-contributors were scared off by my amazing performance last year when I accurately predicted the surprising ascent of the Eagles and Rams, so I’ll be running solo on our slimmed down NFL predictions this year. I don’t have any supremely bold predictions, but maybe that’ll help me get more than half of my division winners right this time around. Read on to find out who I think…
Last year I took some time to review the advertisements in the Super Bowl. We saw that after a particularly divisive election many of the advertisements took on a particularly political tone. Would the same happen this year in the wake of #metoo? Or would advertisers tone down the social commentary and aim more for brand building and light humor? Weirdly enough I mentioned 2004’s “wardrobe malfunction” in my introduction…
The playoffs for any sporting league are a special time of year. Fans of the teams that made it are able to keep their dreams alive, and even fans of the teams eliminated are prepared to enjoy the spectacle. Playoffs famously attract attention even from casual fans and non-fans of the game, increasing viewership and excitement. Why is this? If we were to assume an equal distribution of fans, and…