by Ali Alwood
The 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl took place on Feb. 7, 2016, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. It was the first Super Bowl in NFL history to suspend the usage of Roman numerals in it’s title. To celebrate this anniversary, each team, and the stadium, represented various shades of gold.
Minutes before the championship commenced, Lady Gaga performed the national anthem. Lady Gaga sported a Gucci pantsuit and high-heel platformed shoes. Her attire was extremely patriotic and caught the attention of the audience.
The entire performance was breathtaking and operatic. Supportive celebrities and fans showed their praise through trending topics on social media. Notable alternative artist, Halsey, tweeted, “Gaga just floored me. I love her so much. What a performance.”
Twitter and Facebook were buzzing with comments about Lady Gaga’s rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. Her presence and voice left viewers speechless and with goosebumps.
The Carolina Panthers and the Denver Broncos took to the field. After flipping the NFL coin, Denver took the opening kickoff. The quarterback of the Denver Broncos, Peyton Manning, started the game on a strong note.
This was Manning’s second Super Bowl experience and it became evident in the first few seconds. He threw multiple successful passes, but the Carolina defense was not allowing a touchdown. The Broncos settled with a field goal, kicked by Brandon McManus, keeping them in the lead with a score of 3-0. The ball was turned over and the quarterback of the Carolina Panthers, Cam Newton, threw a couple of few-yarded passes.
Broncos linebacker, Von Miller, knocked the ball out of Newton’s hands and was recovered by Malik Jackson in the end zone. This is thought to be one of the most notable plays from this year’s Super Bowl. Carolina recovered the ball and Newton threw 73-yard scoring drive and Jonathan Stewart completed the touchdown. The Broncos came back and were set up for a 33-yard field goal. When the first half ended, the Broncos were ahead 13-7.
This year’s halftime show was headlined by the British rock group Coldplay with special appearances by Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, who had both headlined previous Super Bowl halftime shows.
The show opened with Chris Martin, the leading member of Coldplay, singing the well-known verse from “Yellow”. The remaining band members of Coldplay entered the stage to perform “Viva la Vida,” “Paradise,” and “Adventure of a Lifetime” with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and the University of California Marching Band.
Bruno Mars and and Mark Ronson performed their chart-topping hit “Uptown Funk” with backing dancers dressed like the late Michael Jackson. In the middle of the song, Beyoncé entered from the field, along with backing dancers dressed like members of the Black Panther Party, to perform her new single entitled “Formation” along with a choreographed dance battle.
The three performers met on stage while a video montage of past Super Bowl performers, including the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, U2, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen, showed on the megatron.
Although the halftime show was beautiful and inspiring, some conservatives took offense to Beyoncé’s personal performance. They consider the performance and lyrics of “Formation” to be “anti-police” and supporting of the Black Lives Matter movement. This criticism has caused people to unfan Beyoncé and post “#BoycottBeyonce” on various social mediums.
Beyoncé is simply expressing the pride that she has in her heritage and background. If people are shaming Beyoncé for her personal beliefs and expression, society should consider adjusting their prejudiced mindsets. Sophomore Jessica Deiter said, “I think that most of the people that watch the halftime show are our age, so they wouldn’t get the references anyway.
We should give Beyoncé some respect and let her do her thing.” Beyoncé’s performance was completely harmless and her words should not be twisted.
Coming into the second half, the Broncos defense came in strong. After failed attempts by the Panthers, the Broncos were set up for another 33-yard field goal. The entire third quarter was left without any forms of scoring, but at the beginning of the fourth quarter, the ball was knocked from Manning’s hands and was recovered by Kony Ealy.
This set up a 39-yard field goal for Graham Gano, bringing the score up to 16-10. With less than five minutes left in the game, the ball was stripped away from Newton when he failed to fight for the recovery. Students of the York Suburban Senior High School have different theories behind Newton’s lack of aggression.
Senior Joe Young said, “I can play both sides. Either one, he was trying to play it safe to prevent an type of injury. But, it also could have changed the entire momentum of the game. It sort of looks like he gave up on his team.”
Also, senior Dustin Knaub stated, “He could have been shocked and didn’t have a big enough reaction time.” The ball, yet again, was turned over to the Broncos causing them to score another touchdown and a two-point conversion. The final score was 24-10.
It is widely known that the viewers of the Super Bowl look forward to the commercial breaks. Each 30-second Super Bowl commercial costed $5 million this year. These companies spend these large sums of money to appeal to a greater audience.
This year’s highlights include Kevin Hart using the “Car Finder” tool on the Hyundai Genesis to stalk his daughter’s date, an unborn baby following the movement of its father’s Doritos during an ultrasound, and a herd of sheep singing to Queen’s “Somebody to Love” in a Honda Ridgeline commercial.
The Doritos Super Bowl advertisements are usually the most popular among viewers and spark conversation on Twitter and Facebook. This year’s “Ultrasound” has been viewed and share over ten million times.
Senior Molly Day says, “I liked the one by Doritos, with the baby, because it’s funny and different from the other ones.” As per usual, everything that is broadcasted on television causes some sort of controversy.
Pro-choice groups are claiming that the Doritos commercial is promoting anti-choice by “humanizing fetuses and portraying the fathers as clueless and mothers as uptight.” The group plans on boycotting the company and tweeted “#NotBuyingIt” after the commercial aired. The main focus for the Doritos Super Bowl commercial was to invoke comedic value and had nothing to do with opinions or thoughts of abortion.
This year’s Super Bowl had an astonishing total of 111.9 million viewers. The Super Bowl 50 audience is the third largest in the history of television broadcasts.