This one’s for Paul.
We were waiting for Seahawks owner Jody Allen to pay homage to her brother, the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, when accepting the Lombardi Trophy on behalf of the team he saved and she preserved for their hometown. It didn’t happen, so we’ll say it here.
Jody Allen is getting well-deserved recognition for her role as the franchise leader. As Jerry Brewer wrote in The Athletic, she’s been an architect of the team’s success, worthy of emulation by other owners in the league.
“Jody’s been fantastic,” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said after the win last night, pointing in particular to her role in guiding the team through last season.
What a remarkable family legacy, all the way around.
Up for sale? Ahead of the Super Bowl, reports circulated that the Seahawks would seek a buyer after this season. Adding a championship may not immediately increase the team’s value, but as Sportico noted, “it certainly doesn’t hurt.” We’ll be watching any tech execs that might step up for the 12s as part of new ownership.
Seattle’s big win in the Valley: Sure, it was a win over New England, but as the blue and green confetti rained down in the heart of Silicon Valley, it was hard not to see a symbolic victory for the Pacific Northwest over the rival tech hub, especially given the Hawks’ trouncing of the 49ers in the playoffs.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was among those celebrating the victory and congratulating our hometown champs, which made us remember the time he once told a Seattle crowd, “Every time I go to the Valley, I’m thankful that I’m here.”
Here are details on the victory parade, set for this Wednesday.
Alexa+ will try to kill you? OK, so maybe only in Chris Hemsworth’s imagination, but the premise of Amazon’s Alexa Super Bowl ad — that its next-gen AI assistant is “scary good” — seemed to emphasize the “scary” part a bit much. If you missed the upbeat resolution while grabbing another beverage from the fridge, you might have been left with the impression that Alexa is truly AI’s killer app.
Maybe Ring is the real threat: In its own ad, the Amazon-owned security camera company said it just wants to help find lost pets via its “Search Party” feature that relies on AI to scan whatever’s passing by your house, and tap into neighboring doorbell cams.
Some viewers on social media shared that they were “creeped out” by the tech, and at least one privacy expert said tugging at our heart strings over a lost dog is a great way to make us willingly trade our personal data.
The “A.I. Bowl”? That’s what some are calling Super Bowl LX after nearly a quarter of the commercials featured artificial intelligence. The New York Times’ DealBook drew the historical parallel: the Crypto Bowl of 2022 (FTX went bankrupt by year’s end) and the Dot-Com Bowl of 2000 (Pets.com and others shut down months after the tech bubble popped).
The NYT pointed to comments by investment pro George Noble: “When an entire sector floods the most expensive advertising real estate on the planet, it’s not a signal to buy.”
See our earlier roundup of Super Bowl tech ads, on the off chance you’re not sick of all the AI commercials by now.
Stop the presses: Especially given the high-tech focus of the ads, it was fun to see an old-school newspaper front page held up in the midst of the celebration. Of course, that was a gimmick by The Seattle Times, with the generic headline, “CHAMPS,” and a stock photo, in the spirit of the pre-printed hats and shirts anticipating a possible victory.
The actual front-page headline this morning is “REDEMPTION!” — not exactly inspired — but the Sports section came through with an appropriate pun: ‘D’omination!
GeekWire’s Kurt Schlosser and Grants Pass (Ore.) Daily Courier editor Scott Stoddard — both former Page One editors at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer — settled on “D-HAWKS” in a post-game text exchange about their dream headline.
It’s such a good feeling to know that the spirit of Mr. Rogers is still alive in the midst of everything going on in our world. Lady Gaga’s rendition of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” for Seattle-based Redfin/Rocket was one example. Later came an NFL ad with current and former players singing the just-as-classic “You Are Special” with kids.
Both stood out as moments of calm in the commercial chaos.
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