By Ed Diokno
A Filipino American put his name in the Super Bowl record books. Jordan Norwood of the Denver Broncos returned a punt 61 yards, the longest punt return in Super Bowl history.
He caught the ball surrounded by Panther defenders but apparently, they thought he signaled for a fair catch and didn’t tackle him as soon as he caught the ball. Somehow, he eluded the would-be tacklers and ran to the opposite side of the field and down the sideline.
His run set up a successful field goal by field goal kicker Brandon McManus to put the Broncos ahead 13-7 at halftime.
The Hawaii-born Norwood’s mother is a Filipina American. His brother is one of the stars in the professional basketball in the Philippines.
Oh – by the way – the Broncos upset the favored Panthers, 24-10 in what may be the 40-year old quarterback Eli Payton Manning’s last game.
The highlight of the much-anticipated half-time show was the sizzling dance off between Beyonce’s army of black-clad dancers vs. Bruno Mars black leather-wearing male dancers.
Fireworks introduced Mars and he started singing his Grammy-award winning dance favorite “Uptown Funk” highlighted by his signature dance moves. Right away, the burst of energy picked up the tone of the performance started by Cold Play’s frontman Chris Martin, who inexplicably had mike troubles making most of his lyrics inaudible.
Then the camera was on Beyonce, wearing two bandolier-looking bands across her chest, and her militant-looking dancers. She sang her new ode to feminism and race relations “Formation,” which was released a day before.
The sexy, tension-building aggressive dancing had me cheering as the camera switched back and forth between the Beyonce dancers and the Filipino American entertainer’s team. To say the two R&B stars stole the show would be an understatement.
(Ed Diokno writes a blog :Views From The Edge: news and analysis from an Asian American perspective.)
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