2012 Super Bowl Ratings: Giants-Patriots Game Breaks Viewership Record

The 2012 Super Bowl will go down in history as not only an exciting and electric rematch between the New York Giants and New England Patriots, but it also has earned its place among the annals of television history as well:

Super Bowl XLVI was watched by an average of 111.3 million viewers, setting a new viewership record.

— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) February 6, 2012

Giants 21-17 win in Super Bowl sets viewership record of 111.3 million up a notch from last year.

— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) February 6, 2012

Super Bowl XLVI ended with an exciting 21-17 Giants win, and it rightly drew an unprecedented amount of viewers. The previous record of 111 million viewers came from last year's Super Bowl between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Despite the 2012 Super Bowl's colossal audience, however, the Nielsen rating record of 47.9 ( from the 2011 Super Bowl) still stands, as the 2012 Super Bowl managed only a near-record 47.8 rating.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl 2013 Odds: Niners Near Top Of List, Rams A Longshot

2012 Super Bowl TV Ratings: Ratings Fall, Madonna Draws

No television executive should scoff at an astronomical overnight rating of 47.8— which is what the 2012 Super Bowl garnered— but there certainly will be some head scratching and handwringing at NBC over the fact that, according to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, the ratings for this year's Super Bowl were down very slightly from last year's game.

Super Bowl 2012: New York Giants QB Eli Manning Takes Home MVP Honors

The New York Giants triumphed over the New England Patriots by a 21-17 margin in Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday night, and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning was absolutely outstanding for the champs. Manning completed 30 of 40 pass attempts for 296 yards, one touchdown and zero interceptions. He also authored a clutch fourth quarter drive that resulted in the go-ahead touchdown for New York.

Related: 2012 Super Bowl Final Score: New York Giants Defeat New England Patriots 21-17

That drive began with a big pass play to Mario Manningham which got the ball out near midfield, and from there the Giants were able to work their way into field goal range, and eventually inside the 10 yard line. Ahmad Bradshaw scored the game-winner on a carry from six yards out.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl Champions: Eli Manning Runs Another New York Giants Comeback

After their win over the Rams in 2001 I’m constitutionally incapable of feeling sorry for the New England Patriots, but their 2012 loss to the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI has to feel a little too similar for comfort to the last time Tom Brady and company loss to Eli Manning—once again the game stayed close all night, just in time for Manning the lesser, with the help of some outstanding catches, pushing the Giants through to a 21-17 win.

Manning, the likely MVP, was 30-for-40 with 296 yards and a touchdown, facilitating an outstanding catch from Mario Manningham down the sideline. It wasn’t quite David Tyree’s helmet-catch, but what is?

Meanwhile, Ahmad Bradshaw’s inability to stop on a dime at the one-yard-line isn’t going to make him persona non grata in New York; now he just scored the game-winning touchdown with less than a minute on the clock, which is a much better story to tell when somebody is buying you free drinks.

For more Super Bowl coverage, follow our liveblog at the SB Nation St. Louis story stream; for a box score and all the stats you could hope for, here’s the NFL.com recap.

2012 Super Bowl Final Score: New York Giants Defeat New England Patriots 21-17

The New York Giants started strong Sunday night and built a quick 9-0 lead on New England thanks to a safety and a touchdown drive that ended with a pass from Eli Manning to Victor Cruz.

But New England scored 10 unanswered points in the second quarter, including a short touchdown pass from Tom Brady to Danny Woodhead, and took a 10-9 lead into halftime. In the third quarter, the Patriots extended that lead to 17-9 on another Tom Brady touchdown pass. The Giants put together a pair of scoring drives after that but settled for a field goal in both cases, narrowing the gap to 17-15 as the fourth quarter began.

The game came down to one final drive by the New York Giants, which began with less than four minutes remaining in the game. Eli Manning hit Mario Manningham for a big gain to get the Giants near midfield, and they were able to chip away from there, and eventually Ahmad Bradshaw gave them the decisive margin with a touchdown run with 57 seconds remaining.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl Commercials: Chevy Volt Aliens Return (VIDEO)

For regular listeners of Coast to Coast AM, Chevrolet's new Chevy Volt Super Bowl commercials offer the greatest enticement yet to spend thirty-something thousand dollars on a car with 40 miles of electric range and a gas generator: If you do so, you will see aliens. And they will tell their alien friends about it, and so on. (Watch the first commercial, in which aliens hit on a Volt owner's wife, here.)

I'd be interested in a spin-off Super Bowl ad where these aliens, who already possess the ability to fly through space, have to use somebody's iPhone to call their friends, but that's probably not in Apple's current ad vernacular. In any case, I really do think this is a good way to explain the Volt's vaguely confusing business model without releasing an especially condescending commercial.

To humans, at least. I'm sure aliens find these commercials impossibly condescending. But they'll have to find a human being with an HDTV in his garage if they want to see them, so it shouldn't be a problem. (Did they find a guy with a garage-door opener first? The world-building on these remains confusing to me.)

Super Bowl Winners: New York Giants Outlast New England Patriots By 21-17 Score

The New England Patriots had a minute left to go 80 yards after the New York Giants and Eli Manning came back a little too early, but a dropped ball from Dion Branch and Justin Tuck's crucial third-down sack made their fourth quarter comeback stick as the Giants topped the Patriots 21-17, scoring their second Super Bowl victory against the Patriots in XLVI. Eli Manning was 30-for-40 with 296 yards and a touchdown, while Bradshaw had 17 carries for 72 yards and a touchdown; Justin Tuck had a big safety in the first quarter, forcing Brady to deposit a pass intentionally way downfield.

Ahmad Bradshaw scored a fourth-quarter touchdown to put the Giants on top, but it wasn't quite the cause for celebration you'd expect it to be—the Patriots allowed him to score, giving Tom Brady and company a full minute to make a comeback. Brady was good, but he wasn't quite good enough; three last-chance Hail Marys weren't able to do it, despite a first-down toss to Branch on fourth-and-long.

For more Super Bowl coverage, follow our liveblog at the SB Nation St. Louis story stream.

Worst Super Bowl Commercials: GoDaddy Basically Does Schmitt's Gay Beer Straight

GoDaddy has cornered the market for terrible Super Bowl commercials again in 2012, but their fourth quarter ad might have hit new levels of braindead. Made to promote cloud computing, it's basically a remake of that hilarious Schmitt's Gay Beer commercial, only played straight and straight and even dumber. In fact, let's just watch that Schmitt's Gay Beer commercial instead of the GoDaddy one:

Isn't that commercial great? And isn't GoDaddy terrible? That's really all there is to say about that. If you register your domain from GoDaddy, you are subsidizing Danica Patrick's lost weekend and the production of the dumbest, most degrading Super Bowl commercials in the world. Not degrading to women, or Danica Patrick, or minorities, or anything—just degrading to humanity, because one human has convinced other humans that yet more humans will be convinced to buy a domain name by the prospect of seeing some women almost get naked on the internet, where women are naked by default.

But Schmitt's Gay Beer—I mean, that's still great.

Best Super Bowl Commercials 2012: An Early Video List

We've been responding as rapidly as possible to 2012's Super Bowl commercials all night; here, so far as we can tell, are some early winners, from strong car ads from Toyota and General Motors to—well, really, aside from the car ads things have been pretty weak. In no particular order, some ads you should seek out:

Toyota's Camry: It's Reinvented ad splits the difference between funny-for-everybody and the kind of increasingly dated Old Spice humor that's infected all high-profile reimaginings over the last few years. The baby-time-machine's tone is just perfect. The Chevy Silverado 2012 commercial was extremely well-shot, timely, if you're Mayan, and to-the-point. Even Chrysler's Clint Eastwood-infused Clint Eastwood-infused Imported from Detroit sequel was pretty good, until you stopped to think about what he was actually saying, which appeared to be a patriotism mad lib.

Volkswagen brought back Star Wars to impressive effect, although the metaverse implications are a little staggering.

Aside from that: I mean the Doritos ads were like Doritos ads, if you like cute things that refuse to give up their Doritos. (This time they went cute kid instead of cute animal.)

2012 Super Bowl, Giants Vs. Patriots Score Update: New England Leads 17-15 After 3 Quarters

After an impressive 9-0 start, the New York Giants fell behind the New England Patriots 10-9 at halftime, and now trail 17-15 thanks in large part to an inability to finish off scoring drives with touchdowns. Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes hit a pair of field goals in the third quarter, both of which came in or near the red zone.

New England has been less consistent offensively, but they have found the end zone twice, both on Tom Brady touchdown throws. Brady is 21-26 for 212 yards.

Eli Manning is 20-26 for 178 yards and one touchdown for New York.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl Commercials: Football Safety History Ad Pretends Helmets Make NFL Safer

As promised, the NFL has used its in-house 2012 Super Bowl commercial to promote the safety gains football has made since its debut as a rough-and-tumble college sport that killed people beneath an inexorable flying wedge of bodies. It's really well-made—unfortunately, there's no evidence all the pads and helmets shown off in the commercial have made the game any safer; an increasing body of work suggests they make it less safe.

Here's a relevant ESPN story on it. As pads and helmets make a player feel safer, he's more likely to behave in ways that aren't safe, as anyone who's followed someone in a massive SUV will attest. Apparently it's called "risk compensation," and it is at least a little terrifying to anybody who wears a helmet when he rides a bike.

I don't know what the NFL could do about it, but I am convinced that if football players still worked in leather helmets without pads the game would be slower and the players would be less likely to severely concuss each other at a similar risk to themselves.

Best Super Bowl Commercials (VIDEO): Toyota Camry Reinvents Old Spice Ads

So far in 2012 the most entertaining and least aggressively grating Super Bowl commercials have all come from car companies, and Toyota's "It's Reinvented" Camry commercial is one of the best ones yet. What's most impressive is that it seems to have created a version of the infamous and increasingly played-out Old Spice commercial—serious narration, absurd results, Manliness—that appeals to real human beings.

Here's what works about this ad and doesn't work in those godawful Dr. Pepper For Bros commercials:

• Most obviously, the lady-couch turns into a guy-couch and the guy, rather than massacring all of them with a hunting knife, goes, "Yeah, I get it."
• The baby turning into a time machine is played completely straight, instead of so-straight-it's-Old-Spice.

The extended version adds some Lionel Richie, too, which never hurts.

Look: The Toyota Camry is not a cool car, and it will never be a cool car. Much like a diet soda, it is impossible to convince anybody that they will be cooler because they drive it. But you can make people feel kind of good about driving one, and they appear to have done that here. It doesn't hurt that the 2012 model is much more attractive than the fussy, bulbous last generation.

Clint Eastwood Super Bowl Commercial Video: Chrysler Reaches For Detroit-Based Patriotism Again

Last year Chrysler’s Eminem-starring Imported from Detroit was one of the most popular Super Bowl commercials of the year. In 2012 they went back to the well, getting Clint Eastwood to deliver a rousing speech on Halftime in America.

By the time it was over, and Eastwood was telling you the world was about to Get It from a resurgent America, it was hard to avoid breaking into a U S A chant and marching off to buy an American car. I think I felt the same way after watching this commercial as I did when Obama announced Osama bin Laden’s death.

Then, unfortunately for the dealership, it occurred to me that Eastwood’s wordy, repetitive speech didn’t seem to mean anything at all. It remains a great commercial, mostly because he’s Clint Eastwood and Chrysler’s ad people have turned in two great pieces of Detroit malaise cinematography in a row, but if you heard Newt Gingrich deliver this speech you’d probably just wish he for him to go back to talking about bases on the moon.

Super Bowl 2012 Halftime Show: Madonna Better Than Black Eyed Peas, Says Easily Excited Universe

The 2012 Super Bowl halftime show is over, and here’s to Madonna, who, like Paul McCartney after the Janet Jackson incident, had an incredibly easy job of currying public favor after a disaster the year before. All Madonna had to do was not be the Black Eyed Peas, and although bringing LMFAO in was a dangerous shot at being worse than the Black Eyed Peas public opinion immediately afterward suggests this is the most popular Super Bowl halftime show since—well, The Who in 2010, I guess?

Madonna—how she looks, the songs she sings, the people she chose to collaborate with—will receive mixed reviews wherever she goes, but the stagecraft and special effects at the halftime show were extremely impressive; if you look at the wardrobe malfunction show the most striking thing isn’t Janet Jackson’s nipple so much as just how cheap it looks by comparison. This was the halftime show equivalent of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. Or the Arirang games in North Korea, depending on what you think of “Like A Prayer.”

Super Bowl 2012 Halftime Show: Madonna, LMFAO, Caligula Star

Welcome to the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show, choreographed by Edward Gibbon! Madonna, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, Cee-Lo, and I think Caligula's skeleton starred in a halftime show that looked greenscreened by glitter, featured Madonna's single—it has the word Madonna in it, a lot, in case you forget—and, mercifully, was not the last thing I saw before dying.

Look, I love history, and I love the western world. But if you're an aging, ultra-decadent pop singer performing at the tail-end of a worldwide depression, I can think of better themes for your halftime show at the most overhyped, expensive event in the richest country on earth than "Late-period Roman Empire, only you're kind of rooting for the barbarians to come in and destroy Western Civilization as we know it."

But what do I know: I didn't like the Black-Eyed Peas' TRON suits and futuristic Guts harnesses either. Apparently I can't be pleased, at least by mediocre dance-pop and (in the case of LMFAO) truly abominable dance-pop, whether it's performed in the distant past or the distant future.

2012 Super Bowl Score Update: Patriots Hold Slight Advantage At Half

After being completely dominated in the opening quarter, the New England Patriots used some key defensive stops and a late TD drive to take the 10-9 lead at the half of Super Bowl XLVI.

Tom Brady proved to be nearly unstoppable in the second quarter, especially on the final drive in the half, as he completed all 10 of his attempts to lead the Patriots on a 96-yard TD drive. On the touchdown, Brady hooked up with Danny Woodhead for a 4-yard pass on third down. In the opening half, Brady completed 15/18 for 147 yards and the TD. Wes Welker proved to be the primary receiving option, making four catches for 42 yards.

After starting the game 9/9, Eli Manning came back to reality in the second quarter, completing just 4/8 attempts. The Giants have been surprisingly aggressive with the running game, with Ahmad Bradshaw rushing for 44 yards on nine carries. Hakeem Nicks was the primary receiving option for Manning, as he led the team with three catches for 42 yards.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog,Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl Commercials: Doritos, Cute Things, And Physical Pain

Enclosed, for your consideration, are Doritos's 2012 entrants into the Super Bowl commercial genre they have pioneered—namely, the Cute Things and Physical Pain class of popular Super Bowl ads. Last year the angry pug was one of the most popular commercials of the big metagame; this year there was a baby slingshot. It involved a baby flying through the air in a very dangerous manner for a snack food.

If I were a literary critic in good standing, I would suggest that there appears to be a clear theme here: Don't try to take Doritos from a cute animal or baby. Just go to the store and buy your own bag of Doritos for like three dollars. I can't emphasize this enough.

Best-case scenario: They take your Doritos and you're the stooge in some Super Bowl commercial: Worst-case scenario: Your shame will be broadcast to 100 million people as you run into some glass or something and break your nose.

Worst Super Bowl Commercials: Teleflora Encourages You To Pay For Sex—With Flowers!

For a while I wasn't sure that terrible m&m's ad about playing loud music and being a funny dancing thing that dances lol would have any competitors in the Worst Super Bowl Commercials derby, but Teleflora's ad about—and I'm paraphrasing here—paying a supermodel money and then having sex with her in exchange for that money is unquestionably the worst Super Bowl commercial you will see in the year 2012.

I don't know whether pimps have tried this before, and I'm not a lawyer, but I'm relatively sure it's still prostitution if you offer someone one Sex Coupon in exchange for the services she provides. I'm also relatively sure that if on Valentine's Day you happen to tell the lady in your life, "They say you have to give to receive—super hot sex!"—well, I don't want to spoil it for you. But you'll probably be murdered.

Seriously, do not take any advice this woman gives you, not even if it's to go back in time and buy Apple stock at 19 bucks. The very attractive are different from you and me.

Super Bowl Commercials: Star Wars Ad Goes As Long As Possible Without Phantom Menace Scenes

I'm glad George Lucas made a Super Bowl commercial about what people think about Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, opening this weekend for a big-big-screen IMAX engagement 13 years after it originally broke the hearts of Star Wars fans over the age of, say, 14. (At 12 I loved it.) Half of the trailer seems devoted to scenes from every episode of Star Wars except The Phantom Menace, before it finally shows some obligatory pod racers, Darth Maul, and Liam Neeson scenes.

While I'm here, can I say how disappointed I was—even at 12—when Darth Maul, who they relentlessly touted for a solid year leading up the release, died (spoiler alert) like 10 minutes into the movie, not to return for any of the sequels? Before this Super Bowl commercial, that was the simplest analogy for the Star Wars prequels—most people were really excited for the first 10 minutes or so, and then found themselves cut in half by a lightsaber for the last two-and-eight-ninths movies.

Super Bowl Commercials Video: Budweiser Prohibition Ad Reminds Us Of Terrible Time When People Couldn't Get Wasted

I realize that overly sentimental and dramatic Super Bowl commercials are a fact of life, but Budweiser's cinematic celebration of the repeal of prohibition—set to the sounds of The Natural—might be the most ridiculous one in recent memory. Watch it first; it looks great.

Now, your political mileage may vary, but so far as I can tell this is an ad about how life-affirming it was that we as humans were unable to successfully eradicate a drug that has huge external costs to our society at large that the companies making it usually spend on dramatic and sentimental ads designed to sell you more of that harmful drug.

Prohibition was—and really should always have been seen as—a terrible idea. But celebrating the fact that there's no way to make it work strikes me as a less than ideal resolution to a less than ideal chapter in our nation's history. I also like the characterization of prohibition "denying people Budweiser," as though the constitutional amendment mentions "Drinkability" by name.

But the clydesdales finally got to carry something other than Bevo! And that guy had a biplane! So no doubt that was great.

2012 Super Bowl Score Update: Giants Lead Early In Second Quarter

With Eli Manning playing some of the best football of his career heading into Super Bowl XLVI, it should come as no surprise that he and his elite receiving core has had no issues moving the ball against the struggling New England Patriots secondary. Thanks to a couple key plays from the defense, as well as the excellent play of Manning, the Giants lead 9-3 early in the second quarter.

The opening score of the game came in surprising fashion, with Tom Brady being flagged for intentional grounding while standing in the end zone. This resulted in a safety, which gave the Giants the early lead. On the next possession, New York put together an impressive drive, which finished with Manning throwing a touchdown pass to Victor Cruz.

On their first extended drive of the game, the Patriots were able to move the ball down the field, but ultimately had to settle for a field goal. Tom Brady hooked up with Wes Welker and Deion Branch for two big connections on the drive. However, the drive concluded with a 29-yard field goal form Stephen Gostkowski.

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog,Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York. For all news and information regarding Super Bowl XLVI, please stay tuned to SB Nation's dedicated Super Bowl hub.

Super Bowl Commercials: Volkswagen, Fat Dog, Darth Vader Create Terrifying Metaverse

That's it: Volkswagen has gone Super Bowl commercials meta, with an ad that combines a real commercial—a fat dog losing weight and slimming down, much like the no-longer-anathema-to-male-drives Volkswagen Beetle—with some people in a wretched hive of scum and villainy in the Star Wars universe, talking about the Darth Vader ad they ran last year. With—that's right, three layers—the real Darth Vader force-choking some Mos Eisley fiend who dislikes the Fake Darth Vader commercial.

Allow me to sort this out for you: We live in the real world, where we watched Volkswagen do an adorable little-kid-Darth-Vader commercial last year.

Darth Vader lives in the Star Wars universe, where they also watched Volkswagen do an adorable little-kid-Darth-Vader commercial last year, and where they appear to be aware of public opinion toward the ad in our world.

My only conclusion is that we are a world nested inside the Star Wars universe, where they're aware that in our world Darth Vader is a cultural artifact beloved by all and not a terrifying, murderous despot who's turned a broken, bureaucratic republic into a disastrously greedy empire.

Super Bowl Commercials: When The Mayan Apocalypse Comes, Abandon Your Children, Drive Your Chevy Silverado (Video)

Maybe I'm not getting the right message out of this, but so far as I can tell the idea behind the 2012 Chevy Silverado Super Bowl commercial is that if the Mayan Apocalypse is real, you should abandon your family, get into your truck, and drive into a post-apocalyptic nightmare where you and your buds can talk about how your truck is better than a Ford.

Don't get me wrong: It's kind of funny! It's really well made! But if six or seven fortysomething guys are the sole survivors of the Mayan Apocalypse, Chevrolet as a brand will no longer have any meaning, unless it's used to create the new aristocracy of Chevy owners, anointed by their truck-drivingness to hold Ford F-150 drives in a perpetual serfdom.

Badge-engineering concern: Are the owners of GMC's identical full-size trucks going to survive the apocalypse? What about my dad, who drives the mid-size Chevy Colorado—co-engineered by Isuzu, no less. These are the kinds of things Mayans knew way more about than we do, alas.

Super Bowl Commercials: Bud Light Platinum One Metal Better Than Regular Bud Light

I have to give the art director types points: Bud Light's first Super Bowl commercial of 2012 is less tacky and bro-filled than their usual ads, and choosing "Run Away's" intro is an inspired choice. But "Bud Light Platinum" is the laziest naming-scheme in the history of lazy naming schemes, especially when the bottle is blue. Consider:

American Express Platinum is platinum-colored. It is one better than Gold, which is one better than—well, Green, but there is, nevertheless, a metal-based hierarchy being established, here. (It's two better than zinc!) Bud Light Platinum is one unit of measurement better than Bud Light—which I'm sure they will tell you is also really great.

Why does it exist? Because Bud Light wants more of your money, and is choosing to try to cut it from their existing customer base instead of getting involved in the hipster-filled, increasingly big-corporation-unfriendly world of craft beers and local specialties. They're hoping, I guess, that people who have more money will decide that they can no longer be seen drinking regular Bud Light, but in my experience the people in this market who have more money just buy greater volumes of Natty Light instead.

2012 Super Bowl Score: Tom Brady Safety Intentionally Grounds Giants To 2-0 Lead

That sound you here is Las Vegas making all its money: The first points of Super Bowl XLVI came on a safety, the product of Tom Brady’s unlikely brand of downfield intentional grounding, leaving the New York Giants up 2-0 on the New England Patriots in the first quarter. Justin Tuck’s pressure forced the call, which caused great joy in the more vengeful sections of St. Louis tonight.

The Giants saw mixed results in their first offensive drive, getting downfield on some nice passes before they couldn’t keep Eli Manning off the ground. But I’m willing to bet that if they force a safety every time Tom Brady touches the ball, they’ll be in good shape for their second Super Bowl win against the Patriots in as many vengeful St. Louis Rams fan situations.

For more Super Bowl updates, including all the complaints you could possibly want about this year’s Super Bowl commercials, follow along on the SB Nation St. Louis Super Bowl story stream. I promise not to stop typing until my fingers fall off or the Super Bowl is over, possibly by a score of 2-0.

Super Bowl Commercials (Video): Hyundai Joins Regular Guy A Cappella Trend

If there’s one persistent advertising trend in the last five years, besides brands that wish they were Old Spice, it’s this: Regular-guy a cappella. People in an office ba-ba-ba-ing a song is as hilarious, apparently, to ad executives as men dressed like women are to British people. The latest signer-on, Hyundai, adds a Gen-X ironized cultural song for added impact, using “Gonna Fly Now” to represent their refusal to back down, their determination to Find A Way, at all costs, to make people forget they made the Hyundai Excel.

The verdict: It’s an okay ad! You won’t not hate it! (The video is available on their YouTube page.)

But I wish ad execs would get to work on starting some new trends; there’s only so much juice left in the a cappella fruit. And if I see that Dr. Pepper Is For Cool Dudes Only Just Kidding But Seriously Old Spice knockoff one more time I’m going to self-immolate in the name of killing irony forever.

Super Bowl Commercials: Old Navy's Corporado Ad Leaves You Uncertain As To What Old Navy Sells

The first round of 2012 Super Bowl commercials is here, and Old Navy has gone the fake brand route, suggesting you Dress Like A Guy, but not their tai-chi-performing 80s thirtysomething in “Corporado,” which—aside from a flip phone in a holster—is just about indistinguishable from the kind of corporate-casual stuff you could buy at, say, Macy’s.

Which is great, but what, exactly, does Old Navy propose men—sorry, Guys—dress like instead? That’s more or less unexplained, though if I’m going off what I saw last time I went to Old Navy it looks a lot like what you could dress like at The Gap, only with more fake branding and locations on the front of the t-shirts.

One of the dangers of making viral ads is that people don’t necessarily want to go to your website to get advertised to some more. I don’t think the average Super Bowl-watching Guy is going to go to Old Navy’s website to figure out their alternate solution—particularly while they’re trying to prove their Guyness by watching the Super Bowl. “Bro, can you pass the iPad? I want to see what’s better than polos and khaki shirts. No, not from an expert, from Old Navy.”

Super Bowl 2012: New York Giants Written In The Stars, A Million World Series Away

St. Louis Cardinals fans watching Super Bowl XLVI just had an unexpected flashback: The New York Giants chose Tinie Tempah’s “Written in the Stars,” heretofore most famous for its use as the official FOX song of the 2011 World Series, as their run-out-onto-the-field-and-get-pumped song.

Cardinals fans were disappointed to learn that David Freese was not involved in any other capacity.

Odd fact: As famous as that hook has become, the rapper whose song it’s in, Mr. Tempah, hardly ever gets a word in edgewise on promos. I’m relatively certain I’ll never know exactly what he sounds like, despite hearing his song every day of October and having it stuck in my head every day for a while after that. Wikipedia tells me he’s English, and that his album is titled Disc-Overy, which, seriously?

For more Super Bowl 2012 updates, including an ongoing complain-a-thon about Super Bowl commercials, click through to our SB Nation St. Louis story stream. If you like not liking the New England Patriots, we’re friends already.

2012 Super Bowl: NFL Experts Make Their Super Bowl Predictions

While everyone has their predictions for how Super Bowl XLVI will turn out, the top NFL writers have made their predictions for who will emerge victorious. With the two teams so evenly-matched, it should come as no surprise that there really is no consensus among the writers.

The one agreement among the people over at ESPN.com is that this will be a thrilling encounter. However, according to Adam Schefter, it will be the New England Patriots that celebrate in Indianapolis:

Adam Schefter: Patriots, 27-16

The Giants are the better and more complete team. But they also have to figure out a way to beat Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and the memory of Myra Kraft.

While the writers over at CNNSI all seem convinced this will be a close game, the majority believe that it will be New England that wins. Dan Banks believes that this back-and-forth game will go down to the final minutes:

Why the Patriots will win: Quarterbacks and head coaches usually do more to determine the outcome of Super Bowls than anyone else, and my gut tells me Tom Brady's and Bill Belichick's motivation level is sky high this week. Something to do with that little upset in the desert at the hands of these same Giants four years ago. Close, back-and-forth game will be decided by a late Patriots field goal, the way New England always wins its Super Bowls.

Super Bowl 2012: Time, Channel, Odds, Ads, And More

Super Bowl 2012 time—XLVI, if you speak Latin—has come, and with it another round of Super Bowl commercials and discounted jars of salsa and corn chips. The New York Giants, the New England Patriots—Americans: Are you ready for some being forced to care about football? A mandatory Sunday night party? If you aren't, I offer you this concise bundle of Super Bowl time, channel, odds, et cetera:

Time: 5:30 PM CST. Place: NBC, where, to be honest, they could really, really use the ratings. Odds: The New England Patriots are surprisingly slim favorites, despite having a four win advantage over the 9-7 Giants in the regular season. The possibility exists that betting services hate the Patriots nearly as much as Rams fans.

Commercials: Some Super Bowl ads are already streaming on the internet. Now is your chance to appear clairvoyant in front of your friends and acquaintances, which could be a good thing unless they decide you really are a psychic and it turns out they have mob ties and you have to predict the location of a bomb in the stadium before it goes off and if you excuse me I have a screenplay I have to go write now.

Super Bowl Recipes: Because Football, Food Go Together Well

When it comes to the Super Bowl, few things go together better than football and food. And on the day when pretty much everyone goes big rather than go home, that means that somebody in the world is going to create "The Bacon Explosion."

Over at SB Nation, we're rolling out all kinds of recipes and ideas to really mix up your food options for the day. Sure, one can always go the easy route with chips and salsa, but that just seems utterly boring compared to suggestions like country ham and cheddar pretzel bites with jalapeno mustard.

To many sports fans around the country, Super Bowl Sunday is a pretty special day. You might as well have the food that you're eating reflect that, right?

Head over to Patriots blog Pats Pulpit and Giants blog Big Blue View for more on this game. Check out SB Nation NFL for more news and notes around the league.

2012 Super Bowl Prop Bets: Get Used To Peyton Manning's Face

Super Bowl 2012: Europe Pretty Much Ignores Football For Chelsea Vs. Manchester United

It is Super Bowl Sunday. Like most human beings in the United States of America on February 5, 2012, I have spent an outsized proportion of my day thinking about that. For perspective, I’d like to take this opportunity to remind you, me, and the other human Americans that in Europe, where I believe they call football American-Rules Soccer, they’re busy watching Chelsea vs. Manchester United, a Premier League contest-to-end-all-contests.

I realized that when my good friend Ahearn Alley, a pseudonymous contributor at Bring on the Cats and a fan of making people feel inadequate for not liking The World’s Favorite Sport, asked me if I was watching football at this very moment and did not mean to suggest I watch the Rams lose to the Patriots in 2001 all over again. (Because he’s not a terrible person.)

He even had a built-in, Super Bowl-related storyline to suggest: Chelsea, a less-storied big-city franchise in blue, taking on Manchester United, a widely loved and hated squad in red. If that means what I think it means, good news! The New England Patriots are losing 3-2 right now!

Super Bowl 2012: Chronicle Box Office Killed By Super Bowl Sunday

NBC.com To Provide Super Bowl Live Streaming

If you don't have a TV, or if you don't have any friends with TVs, or if you're TV happens to break moments before the kick off of the 2012 Super Bowl, don't worry: NBC has you covered. The network will be streaming the game, which kicks off at 5:30 CST, with features that include exclusive online angles, in-game highlights and the ability to watch commercials on-demand.

Groupon Super Bowl Ads Actually Weren't That Bad (Video)

Poor Groupon. A year ago they went out of their way to make a daring Super Bowl commercial, and everybody finally decided that that was the Super Bowl in which they were going to say—no, too much! Forget about GoDaddy’s creepily exploitive will-she-won’t-she-take-her-top-off ads—an ad in which self-important B celebrities pretend to care about self-important-b-celebrity-magnet causes was just too much.

Assuming, then, that LivingSocial doesn’t run an ad in which Roger Clemens goes to Arab Spring Training, my last attempt to convince you, the people, that Groupon’s Super Bowl commercials last year were more funny than awful: They are not making fun of Tibetan people.

They aren’t even exploiting Tibetan people. They’re just making a light comment—one I find kind of amusing—about celebrities you don’t care about pushing causes they don’t particularly care about for their own personal benefit. Timothy Hutton and Cuba Gooding, Jr.! Come on, guys! Leverage and Snow Dogs!

While I’m defending them, though, I should offer a disclaimer: I have never once found something interesting sold for a good price on Groupon.

Super Bowl Commercials: What Stupid Thing Will GoDaddy Do In 2012?

Super Bowl XLVI is hours away, and already one question has weighed heavily on the minds of Americans who can't wait to see a team from Boston and a team from New York compete in a major sporting event to the delight of TV network executives and Jimmy Fallon: What stupid thing is GoDaddy going to do for its stupid Super Bowl commercials in 2012?

I don't have the answer—if there were one thing I could give America, lord knows it would be that—but I've put some of SB Nation St. Louis's best minds on the question, and our stupid commercial actuaries have decided we're likely to see some of the following scenarios play out:

Somebody looks like they're about to take their clothes off. All their clothes. At the same time. Holy crap! And they're going to put it on the internet. GoDaddy should consider changing their business model to just, like, putting naked women on the internet, if that's even legal. Lord knows it's too hot for TV.

Danica Patrick does something low-quality and degrading. For what it's worth, I think Danica Patrick has every right to use her womanly charms for profit, fame, et cetera—I just wish she weren't doing it on the Super Bowl equivalent of a public access station.

The owner of GoDaddy leers like a really creepy volleyball coach. I'm not really into postmodern literary criticism's intense, comically strident reliance on power dynamics to unlock the Real Meaning of Everything, but this should be kind of obvious: If you're the one paying for an ad in which women take their clothes off, it's especially weird when you appear in that ad.

People you kind of remember are in it. You know, that girl, who was famous? Maybe Nancy Kerrigan and one of those hot tennis players will get into a super-hot slap fight and fall into a vat of salsa. Oh, and domain names.

Super Bowl Commercials: Chevy Volt Attracts Aliens, As Does Man's Wife

For the second year in a row I'm somewhat impressed by Chevrolet's ability to get its talking points across in a Super Bowl commercial that is also entertaining, but this year's ad—the 2012 Chevy Volt is so technologically advanced, aliens in a flying saucer show up in a man's garage to examine it—combines that with a weird subfeature: Aliens are apparently equally attracted to the Volt owner's wife. Earth women, beware:

I am a little weirded out about that. I think maybe you should be a little weirded out about it, too, especially if you are an earth woman. In the meantime, people who are still confused about the difference between the slow-selling Volt and the not-as-slow-selling Nissan Leaf now know that it can run entirely on electricity or with the assistance of a gas generator, and that it is supposed to be as exciting as a high-tech toy as it is a green accessory.

They also know not to let their wife out when they go after the aliens. Because those aliens are exactly as creepy as you might expect, even when you're not married to Gillian Anderson.

Super Bowl Prop Bets 2012: The Best Of The Weirdest

2012 Super Bowl Halftime Show: Madonna Was Performing Before Nicki Minaj Was Born

Look: I get it. It's been a while since I've been fond of the Super Bowl halftime show performer, and I'm not surprised that 2012, which will feature Madonna—as well as Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., whose blood she's been sucking for sustenance prior to the release of her new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin"—on stage, is no different. This continues the Super Bowl's trend of choosing figures who are old enough that they're unlikely to cause a major controversy on stage, one that was broken only when the Black Eyed Peas, who everyone in the entertainment industry is convinced everyone else loves, performed last year.

This is all apparently with the goal of promoting her new album, MDNA, which—and thanks for this, Wikipedia—began when she told Facebook, "I need to move. I need to sweat.... I'm on the lookout for the maddest, sickest, most badass people to collaborate with." Those people, as it turns out, included a French D.J. named Martin Solveig and the executive producers of the Super Bowl.

Granted: Paul McCartney, one the last halftime show performers I truly enjoyed, was performing before Madonna was born. But I wouldn't compare Madonna to Wings, let alone the Beatles.

2012 Super Bowl Start Time, TV Schedule, Live Feed And More

The 2012 Super Bowl is nearly 48 hour away. NFL fans across the country are readying their best food and preparing to watch the ever-entrancing Super Bowl commercials.

For those who do not remember, these two Super Bowl teams -- the New York Giants and the New England Patriots -- met in a recent championship game, squaring off in Super Bowl XLII in 2008. In that spectacular and surprisingly low-scoring game, the Giants beat the Patriots in a stunning 4th quarter comeback that featured this absurd/amazing play:

WR David Tyree, who caught that spectacular catch, has since retired from the NFL, but the matchup still features a number of returning faces. Both quarterbacks, Eli Manning and Tom Brady, as well as both head coaches, Tom Coughlin and Bill Belichick, return for the encore matchup.

Stay tuned to SB Nation's NFL news hub for breaking news, analysis and commentary on the upcoming Super Bowl XLVI.

Gametime: 5:30 PM CST

Television: CBS

Internet: Online streaming

For more on the Patriots and their Super Bowl run, check out SB Nation's Patriots blog, Pats Pulpit as well as SB Nation Boston. For more on the Giants and their Super Bowl appearance, visit Giants blog Big Blue View and SB Nation New York.