Clear eyes ... Full hearts ... Can't lose

This is what the Dillon Panthers used to chant just before entering the field.  The Panthers being, of course, the high school football team central to Friday Night Lights -- the book, the movie and, most of all, the smasher of a television show.

There've been days when I've considered going back and watching the whole thing again.  Certainly the first season or two.  It was that good.  And, in the way that good science fiction isn't really that much about the science, Friday Night Lights, a show about a west Texas high school football team, wasn't really that much about football.

Last night, however, was.  The defending champion Seahawks kicked off the new football season by kicking the Packers up one side of the field and back down the other.  36-16.  Ouch.  Just my luck since the Packers, an excellent football team, are now extremely angry and looking to take it out on somebody.  Next up?  The Jets.  Oy gevalt.

Ariana Grande sang the national anthem ...

This is a tiny woman (really, she's like five feet tall) with a big voice and I don't think she's quite figured out how to work it.  Two number one albums notwithstanding, so what do I know?  In any case, we were treated to an interpretation of the anthem riddled with Mariah Carey disease.  That being the pathological need to insert five or ten notes where one or two might do better.  Which is not a good thing.  Letter grade:  C-

In her defense, I think Bang Bang, a song she recorded with Nicki Minaj and some woman named Jessie J, was the best pop song of the summer.  And this is from a guy who mostly listens to Buffalo Springfield.

 This is a song ostensibly about female empowerment, although it feels like a lot of cheesecake to me.  And what's with the Beats product placements?  Beats is the worst electronics company in the world -- a triumph of style over substance.  Which is bad enough, in and of itself, but then they had to go and buy MOG, my favorite music streaming service, and completely ruin that.  These days I used Rdio, but it's not as good.

Next time you see somebody wearing a pair of Beats headphones, remember that a) a fool and his money are soon parted and b) nobody ever went broke underestimating the American public.  But enough with the negativity.  My favorite part is when Ms. Minaj gets off the chopper and starts rapping.

Just for the record, stuff like this never happens in New York.  Not even in Williamsburg, for those of you who've never been and always wondered.

Runner-up, if you're curious, goes to shiksa-rapper Iggy Azalea -- best name ever -- for the one where she dresses up like Cher in Clueless.