Yeah, it was a really great Super Bowl. (Though to be honest, I only watched 50% of it, and I really just wanted it to be over so I could watch the oddly much more violent Liverpool vs. Everton match on my DVR.)

More importantly, here are a few thoughts on the ads I saw. (No comments on the shockingly lame Tim Tebow ad that got all the hype in the two weeks before the game.)

1. Only Google (and perhaps Craiglist) could get away with the lamest, simplest ad ever. The Google ad somehow reminded me of how incredible Google truly is. I’m not sure anything else has had such a major influence on how we interact with the Internet. To even describe Google as a “search” seems a bit much, since 95% of the information you seek pops up in the first page of listings. When was the last time you had to truly search for information with Google? (If you do want to know, I’m sure Google is keeping track of that information for you!) That single, unadorned page is the home page on every web browser I use. Impressive.

2. The advertisement for the television show Criminal Minds made me ashamed of humans. (Not to be too melodramatic.) Why can’t I watch a football game with my kids without seeing violent ads for a television show that celebrates evil? Sorry, fans, but you’re taking pleasure in violence and in humanity’s base instincts. (And, yeah, I get the irony  of complaining about violence during a football game, but it’s the enjoyment of cruelty in shows like Criminal Minds that appalls me.)

3. Dante’s Inferno. Don’t do it! Don’t buy it! It’s not a love story, it’s a philosophical discussion of humankind’s potential—good and bad—and God’s response to it. As an English teacher and a lover of Dante, I’m constitutionally required to oppose it.

One other random point: Did every sportswriter have a conference call and decide that every Super Bowl article would contain some hyperbole about how the Saints’ victory finally erased the horror of Katrina? BORING!