Some are calling it the greatest Superbowl ever which might be easy to say if you’re a Raven’s fan but it’s definitely not hard to argue that the Baltimore Raven’s 34-31 victory over the San Francisco 49ers was as thrilling as they come.
In a game that featured many twists and turns including a power outage that delayed the game for 35 minutes, the Raven’s held on to victory despite losing almost all of a 17 point lead.
So we know all about headlines like Ray Lewis retiring and the 49ers quest for 6 Titles but for those of us in Oceania, we were keeping an eye on 5 particular athletes representing the Pacific Islands, the Raven’s Haloti Ngata and Maa’ke Kemoeatu of the Baltimore Raven’s and the 49ers Mike Iupati, Willie Tukuafu and Isaac Sopaga. So how did our Pacific Island brethren do in the Big Game?
For the Champion Ravens, Ngata had 2 tackles and was a big part of the Raven’s defense that negated the 49er run game early on but Ngata did have to leave the game as he was injured on a Frank Gore 6-yard touchdown run with 5:05 left to play in the third. The injury was not serious and Ngata is already reported to being up and and about without any need for crutches or the like.
Maa’ke Kemoeatu had 1 tackle and was part of the defense that made the biggest play of the day, holding the 49ers without a touchdown on their now famous goalline stand with the 49ers only 5 yards away from scoring the go-ahead touchdown.
For the 49ers, Mike Iupati was part of an offensive line that produced 182 net yards rushing including 62 yards and 1 TD for QB Colin Kapernick and 110 yards and 1 TD for RB Frank Gore.
On the 49ers defense, Isaac Sopoaga had 3 tackles and assisted on 1 of 2 sacks on Raven’s QB Joe Flacco. Tukuafu played on a special teams unit that did relatively well until the Raven’s Joe Jacoby scored on a 108 yard kickoff return setting a Superbowl record.
All in all it was an exciting end to what has been a memorable season especially when it comes to Pacific Island athletes impact on professional football. I was able to catch up with one of my good friends and “mentors”, Sports Talk Radio Host, Rod Brooks, from the #1 rated Fitz and Brooks show on KNBR 680 in San Francisco. Rod was in New Orleans during the week leading up to the big game and I asked him about the presence of Pacific Island athletes like Mike Iupati on the 49ers.
In Local news, The Canoe Association of Palau or (CAP) is holding it’s Annual Meeting on Tuesday, February 12th at PNOC Office Conference Room starting at 630pm – 830pm. All members and any new members interested in joining are welcome to attend the meeting which will highlight and report activities of 2012 and to report/present plans to all members for 2013 activities and beyond.
Lastly, all you surfers out there, will appreciate this next piece of video from Youtuber “Coastline Tobi” (http://www.youtube.com/user/CoastlineTobi) who managed to film what could be a world record swell off the coast of Nazare’ Portugal. Apparently American Garrett McNamara was not satisfied with his previous Guiness Book of World Record wave of 78 feet. No, that’s McNamara at it again with what’s estimated as a 100-foot wave, which would easily break his previous record set at the same location.
The wave will have to be verified by Guinness World Records officials. McNamara’s 2011 wave was initially thought to be 90-feet but was later verified through photos and videos to be only 77.7559 feet high.