Downtown Super Bowl fans praise game, disagree on Madonna

CINCINNATI - Many of the football fans who gathered at the Holy Grail restaurant and bar downtown, gave this year's Super Bowl game high marks for drama and thrills. But they differed considerably over how they rated Madonna's 15 minute halftime show.

Just after 6:30 p.m. Sunday, the restaurant was almost packed with a variety of New England Patriots fans and New York Giants fans scattered throughout the eatery. But even with the differing alliances, it was a well behaved and orderly crowd, even as each team scored touchdowns and field goals.

Many fans at Holy Grail said they especially liked the first half of the game, where the Giants lead most of the half, but New England came back to take over the lead at the end of the half.

Tim Grimm, who was visiting from San Francisco said the best part of the half was, "You saw the Giants dominate. But then you saw Brady come back. I think it's going to be close." Unfortunately for Grimm, his favored team, New England, took a loss.

Julie Ausman came down from Blue Ash to watch the Super Bowl with friends. She said, "We have New England fans and New York fans right here, so it's a lot of fun putting up with everybody together." When asked if any fights had broken out between either side, Julie said, "We had a little incident, but everybody is happy."

Other fans say they thought the Super Bowl commercials were a real treat. Charles Walker of Roselawn said he especially liked the commercial with the dogs running a race for Sketchers sneakers. Ausman said there were two commercials that were her favorites. She said, "I loved the Doritos commercial. That was amazing. The little boy with the pool incident. That was great." Ausman is referring to a commercial for TaxAct.

If there was any real disagreement about the Super Bowl, it came up with the Madonna Half Time Show. Some customers loved it. Others simply hated it.

Kathy Sabin from the Westside said, "Oh, Madonna was exciting and powerful. I loved the "World Peace" lighted sign at the end of the show. I just loved all of it."

That wasn't how some other customers felt. Jordan Cederdahl of Over-the-Rhine said of Madonna, "She kinda looked old obviously. Yeah, she's in her 50s, I guess. But I think it showed a little bit toward the end."