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Super Bowl Wrap: Philadelphia Had A Much Better Night Than Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake performs onstage during the Super Bowl LII halftime dhow at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis.
Christopher Polk
/
Getty Images
Justin Timberlake performs onstage during the Super Bowl LII halftime dhow at U.S. Bank Stadium on February 4, 2018 in Minneapolis.

The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl on Sunday night. You could be forgiven for not expecting it — it's never happened before. And on this historic occasion, Stephen Thompson and I sat down Monday morning to talk with some of our favorite panelists about the game and the surrounding entertainment. With us is Katie Presley, a New Orleans Saints fan without too much at stake in this game. But also with us is Gene Demby of NPR's Code Switch team. Gene is a longtime Eagles fan who had, in terms of fandom, a lot at stake in this game.

We break down the game itself, from the built-in assumptions of Tom Brady's inevitability to the moment when he lost the ball with just over two minutes left to play. We talk about the halftime show, which conscripted Prince into a duet with Justin Timberlake and proved once again that getting the sound mix right at the Super Bowl is very, very difficult. And we talk about Super Bowl commercials, from the endearing return of our favorite body wash pitch man to the uncomfortable juxtaposition of civil rights activism and selling trucks.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.