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Bud Light Brought The ‘Real Men Of Genius’ Guy Back To Celebrate Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl Win

For the second time in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are in possession of the Lombardi Trophy. Tampa Bay, in front of their hometown crowd, knocked off the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs, 31-9, to win Super Bowl LV, with recently-imported quarterback Tom Brady taking home the game’s MVP award for the fifth time in his career.

Any and all analysis of the game will have to wait until later, because the fine folks over at Bud Light decided to bring back a famous ad campaign to celebrate the win. Back in the late-90s and early-00s, Bud Light had a campaign called “Real Men of Genius” in which Dave Bickler, the lead singer of the band Survivor, would sing really silly stuff about guys who deserve a cold one. A refresher:

Anyway, Bud Light must have given Bickler the bag, because he came back to cut a new Real Men of Genius ad for the Buccaneers. It is very funny, because I forgot how extremely into the bit these ads got.

As always, the voice over is terrifically weird — “Gronk once again caused opponents to ask, ‘How will we defend ourselves if our planet sends more like him?’” he said about Rob Gronkowski’s home planet of Amherst, New York — and the vocals are as silly as ever. The commercials weren’t as stellar as we have come to expect for the Super Bowl this year, so this one might take the cake.

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A Bizarre Super Bowl Ad For The Vegan Food Brand Oatly Left People Scratching Their Heads

Super Bowl commercials tend to be the main attraction for some — a reliable source of entertainment that attracts even those who only watch one NFL game a year. But this year was a relatively somber one, with a plethora of sad or contemplative ads peppered into the usual goofball ones. While some said the best or at least most clever Super Bowl commercial was the glitchy five-second one by Reddit, the pick for worst — or at least weirdest — went to the one for Oatly.

How did an ad for the Swedish vegan food brand come up with the big night’s most surreal entry? It wasn’t by doing much. Indeed, all it did was plop its CEO, Toni Petersson, in a field of wheat, armed with nothing but a keyboard. There he sang a silly little song about the glories of selling foodstuffs made of oat, not dairy. “It’s like milk/But made for humans!” Petersson crooned. He continued: “Wow, wow/No cow!”

The tune is maddeningly simple and maddeningly catchy, with its stupid “wow”-“cow” rhyme no doubt becoming an earworm for those who caught it. And it sharply divided those on social media, who care more about ads than they do about the Kansas City Chiefs getting roundly trounced by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Many were against it.

Still, it had its fans.

Some were quick to cover their new favorite song.

Others simply made jokes.

It didn’t take for Oatly to find a clever way to profit off of the hate. So everybody wins!

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People Were Blown Away By A Reddit Super Bowl Ad That Was Only Five Seconds Long

Super Bowl LIV wasn’t a huge one for commercials, and with good reason: It’s been a rough past year, and it wouldn’t be appropriate if every one of them was about goofy animals or something. That didn’t mean every one of them was a somber meditation on pain and loss. After all, one of them was about Edward Scissorhands’ son. And possibly the most clever commercial thought way, way outside the box: the one for the social news aggregator Reddit, which was all of five seconds long.

It starts off looking like a normal ad: Two cars are racing across a desert when, all of a sudden, things got glitchy. A Reddit logo filled the screen, followed by another screen filled with dense text. But you only had three seconds to read it all before it cut back to horses running in slo-mo.

Of course, people don’t only watch TV on live television, do they? Soon as people were able to dig up a copy over YouTube or Twitter, you could pause it and discover what on earth Reddit was thinking. “If you’re reading this, it means our bet paid off,” read the slate. “Big game spots are expensive, so we couldn’t buy a full one. But we were inspired and decided to spend our entire marketing budget on 5 seconds of airtime.”

The slate goes on to indirectly address the GameStop-Reddit saga, in which users on the site fomenting a stock market meltdown. “One thing we learned from our communities last week is that underdogs can accomplish anything when they come together under a common idea,” it read. ““Who knows, maybe you’ll be the reason finance textbooks have to add a chapter on ‘tendies.’”

It then encouraged forward-thinkers to name Reddit as their home: “Powerful things happen when people rally around something they really care about. And there’s place for that. It’s called Reddit.”

Of course, because it was only five seconds long a lot of people may have missed it the first time. But enough people caught it.

And people praised its ingenuity.

And Reddit top brass patted each other on the back for a job well done.

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Kevin Harlan Went Berserk In His Radio Call For The Super Bowl LV Streaker

Kevin Harlan is the best to ever do it. I do not necessarily mean doing play-by-play for sporting events — although, let’s face it, the list of people whose names are above Harlan is awfully short — but instead, I mean that no one is even in the same galaxy as Harlan when it comes to adding some flair to an idiot running on the field during a sporting event.

The latest example of this came during the snoozer that was Super Bowl LV, in which Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers totally flummoxed Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs en route to a 31-9 win. During the game’s fourth quarter, someone bolted onto the field, and while the main CBS broadcast treated them how you normally would when this happens (move the camera off of them, don’t give them attention, Stern Voices™), Harlan decided to touch triple-figures on the gun with some all-time heat.

My personal favorite line is Harlan screaming, “He’s pulling down his pants! PUT UP YOUR PANTS, MY MAN! PULL UP THOSE PANTS!” Even beyond that, there are about a billion different good nuggets in this single 46-second clip, and with how extremely serious broadcasters can get during these moments — which, in fairness, completely makes sense because you should not do that, especially amid a global pandemic — Harlan opting to have fun really is a blast.

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Antoine Winfield Jr. Taunted Tyreek Hill With His Signature Deuces As The Bucs Won The Super Bowl

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rolled to their second Super Bowl title as a franchise on Sunday, defeating the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs soundly, with a sensational defensive effort leading the way.

The Bucs rattled Patrick Mahomes all night, taking advantage of the Chiefs being without their two starting tackles, and held the Chiefs to just three field goals. Late in the fourth quarter, Mahomes found himself running for his life and simply trying to make anything happen on a pair of late fourth downs to no avail. The first resulted in arguably the best incompletion in Super Bowl history, while the second led to an elite taunt from Antoine Winfield Jr.

The rookie safety has emerged as a star in his first NFL season, and recorded the lone interception of the night earlier in the game by picking off Mahomes. After he and the Bucs secondary were victimized in their first meeting this season by Tyreek Hill, they kept the speedster in check in the Super Bowl. After the dagger incompletion, Winfield made sure to give Tyreek a taste of his own medicine, earning a 15-yard penalty in the process that was well worth it.

It was a fitting capper to the night for the Chiefs, who were outclassed and outplayed all evening by the Bucs, particularly when the offense was on the field, something few saw coming. It was an exceptional performance from Tampa and getting that redemption from an embarrassment the first go around with Kansas City made this championship win a little sweeter.

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A Fan Ran Onto The Field And Busted Out A Wicked Spin Move To Evade Capture By Authorities During Super Bowl 55

Super Bowl 55 didn’t have a whole lot of excitement thanks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers moving the ball effectively on offense and clamping down against the Kansas City Chiefs on defense. As a result, one fan took it upon themselves to try and add a jolt of entertainment to the festivities at Raymond James Stadium.

The Chiefs, down 31-9, faced a second-and-20 with 5:03 left in the game. The ball was on Tampa Bay’s 37, so the possibility existed that they’d be able to put a few more points on the board before things came to a halt, and perhaps they had something dialed up and oh my god how on earth did a fan get out there?

A few angles show that the runner was able to bust out a spin move that probably caught the eyes of both offensive staffs, although he has to know that when you are that close to the end zone, you have to punch it in instead of sliding at the two-yard line.

We now go live to Uproxx Sports guest analyst Mel Kiper for analysis: “THIS STREAKER, HE’S GOT SOME WIGGLE TO ‘EM, GOT GOOD SIZE, RARE AGILITY FOR THAT SIZE, GOTTA BE MORE WILLING TO GO EMBRACE CONTACT, CAN’T GIVE UP ON PLAYS WHEN YOU CAN PUNCH IT IN.” Anyway, the Chiefs turned it over on downs on this drive.

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Patrick Mahomes Threw The Greatest Incompletion In Super Bowl History On 4th And 9

Patrick Mahomes had a pretty miserable second Super Bowl experience, as the former MVP was running for his life for almost the entirety of the game against the Bucs in Tampa. The Chiefs were without both starting tackles, with Eric Fischer and Mitchell Schwartz both unable to go due to injuries, and that proved to be something Kansas City simply couldn’t figure out how to work around.

Mahomes was only sacked once through the early fourth quarter, but it wasn’t for a lack of opportunities as the Bucs front seven created pressure all day, forcing Mahomes into a lot of throwaways and checkdowns, helping keep the explosive Chiefs offense in check. Early in the fourth quarter, down 31-9, Mahomes and the Chiefs were knocking on the doorstep but after three field goals early in the game they couldn’t settle for a kick once again.

So, when they arrived at 4th and 9 from the 12, they had to go for it and once again Mahomes did everything he could to extend the play and, somehow, managed to get a pass off while horizontal to the ground that made its way all the way to the end zone where it hit Darrel Williams in the face. It is, quite simply, the greatest incompletion in Super Bowl history.

That came off a wild, spinning throw to the back pylon that was almost hauled in by Byron Pringle on third down that was almost as ridiculous, and in a game where he simply didn’t have the time, Mahomes tried to work his magic late to keep the Chiefs’ hopes alive. Unfortunately for he and the team, that wasn’t to be as the Bucs ran away with a win behind a sensational game from Tom Brady.

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Twitter Users Turned The Weeknd’s Dizzying Mirrored Maze Into A Highly Relatable Meme

The Weeknd put an end to weeks of drama surrounding his Super Bowl halftime show tonight by delivering a flawless performance. Long story short, The Grammys snubbed Abel Tesfaye’s excellent 2020 record After Hours — with absolutely zero nominations —and rumors began to circulate that it was due to negotiations for a performance that might’ve conflicted with his halftime show. After some angry back and forth, the drama died down and Tesfaye seemed more determined than ever to deliver a pitch-perfect set today.

He did that and more, drawing in a lot of older hits from his expansive discography, including an interlude of the titular track off his debut mixtape, House Of Balloons, and other fan favorites like “I Feel It Coming” (who features Daft Punk on the album, sadly they weren’t able to show tonight) and “Starboy,” the song that catapulted him into global stardom.

What makes fans the happies these days though, is a good meme, and Abel also offered everyone the chance to go crazy on Twitter with a dizzying, mirrored hallway mid-set. Well, it was no time at all before Twitter was making up their own storylines to accompany this all-too-relatable visual. Check out some of the best and most creative below and catch his full performance above if you missed it earlier.

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Leonard Fournette Wasn’t Touched On A 27-Yard Touchdown Run In Super Bowl 55

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers leaned on Tom Brady and his familiarity with a pair of pass catchers, Rob Gronkowski and Antonio Brown, to score their first 21 points of Super Bowl 55. When the second half got underway, though, Tampa decided to turn to its ground game, handing the ball off to Leonard Fournette and giving him room to run for six.

The Kansas City Chiefs came out of the locker room following the break and had to settle for a field goal. On the ensuing drive, Brady and Fournette took turns moving Tampa Bay down the field, and on the sixth play of the drive, Fournette followed one of his big offensive linemen, Ali Marpet, who cleared a path and let him run for six without a single Chiefs defender laying a hand on him.

Fournette, the former LSU standout and No. 4 overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, has come on strong for Tampa this postseason, entering the Super Bowl with 48 carries for 211 carries and a pair of scores. He has also turned into a reliable checkdown option for Brady, catching 14 balls for 102 yards and a score in the postseason.

With this run, Tampa Bay was able to extend its lead to 28-9.

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The Weeknd Delivered A Flawless Super Bowl Halftime Show After Weeks Of Drama

The lead up to Abel Tesfaye taking one of the biggest stages in the world has certainly been a dramatic one. When it was announced last fall that The Weeknd would be performing at the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show, fans were excited that his After Hours era was going to get another moment in the spotlight. But then, when the Grammys strangely snubbed the record — despite it being one of his most successful and critically-acclaimed projects — rumors began to swirl that it had something to do with his halftime slot.

Most of that turbulence has settled down in the weeks since the Grammy nominations were announced though, and Toronto’s mayor even dedicated today’s date, Feb 7th, to The Weeknd. For his show today, the R&B star did not disappoint, launching into a medley of hits against an old world Las Vegas backdrop. He began with a well-known older song, launching directly into “Starboy,” accompanied by a choir, and transitioning from there into another older jam, “The Hills,” one of the biggest songs in his oeuvre.

Following that pair of songs up with another radio banger, “I Can’t Feel My Face,” he was joined in a dizzying golden maze by a number of Abel lookalikes, all of whom sported the same red blazer and plastic surgery bandages that have defined the After Hours aesthetic. Next, he hit the roof for a joyful take on “I Feel It Coming,” a track that features Daft Punk — who weren’t able to make it to Tampa — and finally dipped into “Save Your Tears,” the most recent song in the set so far. “Earned It” came next followed by a “House Of Balloons” interlude, and then the grand finale, “Blinding Lights.”

We already knew no guests were set to join him onstage, likely due to COVID-19 precautions, but Abel was more than… able to carry the show on his own. Watch the show above.