Your Super Bowl XLV Morning After

There was a football game on yesterday; perhaps you watched it. Perhaps you didn't! We're not here to judge. But either way, there are some thing you're going to need to know for you to face the disapproving glares of your families and coworkers.

Your MVP was Aaron Rodgers, and that's kind of hard to dispute with 304 yards and 3 TDs. It feels like we just saw the initiation ceremony of a new member of the "QBs good enough to strap a team on their back and win a title," in just his third full season. He's 27, not as young as he seems, because of those three years riding the pine behind Favre. But still: get ready for a slew of articles anointing him "one of the elite" or "better than Brett Favre."

Make no mistake, anything good the Packers did, it was in the air. A mere 11 handoffs were called for James Starks, who proved himself capable this winter. But teams don't beat Pittsburgh's front seven, and Rodgers beat them on seam route after seam route. Just imagine their passing numbers, and the score, without the numerous drops from Green Bay's receivers.

Ben Roethlisberger's career will not be defined by this loss, just like it should not be defined by any other single game. All the talk beforehand was how a third ring would cement his place in Canton. Well, his 263-2-2 performance last night was light years beyond his 123-0-2 game in Super Bowl XL. Ben said afterwards that a lot of the loss was his fault, and it was, but 25 points are generally enough to win a game. Unless the HOF voters have their priorities seriously misplaced, 60 minutes of football, no matter the stage, shouldn't make or break a candidacy.

Of course, we might not even have had a game if Charles Woodson stayed healthy. Pittsburgh through most of the first half, with Woodson in the game: 63 yards passing, 3 points, 2 INTs. After Woodson broke his collarbone: 200 yards, 22 points, 0 INTs.

Goodbye, Shaun Suisham. You're not consistent enough, nor Jeff Reed lovable-crazy enough to stick around. It's not just missing a 52-yarder; it's missing it by what seemed like another 52 yards.

Thanks to reader Brady, we noticed that Mike McCarthy was walking around with an open red sharpie tucked into the back of his cap all night. Our first bonafide redneck Super Bowl winning coach since Jimmy Johnson.

Yikes. Even nonjudgmental old Yahoo broke out a headline calling the Black Eyed Peas' halftime show the worst in years.

Wait, never mind. Bleacher Report called it

Packers! Woo!