No, Ray Lewis did not kill the lights. Bane, the human Goatse, wasn't to blame. And it wasn't the Frogman's dedicated beard dryer, nyuck nyuck. Rather, the explanation that's been offered as to why the Superdome mysteriously went dark last night, holding America hostage to stretching football players, confused anchors, and an Oreo hashtag, was something far more mundanely vague—an "abnormality" in the electrical system.
The AP reports:
A joint statement from Entergy New Orleans, which provides power to the stadium, and Superdome operator SMG shed some light on the chain of events, although they weren't sure about the source of the problem. It apparently started at the spot where Entergy feeds power into the stadium's lines.
"A piece of equipment that is designed to monitor electrical load sensed an abnormality in the system," the statement said. "Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue. ... Entergy and SMG will continue to investigate the root cause of the abnormality."
In other words, Beyoncé's power-sucking, life-affirming performance may really be responsible. At least that's what Shawn Carter would like you to believe.
Update: Boomer Esiason says he heard that "Beyonce blew the electric in the Superdome twice" during rehearsals.
Update 2: Adrian Chen investigates how hackers could have blacked out the Superdome last night (even though they probably didn't).
[AP via HuffPo, photo by AP]