Super Bowl LV winners and losers, including Tony Romo’s extra enthusiasm, Reddit’s commercial message and Paramount+’s untimely crash

With all due respect to Tom Brady, the real Most Valuable Player of Sunday’s Super Bowl LV was CBS’ James Brown.

Hosting the NFL championship showcase for an unprecedented 10th time, Brown scolded the league on its biggest day for its poor record when it comes to including Black people in leadership roles.

A Viola Davis-narrated piece reviewed the league’s history with inclusion of Black players, then exclusion in the 1930s and inclusion again, teeing up Brown to drive home where the NFL is today and where it clearly needs to be.

“It was painfully revealing in the story we just saw about how owners collaborated in 1933 to consciously and deliberately eliminate Black players from the league,” Brown said. “Now with that ugly practice of barring Black players no longer the case, we see how the game has prospered in popularity and profitability.

“Still, as Black players have elevated the game, there has been no commensurate rise to their standing as leaders of that game. When it comes to the hiring of Black head coaches, team and league executives, and Black ownership, frankly the track record is pitiful.”

Brown noted that only two of the 20 NFL head coaches hired recently have been Black. There is only one Black team president, and there are no Black owners.

“Nearly half of the inducted players in the Hall of Fame are Black, yet only two the 26 enshrined coaches and none of the six honored general managers are Black,” he said.

It’s shame Brown did not directly confront NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell when Goodell was on the pregame show to talk about initiatives that give players a voice to advance social causes and fight racism.

But the fact CBS had Brown say what he said, given the TV network’s interest in keeping their very important business partner happy, is to be applauded.

Whatever advancements the league wants to claim, Brown made abundantly clear there is no way to explain away why there’s still so much more to do.

“I’d certainly like to believe today that there’s not even a hint of that calculated exclusion we saw in the ’30s, but can we really attribute this to an issue of unconscious bias when the numbers tell an unambiguous story?” Brown said.

“Whatever the true cause, the solution is the intention and willingness of the owners. We’re told this is an important issue to them and, if so, it is not a complicated issue. Just act on it. Just do it.

“To do the right thing is to recognize that people are given gifts and talent wrapped in a wide array of packaging, light colored and dark colored, male and female Everyone. If that truth is embraced and acted upon, then fairness, justice and equality of opportunity will be the byproducts. And most of all, divisiveness does not have to continue if we choose unconditional love for people really matters. Because love never ever fails.”

Brown hit the NFL hard, but gave its leaders an open invitation to atone for their sins.

Now, let’s consider other winners and losers from Sunday’s broadcast.

Winner: Tony Romo

Commentator Tony Romo is lucky he secured his multiyear deal said to be worth $17.5 million to $18 million annually with CBS before he was tested by Super Bowl LV.

Romo has enthusiasm to spare. But he seemed to think the Kansas City Chiefs had a realistic change to come back far longer than viewers did. He didn’t concede the likely victory to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers until roughly four minutes remained.

He and broadcast partner Jim Nantz should have pivoted to a broader discussion sooner to keep the broadcast interesting. Knowing when and how to do is what made John Madden the gold standard for NFL analysts.

Loser: Jim Nantz

Play-by-play man Nantz, whose CBS contract expires soon, wants Romo-type, back-up-the-armored-truck money. By his lofty standards, unfortunately, this was an unextraordinary performance.

The game didn’t produce great moments — and neither he nor Romo produced them on their own.

Winner: Jim Nantz

The good news for Nantz is he likely will get a hefty pay raise in any case because he’s a pro’s pro. ESPN will bid up his price, and he’s beloved by the powers that be with the NFL, NCAA, PGA plus the Masters — and that’s valuable to a network such as CBS or ESPN that needs to keep those entities happy.

Winner: Kevin Harlan

Not only is Kevin Harlan a great play-by-play man, but there’s no one better at calling something that shouldn’t be happening.

Westwood One radio listeners benefited from his call of an unusually dressed spectator who somehow got onto the field.

TV largely ignored it, though Romo admired the run. Harlan gave it all he had, ultimately imploring the tackled trespasser to “Pull up your pants, take off the bra and be a man!”

Loser: New England

For Patriots fans, the idea of ex-Pats Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski bringing the Super Bowl trophy to Tampa had to feel like seeing your ex partying with an old friend. You want to be happy for them because that would be the grown-up thing to do, but you also realize you may never have that kind of happiness now that you’ve split.

Winner: ESPN+

Sunday was a good day for ESPN+ to release the trailer for “Man in the Arena,” which looks to do for seven-time Super Bowl champ Brady what ESPN’s “The Last Dance” did for former Chicago Bulls superstar Michael Jordan. The burnishing of the Brady legend is due out in the fall.

Loser: Paramount+

It’s a bad sign for the streaming service (set to be rebranded from CBS All Access) when the most memorable in a string of in-game promos is the one in which Snooki of MTV “Jersey Shore” fame says, “This sucks.”

Even worse, CBS All Access apparently crashed for a time on Sunday.

Winner: Amanda Gorman

Perhaps there will come a time when America tires of events that begin with Amanda Gorman’s poetry. It doesn’t seem as though it has happened yet.

Loser: Robinhood

If Robinhood knew how the last two weeks were going to play out, maybe it wouldn’t have spent so much money to ensure people knew about it. You don’t see GameStop throwing that kind of cash around.

Winner: Reddit

Meanwhile Reddit, the site where investors caused market upheaval by buying up GameStop stock via Robinhood, bought five seconds on CBS stations in top markets to make its own pitch.

The commercial opened mimicking an SUV ad, then switched to a test screen and finally a “now you see it, now you don’t” message under the heading: “Wow, This Actually Worked.”

A freeze-frame explained that what happened in recent days showed “underdogs can accomplish just about anything when they come together around a common idea.”

Loser: Game officials

The officiating was far from great, though the Chiefs made too many mistakes to pass the blame for their loss on anyone else — no matter what Patrick Mahomes’ mom facetiously suggested to Tom Brady’s wife.

“If you have to have the ref on your team is that really winning!!!” said Randi Mahomes’ oddly punctuated tweet to Gisele Bündchen with an “lol” and a string of emojis with tears of joy and zany faces attached.

Loser: Tracy Wolfson

With all due respect to CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson — who apparently drew the short straw on the pregame show — it’s irrelevant how difficult it’s been on Chiefs coach Andy Reid after his son (and outside linebackers coach) Britt injured two kids in a car crash.

The only real concern should be with the injured kids, particularly the 5-year-old left in critical condition.

Loser: Britt Reid

CBS struggled with the Britt Reid story in part because alcohol’s role in the crash reportedly remains under investigation and charges have not been filed.

Nantz avoided the topic until 3:41 remained in the game, which seems a bit late. But at least the concern he expressed was with the children and their families.

Winner: Space Force

The new Space Force had a flag on the field with other U.S. military branches during the national anthem. That’s one small step or one giant leap, depending on how you want to look at it.

Loser: Guaranteed Rate and Indeed

Notice the same shot of a parent carrying a kid piggyback in ads for both Guaranteed Rate and Indeed? This is what happens when companies spend $5.6 million to air Super Bowl spots but don’t pay extra for exclusivity on the stock footage that pads out the commercials.

They both got taken for the same ride.

Winner: Bill Cowher

Of everyone who made predictions on the network’s pregame show, only Bill Cowher picked the Buccaneers.