During these, uh, not-so-great economic times, you may be interested to know that you and I helped pay for Santonio Holmes' Cadillac Escalade that he won for being Super Bowl MVP. Wait what?Yes, as you may know, GM every year gives the Super Bowl MVP a new car. And despite the fact that the federal government just bailed out General Motors with $9.4 billion, GM still thought it wise to give Santonio a $85,000 Escalade that was essentially purchased by the American taxpayer.
Oh, and if you're wondering why the car wasn't down on the field this year, like it normally is, well, GM was a little worried about how you might react if you knew what was going on.
This is of course comes as news has recently broken that the 22,000 GM hourly workers were just offered buyouts, with layoffs soon to follow. Now, I realize you're probably not real happy about all of this. But you may also be wondering, wait, why the hell didn't GM just terminate the contract?Breaking from recent tradition, there was no Cadillac on the field Sunday night during the Super Bowl awards ceremony and no Cadillac in the hotel ballroom Monday for the MVP news conference. Usually the MVP marks off on a board which car he wants. There was no board, either. It was all done in private.
There was no mention of Cadillac or of Holmes winning the car at the news conference. It was at the request of Cadillac, commissioner Roger Goodell told the Daily News Monday. When asked if Cadillac asked not to be mentioned, he said, "Yes."
Well, they consider the government buyout a loan, or something like that. Because GM is totally going to rebound!
Right.
Meanwhile, if you run into Santonio, tell him you want the car on Thursdays from now on.
Hey, did you and I just buy Santonio Holmes a new Cadillac Escalade? [Deadspin]
Cadillac opts to keep MVP prize quiet. [NY Daily News]
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