After three weeks of destruction and despair, this was the Super Bowl many Americans needed.
From the pregame festivities featuring a cornucopia of New Orleans music to the not-so-subtle optics of Kendrick Lamar’s red, white and blue flag of Black men to the ads touting science and diversity to the Philadelphia Eagles burying the Kansas City Chiefs, the entire day felt like a repudiation of the sledgehammer President Donald Trump and his minions are trying to take to this country.
That Trump had a front-row seat for it — until he fled early in the third quarter, that is — made it all the more satisfying.
“Real heroes are humble. They’re not driven by pride. Pride is a terrible driver,” Harrison Ford said in an ad for Jeep, as footage of the U.S. soldiers who defeated fascism in World War II played.
“We won’t always agree on which way to go,” Ford said. “But our differences can be our strength.”
That’s the opposite message we’ve been hearing since Trump returned to office. Elected to bring down grocery prices and finally fix our broken immigration system, Trump has instead taken us to a place of darkness.
He and his administration have dismantled efforts to counteract systemic racism and misogyny, claiming diversity makes us weaker and impugning people of color and women as inferior. He is ignoring the rules of law and shredding Constitutional norms. He’s putting a halt to the research and innovation that can improve the lives of all Americans.
Meanwhile, Trump’s overlord Elon Musk is rummaging through the private data of U.S. citizens and trying to shutter agencies and departments like the king he is not.
And Trump no doubt came to the Super Bowl expecting the MAGA-friendly Chiefs to win, allowing him to co-opt the victory as more proof of his “mandate” while giving him license to mock the Eagles for spurning his White House invitation in 2018.
Instead, Trump and everyone watching got a reminder that protest, and progress, are the bedrock of this country. That we are better because of our many colors, races and creeds, our richly layered culture the result of all of our contributions.
The pregame show was a love letter to New Orleans jazz, whose very beginning was a means of resisting oppression. “Lift Every Voice and Sing” and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” were performed by Black artists while Trombone Shorty gave “America the Beautiful” its soul.
Several commercials celebrated science or rejected divisiveness. Perhaps the most powerful was Nike’s ad featuring Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Jordan Chiles and several other high-profile women athletes clapping back at a society that for too long has refused to recognize their worth.
“Whatever you do, you can’t win,” the narrator says. “So … win.”
While Lamar, who has Grammys and a Pulitzer Prize, didn’t say anything overtly political, he didn’t need to. While performing ‘Humble,’ he created an American flag with his backup dancers — every one of them a man of color. It was a powerful image, one that both rejected Trump’s attempts to whitewash our country while embracing the diversity that is actually what makes this country great.
That Lamar had struck a nerve in Trump World was evident by all the Tweets criticizing the halftime show. “Not Like Us,” it’s not just a Drake diss track!
But it was the Eagles who delivered the most emphatic statement of the night.
Trump has made no secret of his dislike for Philadelphia — “bad things happen in Philadelphia,” he once griped — and it’s obvious he still feels the sting of the Eagles snubbing him after their previous Super Bowl win. He was notably silent after the NFC Championship while congratulating Kansas City on its AFC crown, and he again lavished praise on the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes and Mahomes’ wife in a pre-game interview on Fox.
“The quarterback really knows how to win,” Trump said. “He’s a great, great quarterback.”
Not on this night! The Eagles sacked Mahomes six times and picked him off twice, and not until late in the third quarter could the Chiefs get anything going offensively. By then it was too late. Jalen Hurts and the Eagles were flying, and all that was left was to engrave the trophies.
Hurts is a model of perseverance, an example on how to pick yourself up after you’ve been knocked way down. He lost one title game at Alabama, then was benched in another. Hurts and the Eagles lost in the Super Bowl two years ago, and there’s never a shortage of people criticizing him.
But Hurts is now a Super Bowl champion, and that might be the biggest takeaway for the Americans who, even now, still have faith that this country can live up to its promises and ideals. When things seem darkest, when the task in front of you seems insurmountable, put your head down and go back to work. Let the disappointments fuel rather than debilitate you.
This Super Bowl wasn’t just a celebration for Eagles fans. It was a much-needed reminder of what makes this country strong and America great.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.