Atlanta @ New Orleans

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

um, he is the PRESIDENT. i care about what Bush thinks and says...i could give a damn about e Lee.

now, do i want to hear Bush during a football game...not necessarily, but it is much more relevant than e.

Was, but I still afford Bush 41 the same respect.

You're right, though, this wasn't a politics night, but you can't tell me that e Lee can't speak about his thoughts on the pulse of the community in the first game in NO in more than a year-and-a-half.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

He didn't even go as far as he wanted to, man. Give him a break.

He could have come out and used it as his soapbox, but he didn't. He did it in his do entary and left most of what he thought away from this game.

Everyone knows the content and 'message' of e's film about New Orleans. Plugging his film as a great work (as Mike Tirico said) is implicitly agreeing with e's film which...

he said it himself, he wasn't going to pull a Kanye. So you're giving him a pass because he didn't come right out and say "George Bush hates black people"?

That's pretty weak. They could have said that NO needs more support, and done it in a tasteful way without any "I don't want to pull a Kanye" bull .

What's funny is Kornheiser is sitting there in the first half, I don't know probably 5-6 times, saying "you know, it's like the people here don't want to talk about the sad things, the depressing things, they just want to enjoy the game, but we HAVE to talk about it."

He should have listened to his own observations, as should have ESPN. But you could tell they had the e Lee bit teed up and ready to go, and of course you knew it was going to be political too.

They had Archie Manning, Avery, and others on the broadcast and you didn't hear a single "well I don't want to pull a Kanye, but this city hasn't gotten enough help since last year" .

Weak call by ESPN letting Captain Conspiracy pimp his film and engage in some social commentary.

[MannyIsGod]

To not talk aobut it would be to ignore the white elephant in the room.

[MosesGuthrie]

Great game.

Atlanta had no chance at all tonight. Not because they were less talented but the emotion of this game was too much. Usually emotion is not enough to tip a game at this level. Tonight was an exception. I don't think it is too much to call this the biggest sports event in New Orleans and maybe, Louisiana, history. I think this ranks up there as a historical event period.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Again Manny, I wasn't expecting them to ignore it, just not to get into a political commentary like they did with e Lee.

Archie Manning, Avery Johnson, and the one singer dude (drawing a blank) all said NO needs more help without making any innuendos about feeling the same as Kanye West, etc.

[MannyIsGod]

No, you're just finding a way to turn a non issue into an issue. No in this country is going to rant and rave at what e said because he's e Lee and he held back. I never thought badly of anything that was said tonight, and that includes e Lee. He just said he wasn't going to rant and rave and I see nothing wrong with that.

Not everyone is going to agree with you, but that doesn't mean there was anything there to get upset about.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

The game ranked second only to CNN's airing of the 1993 NAFTA debate between Ross Perot and Al Gore in terms of ratings.

More than 10M households watched the game. Very cool.