Hurts So Good

Super Bowl Special

The team you hate the most got crushed by the team you hate the second most. Welcome to what amounts to joy in 2025. OK, I admit it. Without the 49ers in the playoffs this year, the NFL postseason just didn't have the same meaning for me. But putting my bitterness aside (a first in the history of this newsletter), didn't this year just feel a little less Super Bowl-ish than usual? Maybe it was the non-competitive game. Maybe it was that Patrick Mahomes was outed as a human being. Maybe it was that in the age of sociopolitical uproar, marketers played it particularly safe with their commercials. Maybe it was the first-time attendance at the game by a sitting president, which added a political undertone during one of the communal moments we were all hoping would provide a brief respite from politics. Maybe it's that the halftime show, while good, required some backstory and analysis in a year when we probably could have used the simplicity of Left Shark. Maybe it's that we're no longer allowed to eat all the carb-heavy snacks that once dominated gamedays. (My 3-layer dip included Ozempic, Mounjaro, and Wegovy.) Meh, maybe it's just that my team wasn't in the game.

+ "The Eagles are not a dynasty, but they’re building a résumé as this generation’s New York Giants, the spoilers to the teams that everyone hates to see win—but no one else can find a way to beat. They did it to Tom Brady and the Patriots in the 2017 season. And now the Chiefs, in extravagant, dominant fashion in front of a TV audience of 100 million-plus Sunday night, a 40-22 victory that few saw coming. Not a dynasty, but they do build statues for this type of thing. The team that Kansas City sent home in the Super Bowl two years ago, and that just last season got bounced from the wild-card round after imploding down the stretch, managed to defy the anticipated three-peat and scramble the assumed power structure in the NFL." The Ringer: This Was a Super Bowl for the Haters, and the Eagles Were the Perfect Antagonists.

+ ESPN: How the Eagles dominated the Chiefs, Patrick Mahomes.

+ If there was one factor that decided the game, it was the Eagles' defensive line. The real Super Bowl MVP for the Eagles? How about the defensive line that pummeled Patrick Mahomes.

+ The game's official MVP was pretty damn good too. And as he offered after the game, his journey to this point was, "not normal." Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts named MVP of Super Bowl LIX.

+ During the Kendrick Lamar halftime show, I found myself yelling at the director to pull back the camera shot so we could get a better look at the scope of the choreography. I feel like TV viewers missed too much of the show. What was impossible to miss was yet another chapter in the Lamar/Drake rap feud (which, at this point, is more one-sided than the football game was). When your ex GF dances to the tune of the guy publicly humiliating you, it's never a good thing. When that GF is Serena Williams and it's the halftime of the Super Bowl, yikes. The Ringer: Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Was a Master Class in Ass-Whooping. (I mean it’s pretty obvious at this point. We need to figure out a way to get Kendrick Lamar pissed at Elon Musk.)

+ NPR: The best (and worst) Super Bowl commercials this year. (Surprised not to see the Nike So Win ad here, which I thought was good.)

+ And last, but not least (especially for hardcore football fans), damn, that new scorebug was bad in so many ways.

2

Don't Judge Me, Bro

The GOP-controlled Congress seems pretty OK with allowing Trump and Musk to sideline their power over the pursestrings and allow the emergence of an all-powerful executive branch. So far, the courts have pushed back. But Trump, Musk, and JD Vance have all hinted that maybe those court rulings don't exactly have to be adhered to. The Atlantic (Gift Article): Trump Signals He Might Ignore the Courts. (Now the administration thinks it can ignore judicial decisions, laws, and the Constitution. Who do they are? The Supreme Court?)

+ AP: Vance and Musk question the authority of the courts as Trump's agenda faces legal pushback. (Related: Judge finds Trump administration hasn’t fully followed his order to unfreeze federal spending.)

+ NYT (Gift Article): Trump’s Actions Have Created a Constitutional Crisis.

+ And more from the Trump Dump: Five Former Treasury Secretaries: Our Democracy Is Under Siege. Newly confirmed Russel Vought told staff at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop doing work. Trump to loosen enforcement of US law banning bribery of foreign officials.

3

Lost the Fat, Stat

"His colleagues’ use of Wegovy and Zepbound reminds him of the use of statins, drugs that lower cholesterol, in their early days. Cardiologists, who were most familiar with the consequences of high cholesterol levels, were among the first to take the drugs in large numbers." It's not just patients who look a little thinner these days... NYT (Gift Article): The Physicians Really Are Healing Themselves, With Ozempic.

+ One of the other business winners in the Ozempic age. High protein milk. From Coke. Coke’s $7 Billion Bet on Milk Hits Big, But Wall Street Wants More.

4

Blurb Stomping

"One big author and one major publisher announced within weeks of each other that they were through with the practice of blurbs, and the resulting conversation threw publishing into a tizzy. In the process, it provided a new lens on who has access to clout and resources in an increasingly precarious industry." A major book publisher announced a change. The industry freaked out. We may have reached peak book blurb. We have definitely reached peak news blurb, or at least I have. (If I've still got my chops, that should read as a cry for help.)

5

Extra, Extra

Unreal Estate: "Hamas has said the next hostage release scheduled to take place in Gaza on Saturday will be postponed'until further notice,' accusing Israel of breaking the ceasefire deal. Israel described the postponement as a 'complete violation of the ceasefire' and called on the Israeli military to prepare for 'any possible scenario' in Gaza." Meanwhile, many of the hostage releases that have happened so far have been pretty sick, with emaciated hostages being paraded in front of large crowds. Bound, gagged and starved. Released hostages report severe mistreatment by captors. This all comes against the new political backdrop that includes Trump referring to Gaza as real estate he plans to develop. Trump says Palestinians wouldn't be allowed back into Gaza under his plan.

+ Tent Stakes: "On Friday a military cargo plane transported deportees from El Paso, Texas, to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. They are among the latest arrivals in the Trump administration’s week-old migrant relocation operation." NYT (Gift Article): A Tent City Is Rising at Guantánamo Bay.

+ Space Jam: "It’s like being on Space Mountain at Disney World. You get on Space Mountain, you get in a car, and you’re in the dark and the cars go left and right, left and right and abrupt turns, you don’t know where you’re going, but you know, you’re pretty confident that you’re going to get to the right place at the bottom." For CEOs and Bankers, the Trump Euphoria Is Fading Fast.

+ Did Nazi That Coming: And just a little update on where we find ourselves. "Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, used a Super Bowl commercial on Sunday night to send people to his website as it sells T-shirts emblazoned with a swastika."

6

Bottom of the News

"Earth's core is the beating heart of our planet as it produces a magnetic field that protects life from burning up in the Sun's radiation. The inner core spins independently from the liquid outer core and from the rest of the planet. Without this motion, Earth would die and become more like barren Mars which lost its magnetic field billions of years ago." Earth's inner core may have changed shape, say scientists. (This might be as good an explanation as any for Patrick Mahomes' errant throws on Sunday...)