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Durant goes glass to lift Thunder over Golden State 119-116.

Golden States’ Monta Ellis went for 48 points and 7 rebounds and his teammate David Lee had a triple-double with 25 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists. Yet, it wasn’t enough as Golden State fell to the Thunder. Somehow the duo of Durant and Westbrook still managed to win. The game was tight the whole way with Golden State up after the first quarter and then Oklahoma up by 2 at half.

Oklahoma’s Durant didn’t put his team up to stay until their was only 14.2 seconds remaining on the clock and he went glass from just inside the 3-point arc. In response to Durant’s game winning shot Warrior’s head coach Mark Jackson commented, “I don’t think he called bank.”

Is this the case of a bitter coach after a loss? Nope, it turns out Jackson was right. Durant didn’t call bank and actually didn’t think his shot was going in at all. Durant confessed after the game that he threw up a horrible shot and was amazed it went in. I guess when you’re the 2-time NBA scoring champion shots just drop, even if you’re off.

Durant lead the Thunder with an impressive 33 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists and his partner in crime Westbrook went for 31 points and two clutch free throws with under 10 seconds remaining. The Warriors had their chances down the stretch, but Ellis and Rush missed 3-pointers with under a minute to go that sealed their fate.

The real breakout story of this game was Monta Ellis. He’s been a solid NBA player for years, but the question now is can he be a consistent team leader. His 48 points on 18-29 shooting and domination of the offensive flow for the Warriors is the stuff elite players are made of. Ellis has shown flashes of this brilliance in the past, but the question is can he consistently get his shot and go for monster numbers when necessary. Oh, and hitting shots with under 10 seconds left on the clock is important too.

 

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Scott Snyder will bring Victor Fries into his Court of Owls story this May in Batman Annual #1.

The New 52 has been very hit and miss when it comes to re-establishing the classic villains in Batman's rogues gallery, but the writer who's been hitting the most is Scott Snyder.  Thankfully, he's going to be the one handling the debut of one Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze, in the New 52 universe, with this May's Batman Annual #1.

“Mr. Freeze is a character full of pathos and tragedy and at the end of the day, he’s one of Batman’s deadliest,” said Snyder. “So as you can imagine, I’m very excited to be able to do a story that establishes him in the new DCU, with rising stars James Tynion IV [co-writer] and Jay Fabok [artist]. This will be tale that really digs into Freeze’s psyche, explaining his connection to the Court of Owls in the present, and exploring dark secrets about his past. Really thrilled to see what you guys think!”

That's right, he's going to be connected to the dastardly Court of Owls trying to control Gotham City, and not roided-out in a prison riot or something. Here's Fabok's full cover of Batman Annual #1.  Freeze even looks like the Owl guy.

 

The Bat gives us jokes we deserve, not necessarily the ones we want.

One of the better things about the success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight feature film series is the amount of parody videos the movies have spawned. The veritable Bat-Swarm of sketches each focuses on their own collection of plot holes, strange acting choices, and depressingly twist-able dialogue. The Batman may be the world’s greatest detective, but even the mightly Bat-Computer is no match for a trusty search engine, and in a short amount of time I was able to dig up a good crop of Batman-related funny to inject into your brains like your own personal comedic Dr. Leslie Thompkins.

If you got that deep cut Batman reference, good for you! If you didn’t, don’t worry... none of these sketches are digging too deep into the 70-year Batman canon  for their jokes. Cue the Bat-Signal... let’s do this!

Probably the most widely recognized parody in recent months was a pretty amazingly well designed SNL Digital Short staring Steve Buschemi as Commissioner Gordon and Andy Samberg as Batman. It’s raw, funny, and it’s right here for you to enjoy:
 

After the break we’ll look at the amazing Batman parody work from CollegeHumor.com which is not to be missed. Click on, chum.

The creative team at College Humor really has a grasp of funny, combined with an uncanny ability to exploit the holes in any plot, character, or portrayal. Probably their best known poke at the Dark Detective is “Batman Chooses his Voice” which is pretty incredible.

Pro-Tip: Enjoy Kumail Nanjiani as the street vendor in the first few seconds here. His joke is actually the best in the whole sketch.

 

Using pretty much the same cast (but now somehow promoting our former corrupt detective to the role of Commissioner Gordon.) The CollegeHumor team takes a stab at Batman’s odd trick of vanishing when you look away. This is ALMOST the same sketch at SNL, but I think way better. Awkward Batman is my favorite!
 

Awkward Batman returns in one of the best parodies of The Bat. The “Interrogation” sketch does a few callbacks to the previous sketch and yet stands on its own just fine. It’s hard not the give CollegeHumor the brass ring in sketch comedy, there just in a whole other league. A Justice League? No. That’s stupid.
 

Click past the break to see the best of Batman Parody ANIMATED! Cartoons, baby!
 

Sometimes real life is just too much to ask for, at least when you have a production budget. Thus, some of the best sketch work is animated in nature. So let’s look at some of the best of the Drawn Knight.

“How it Should Have Ended” (or Hishe) has made a mark on the Internet with funny, well drawn parodies about how the best and worst movies should have ended.The premise for these shorts is simple:   fill the first plot hole and then show you what might have happened. They are all good, but I prefer their treatment of superheros best. Here are a few of the superhero themed episodes from the HiShe. It’s worth a watch for Batman fans. Enjoy!


First of SUPERMAN! (and Batman)

 

Now IRONMAN! (and Batman)
 

Finally BATMAN!  (and Superman)
 

All of these make me all happy and tingly! I love how the HiShe guys manage to keep it fresh with the same voice-cast every time. Pretty impressive. Tune into http://www.howitshouldhaveended.com/videos for a surprising amount of superheros in diners.

Keep it going for the Grab Bag of Bat-I-sodes!
 

OK,  before you go, here’s a bunch of other fun Batman parody sketches that are well worth their time, and YOUR time. First off is one that didn’t easily fit into the previous two categories... because it was both. Its animated and CollegeHumor! Check it out! (also Superman is in it!).

 

Here’s a re-cutting of the actual Dark Knight moive that exploits the fact that Tangerine is something that Alfred can be made to say a lot. I guess it’s just easy to cut into his speech. Plus it uses the popular Christian Bale rant. Its pretty fun! It’s from the folks in “Fall On Your Sword” and its hilarious! So are they, as it happens. Check them out!
 

Tangerine.

This next one is probably the only one I have any reservations about. It’s clearly a quick fire response to the unintelligibly muddled dialog of Bane in the “Dark Knight Rises” preview and it’s pretty funny. However I can understand what they are saying for the most part, so the idea that it’s about being hard to understand is less a joke. Plus, I just can’t get over Gordon being played by a girl in a stage mustache. It’s just creepy. Nevertheless, every time I see it I laugh, and so will you. Good job, folks!
 

Here’s another musical parody of the Dark Knight movie. It points out some problems with the plot, and shows a pretty amazing range on the singer, as he’s able to sing, and deliver in the voices of the main characters.
 

So, that’s our look at the best of the best of the bat of the funny. Hope you enjoyed it. In the next few weeks on CraveOnline.com we’ll be looking at some of the other works from these various sketch teams, as well as more funny about the Batman.

See you next time.  (Say it with me:)  Same Bat-Time.  Same Bat-Channel. Same Bat-CraveOnline.com

Batman. Hilarious! 

Dormammu, Master Mold and Giganto are three more colossals coming to the new Galactic Guardians set.

We schooled you a little while ago on Galactus and the Watcher coming to Heroclix with next month's new Galactic Guardians set.  We know there are 6 different kinds of super boosters overall, and we know five of the colossal figures you'll be able to get in them.  The sixth remains a mystery.  However, in addition to the Big G and the Big Bald U, you can also get The Dread Dormammu, who has only one other representation in the game, and that was several years ago.  This one is a lot bigger, and a hell of a lot more badass.

 

First of all, the last one came out in 2003, and was 206 points worth of weak defense and not nearly enough damage dealing, despite a nearly full dial of Penetrating/Psychic Blast.  Also, he sorta looked like a Scooby Doo villain.  With this new version, we've got a threat worthy of challenging Dr. Strange, and he can be played at either 250 points or a whopping 600 points. 

What do you get for 250 points?  Well, permanent Probability Control as an uncounterable trait is very good, letting you re-roll attacks at will since, as a colossal figure, chances are nothing's going to be blocking his line of fire.  That "Lord of the Dark Dimension" trait also grants friendly characters immunity to the dreaded Mystics team ability, meaning you're free to attack the hell out of your opponent's Mystic figures without fear of taking the automatic feedback damage for doing so.  On top of that, he sports that Mystics TA himself, so he getst to have his cake and eat it, too. He's also got his "Empower a Minion" special power, which basically gives a quintuple-perplex boost to a teammate who is under 150 points and could use the help.  More interesting is that nifty attack special power "Welcome To My Realm," which lets you dish out free damage to opponents whenever they take an action.  Everyone likes free damage dealing. 

What do you get for 600 points?  9 more clicks of beef than the 250 point version (coming out to about 39 points per click), some mid-dial Regeneration and a starting tough-nut-to-crack 19 Defense with Impervious.  Surprisingly, only two clicks of Impervious on the whole dial, though, but never underestimate how hesitant people are to attack people with the Mystics TA.  Especially if you're playing him with a bunch of Mindless Ones, who are great 100-point Psychic Blasting bricks sporting that same TA.  Plus, 10-range Indomitable Psychic Blast for 5 damage ain't never nothin' to sneeze at.

 

So, what are the other two colossals we know about?  Well, thanks to Figures.com, we can ask this: how does Master Mold sound for you? 

 

 

 

If you looked at those powers, you realize how awesome it is that this guy can manufacture Sentinels in the middle of a game, bringing more nasty mutant-hunting robots onto the map and flooding your opponent with robo-jerks to cut through - that is, if you play the 700 or 600 point dials.  See, this guy's so big, he sports three different dials at different point values, and you can play all three of them and run Master Mold at 1500 points if you're crazy enough to play a game that size (and many people are).  Of course, you can only bring in new Sentinels if the rest of your team is less than 300 points, which likely means you're sorta hurting for manpower, but still - the ability to drop another 300 point Sentinel on your opponent out of nowhere ain't nothin' to sneeze at - especially considering how hard it's going to be to KO the Master Mold. 

He's got craploads of damage-reducing powers, you can't Psychic Blast him, he can Multiattack at 10 range with two targets each time, and he dishes out crazy damage.  Even if you play him at the cheapest 200 point level, he starts with the ability to fry you for 6 damage, and he sports the "Retribution Virus" trait, which is like a belated Mystics damage that doubles as a sort of penetrating version of Energy Explosion that's an automatic hit to anyone who dares deal him 2 or more damage.  We're still waiting for an official ruling as to whether or not traits carry over between dials (as in, if you're playing Master Mold at 1500 points, does he retain the traits for the 600 and 700 point dials even after he's knocked all the way down to his 200 point dial, or does he only get to use them when he's still on the 600/700 dials?), but this guy's gonna be a big problem for opposing teams.

 

Then, we've got the lovely and talented Giganto, The Mole Monster.

 

Finally, the monster on the cover of Fantastic Four #1 makes its way into Heroclix - just in time to be renamed Korgu in the new Fantastic Four: Season One retelling of the FF's origin.  The big beast is very straight-forward, and is playable at 100, 200, 300 and 400 points, depending on where you start him on his dial, which he impressively dwarfs (and hopefully doesn't constantly fall over on the map when you're playing him).  The coolest thing about him is that he can dig through the ground and then pop up 10 squares away, and immediately Quake the living crap out of the opposing team, all in one action, thanks to that "Surprise Tunneling" trait.  It's also pretty badass that "Sink The Building" allows him to completely change the terrain of the map, meaning if you're opponent is counting on using blocking terrain to hide from you, Giganto here can crush that terrain into regular old hindering terrain, and there's no place to hide from your demolition.  Walking disaster, indeed!

 

So now we know 5 of the 6 colossals - Galactus, Uatu The Watcher, Dormammu, Giganto and Master Mold.  Who might the sixth be?  There have been plenty of rumors - everything from The Phoenix Force (to tie into Marvel's Avengers vs. X-Men event) or The Stranger or a Celestial to Shuma-Gorath, a Kree Sentry or my personal hope, Terminus (it won't be Terminus).  Stay tuned to find out, or just buy a bunch of Galactic Guardians Heroclix boosters and be surprised when you get 'em.  Last time they did the Super Booster thing like this with colossal figures, it was in the Giant-Size X-Men set, and they didn't tell anybody they were busting out Frost Giants until the set was released, so chances are, we won't know this one until somebody gets their grubby mitts on a brick.

Heroclix is a fun game.

Even after a second Super Bowl MVP, there are still doubters.

Even after winning his second Super Bowl and claiming his second big game MVP, there are still people out there who doubt Eli Manning's elite status among active QB's. Well, what the Hell do they know, I say! Below is five reasons why Eli is an elite QB like he said at the start of the season.

 

5. He just keeps getting better.

Eli didn't have the best start to his career as he struggled early to get used to the expectations and pressures of being a NFL quarterback. But, slowly and steadily, he has been rising the ranks of current QB's to place himself easily into the top 5 and who knows, give the guy another five years and he may even top this list. It is hard to imagine that but looking at his career improvement year by year, it's a little scary. He's like the Jason Voorhees of QB's; he just slowly catches up with anyone in front of him and cuts him down to size.

 

4. Eli brings it when the pressure is at his highest.

Let's face it, nobody is ever going to mistake Eli Manning for Drew Brees or even his older brother Peyton when it comes to just chucking it around the field. That's not how he's built and that's not how the Giants are built. But it's fast getting to the point where I won't take hardly anyone over him when it comes down to needing points in the final quarter of the game. This dude is making a habit of saving his best work when it's needed the most, as evidenced by his two late Super Bowl drives and NFL record 15 fourth quarter TD's this season.

 

3. The one quarterback you DON'T want coming to your stadium in the playoffs is Eli.

Winning playoff games as a whole are difficult but winning road playoff games is even tougher! Some of the greatest QB's to ever play the game have failed miserably when faced with road playoff games. Dan Marino went 1-6 in those situations, Joe Montana 2-5, Brett Favre 3-7. Heck, even Peyton is a measly 2-5 on the road in the playoffs. Eli, well, he's a NFL record 5-1 when traveling in the postseason....nuff said.

 

2. Just look at his last name!

Archie Manning didn't raise no slouches when it comes to tossing the rock. Peyton is probably the better passer of the kids but for my money, in playoff situations, you know who everyone is picking. Yep, all fingers are swiveling to Eli. Even Archie himself wasn't no slouch throwing the ball. He tossed for over 20,000 yards and made a pair of Pro Bowls. The Manning name is going to go down as the greatest NFL family name of all time, easy.

 

1. It is all about the bling!

Outside of Jim Plunkett, who also won two Super Bowls in his career, there hasn't been any QB without two rings that hasn't made the Hall of Fame (and I'm not talking about backups either). In Plunkett's case, it's all about the stats and his don't really stack up to those in the HOF. Eli, on the other hand, has his two rings and possibly another decade of pig-skin slinging to go. He also has statistically passed Plunkett.

No, with only two other active QB's who can boast more than one ring (Roethlisberger and Brady), Eli has every right to call himself elite, because, well, he is and he has the hardware to back it up.

 

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Marvel's big superhero slapfest is getting closer, and here are seven finished pages to check out to see how the fighting begins!

Marvel's premiere superteams will be duking it out all summer long, at the hands of five different writers - Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and Jonathan Hickman.  And we've got seven full, complete pages of the first real issue of this event right here.

So, without further ado, check out Avengers vs. X-Men #1, with John Romita Jr. art and a cover from Jim Cheung.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Oscar-nominated half of Flight of the Conchords talks writing the Muppets score, teaching Chris Cooper to rap and what he'll be doing in The Hobbit.

 

If Bret McKenzie loses the Academy Award on February 26, it's all my fault. I jinxed it. I realized after I left the Walt Disney Studio lot yesterday afternoon that I'd asked him where he was going to keep his Oscar, and pointed out a little too often that he's heavily favored to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Man or Muppet" from last year's comedy sensation The Muppets. He seemed genuinely excited to be nominated, and was happy to talk about the origins of the film's soundtrack, the influence of original Muppets songwriter Paul Williams, alternate versions of the song "Man or Muppet," and how they would have performed the song if the Academy hadn't made the bewildering decision not to perform the two - just two, mind you - nominated songs at the ceremony this year. Find out what might have been, and how Bret McKenzie taught Chris Cooper to rap, in our interview below. (Don't worry, we asked for a Hobbit update as well.)

 

CraveOnline: You’d worked with director James Bobin before. Were you the first person he talked to, to do the music for The Muppets?

Bret McKenzie: No, no, no… Well, James Bobin, who directed The Muppets and co-created The Flight of the Conchords… They got dozens, possibly hundreds of demos. They just opened it right up. They got lots of indie songwriters, lots of Disney musical songwriters, people who worked on Disney’s other films. James was working through the songs and hadn’t found the opening song he needed. Because he had a really specific idea to have it start smaller, and then get really gigantic. So yeah, he called me and asked if I’d write an opening song. So I came in quite far into the mix. They’d already finished the script and stuff.

 

Were the ideas for the songs in the script? Had they worked out lyrics?

They didn’t do lyrics, but they had ideas. Sometimes visual ideas. “Everything’s Great” was the title of the opening song. And he wanted a song that was really positive, that Jason [Segel’s] character and the little Muppet guy, Walter… That [showed] their lives were going really well.

 

How did “Man or Muppet” start?

So “Man or a Muppet,” at that point, was a card saying, “Man or Muppet.”

 

[Laughs.]

So they then said, “Write a song about being a man or a Muppet.” And they had the idea that there would be the reflections. Jason’s Muppet would be reflected in the window, so that was part of the idea. And also it was at that point in the movie when the characters were questioning their identity.

 

What was your relationship to The Muppets before that?

I grew up with The Muppets, yeah. I grew up loving The Muppets, so I knew the characters and I knew the world really well coming into the film.

 

Were you a Paul Williams fan?

Yeah, massive Paul Williams fan. That’s something I did, once I got the job, I started really listening to all those early recordings from the early films, that Paul Williams did. The early films.

 

Phantom of the Paradise…

That’s something I have to watch.

 

You should watch that. That movie’s amazing.

But yeah, I wanted to get the Paul Williams/Kenny Ascher sound for this film.

 

Did you try to contact him at all? Or did that not occur to you?

That didn’t really occur to me, but yes, it would have been awesome to get Paul Williams to write a song for it.

 

I know sometimes people just call to get their blessing. It’s sort of like asking someone’s father for their hand in marriage.

Yeah, yeah, yeah…

 

You’re going to do it anyway. You’re just trying to be polite.

I think he liked the film.

 

Unfortunately, we just heard yesterday that they’re not going to be performing either of the Oscar-nominated songs at the ceremony.

Yeah, I found that out last night as well. And that’s a shame, because it would have been fun to get a man and a Muppet up there.

 

Were you hoping to do that yourself?

I don’t know whether I’d do it. It would probably be… Well, now that we’re not doing it, it doesn’t really matter… But I think ideally it would have been Jason and Walter, maybe get Jim Parsons and maybe some extra Muppets to do [backing vocals]. I don’t know, maybe I’d play piano or something.

 

You know you’re going to win, right?

Fingers crossed.

 

You’ve got 50/50 odds. No one has better.

The odds are as good as they could ever be! I’m never going to get a better chance of winning an Oscar.

 

Have you seen Rio?

Yeah, it’s great! The song’s really cool, the Rio song. I’m happy to be [just] an Academy nominee. It’s still a great title.

 

Where are you going to put your Oscar, if you get it?

On my piano.

 

You’re going to look at it while you’re writing…

[Mimes playing piano while looking up at his Oscar] – Duhn…! Argh, this song’s not good enough for an Academy Award nominee! [Thinks] – If I won, yeah. I was thinking of, from now on there’s going to be a lot of pressure when I write songs. It’s gotta be better than this!

 

You already won a Grammy. Is the Oscar bigger than the Grammy, do you think?

Oh yeah, definitely. There’s something about the Oscars, that the whole world watches that ceremony. Do you know what I mean? The other ones are kind of smaller.

 

Out of all the songs that you wrote for The Muppets that you wrote, is there anything that didn’t make the cut? Or an alternate take, like a reggae version of Man or Muppet out there somewhere?

[Thinks] – There are a lot of different versions. I did one that was more like Harry Nilsson’s “One.” I’m a big Harry Nilsson fan, so anything that might sound like Harry Nilsson, I’m like, “Try it this way! What else did Harry Nilsson do?” Because “Man or Muppet” is more like “Without You.” [Sings] – “I can’t live…!”

There are dozens of Chris Cooper alternate rap versions.

 

I noticed there’s a long version of Chris Cooper’s song on the CD, with his character’s backstory.

Oh yeah, the opera break! Yeah, there was an opera break.

 

It’s actually weird that that was cut, because it’s the only time we get his backstory, in terms of why he’s evil instead of just being “evil.”

Oh, I know. Yeah, you’re right. That was not my job. Chris Cooper, it cuts back to him as a child, and all the Muppets are laughing at him, his friends are laughing at him, and he doesn’t get the joke, and that’s why he hates The Muppets. They cut that pretty early on. Generally the songs get shorter and shorter as the editing process goes on. They want to keep the rhythm of the movie going.

 

How early was it that you found out Chris Cooper could really rap?

I had a great Skype session with him.

 

Did you have him do that song, or did you have do some Jay-Z?

I had written that rap, so I was rapping it to him and he’d rap it back? We said it was a practice, but actually it was me trying to find out if he had rhythm. Because sometimes you just don’t know.

 

Tell me you recorded that.

We didn’t record it!

 

Damn it! Best DVD extra…!

I know, it’s crazy! It would have been so good. I don’t know what we were thinking, but at the time everyone was really stressed because we couldn’t get the connection to work. It was supposed to be like… We were in a fancy Hollywood studio, he was in Boston. It was meant to be a perfect recording. But in the end it was just me and him on Skype. There was a delay. You know how on Skype there’s a slight delay? Which, when you’re rapping, is very weird. But he’s got some mad flow.

 

I’ve got to go, but in The Hobbit does Figwit get to sing, or kill anybody?

No, there’s no sword. I’m not an elven warrior. I’m still a dude hanging around.

 

I’m picturing you with a lyre and a giant feather in your cap…

I think it was tempting to try and do something like that, but they didn’t want to be too silly. But the film, for what it’s worth, it’s going to be great. It’s really pretty amazing.

Playboy, Pitbull, The Bud Light Hotel and Super Bowl XLVI.  Four days in Indianapolis I will never forget.

One week before the big game, I recieved the news that me and my co-worker Alex would be flying to Indianapolis to experience a full Super Bowl weekend AND both have tickets to Super Bowl XLVI.  I was in the clouds.  It's every sports fans dream to be a part of a championship game, and the granddaddy of all championship games is most certainly the Super Bowl.

We were lucky enough to stay at The Bud Light Hotel.  For those of you who don't know, every year for the Super Bowl, Bud Light takes over a hotel in the host city and completely overhauls the property into a hotel experience that can only be compared to a weekend in Vegas.

On night one we rushed from the airport to the hotel and straight into the EA Sports Madden Bowl XVIII party.  We made it just in time for the championship game between the first year players and the Madden Bowl vets.  Of course the vets team, consisting of Drew Brees, Jimmy Graham and Tim Tebow, won on a last second touch down in dramatic fashion.  It didn't take long after the game for The Roots to take the stage and rock the house.  Oh, and for good measure, Snoop Dogg dropped by to perform the night cap before everyone headed out into the streets of down town Indy.

If the first night wasn't enough, night two came quickly and delivered one of the coolest parties I have ever attended.  Night two was none other than The Playboy Party.  Surrounded by a host of Playboy bunnies and sexy go-go dancers, Alex and I rubbed shoulders with larger-than-life personalities like Mark Cuban and Shaquille O'Neal.  But the night would not be complete without a Playboy caliber concert.  Queue Ne-Yo.  The crowd went wild.  Ne-Yo was so great that it breifly distracted the room from sexy dancers that still filled the room.  Of course, the 16 Playboy bunnies that hosted the party closed out the night by dancing together on stage to a solid mix of club music. 

The weekend was only halfway over! 

Saturday and Sunday at The Budlight Hotel all ran together into a one-long-day-of-fun version of a weekend.  Pitbull, Lil' Jon and 50 Cent tore up the stage on Saturday night at the Bud Light Concert, to a mix of old classics and their newest hits.  Though 50 Cent was the headliner, Pitbull was definitely the highlight of the night for everyone in the crowd.  He rocked the club to a mix of his Top 40 hits and popular Latin tracks. 

One of my favorite parts of the trip was when Alex and I took to the streets on down town Indianapolis to talk with Giants and Patriots fans about the big game.  On Saturday we braved the cold and rainy weather to chat with people about their hoped for celebrity sightings.  And then on Sunday we headed out one last time to find out what fans' predictions were on the outcome of Super Bowl XLVI.

Finally we had come to Sunday afternoon.  The funniest part of the whole weekend was that after the fun we had already had, the actual game almost seemed like an afterthought.  Then we walked into the stadium.  Oh. My. God.  All due respect to NBC, but television does not even do justice to how overwhelmingly awesome the Super Bowl truely is.  You all know the outcome of the game, so I won't bore you with those details.  I will say this though, that was basically a home game for the New York Giants.  The stadium was literally booing on every successful Patriots play.

You may notice that my only mention of Madonna is to tell you that I'm not going to talk about her half time show.  NFL, please give me football music next year and not a family fued between Lady Gaga and her mom.

In conclusion, my first Super Bowl weekend experience was off the charts amazing.  The streets of down town Indy were packed with football fans all hours of the night and the party never stopped the entire time. Indianapolis did an amazing job putting on a full Super Bowl experience.  I have done my best to describe in words, and videos if you click the links above, how exciting and unbelieveable a four day Super Bowl experience can be.  My advice, go find out for yourself as soon as you can.  Last time I checked there's another one next February.

Be sure to check out our experience staying at The Bud Light Hotel and all of our Super Bowl coverage from Indianapolis at our Super Bowl XLVI page here at CraveOnline.

 

 

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

Full disclosure: Our hotel stay was provided by Bud Light, but no other compensation was provided.

Warner puts a wet blanket on the Eli Manning Hall of Fame talk.

Whenever someone hands you lemons in life, you're supposed to make lemonade, as the saying goes. Well, I guess current NFL Network Analyst and former SuperBowl winning QB Kurt Warner is thinking Giants stud Eli Manning is needing a drink after he dished him some big lemons on a radio interview Tuesday he gave to Arizona Sports 620-AM in Phoenix.

In the interview, Warner was asked if the two time SuperBowl and SuperBowl winning Eli Manning, who coincidentally also has the most road wins in the playoffs of all time with 5, has done enough to merit a Hall of Fame slot as of today. He responded, quite fervently, that the younger Manning is in no way a lock for the HOF.

"I fully disagree with that," Warner said. "You know, because I know we put a lot of weight on championships, and rightfully so. But championships are won as a team, and I’m fully convinced of that. You never see one guy -- a great player, great quarterback -- carry a team through the playoffs and into a Super Bowl and win a Super Bowl that way. I’ve never seen it. You know, even in that game (Super Bowl XLVI), it’s 21-17. That’s the game. There wasn’t a quarterback just up and down the field carrying the team. Yeah, he made the plays down the stretch -- no question about it. He’s had two great playoff runs -- or his team has had two great playoff runs. But I also look at the rest of his career.

"I mean, he has an 82 quarterback rating throughout his career," Warner continues. "You know, he’s had five of his eight seasons where he has thrown 16 interceptions or more. His completion percentage on his career is 58 percent. To me, those aren’t Hall of Fame numbers, and by that, I mean every time you step on the field you’re a game changer, you’re a difference maker. And I don’t believe Eli Manning has been that guy until this year. ... “

Wow, can someone say sour grapes much here?

I have all the respect in the world for Kurt Warner and his own personal accomplishments, the guy went from bagging groceries into being in three SuperBowls, but he clearly is trying to sound too much like an analyst and is coming off as even being a tad envious.

Is it Eli's fault Warner couldn't beat Tom Brady in a Super Bowl? No. Is it his fault he couldn't lead his underdog NFC Arizona Cardinals over the Pittsburgh Steelers in his other SuperBowl? No

No, what this obviously comes down to is a guy who feels a small amount of resentment for another guys accolades when he feels he is by far the better QB of the two. Jealousy rears it's head in many a way and for this one time, it came out in a radio interview from a man I never would have thought possible of publicly expressing it.

To his credit though, Warner did throw Eli this small nugget of hope.

"Now, if he plays the same way he played this year, the rest of his career, and you give him five more years, and then add the two championships, then I think we have reason to debate, and he's probably going to be in the Hall of Fame in that position." Warner said.

So yes Eli, if you want to have Kurt Warner's vote to be in the Hall of Fame, you have to have five more seasons like this one and then probably...yes, probably, you will have a chance for the Hall one day.

Enjoy that lemonade Mr. Manning, sound like you can make a ton of it from this one interview.

 

Photo Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

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