Changing Face of Sports

The Super Bowl is coming up in a little over a week.  This is the biggest single sporting event in the country.  Some would argue for March Madness - but that is spread out across weeks.  The Super Bowl is just a mammoth day.  It is treated the same as a holiday.  Stores put on Super Bowl sales - mainly electronics, food, and electronics stores.  Non-sports news devotes significant time to covering it.  It is just huge.  In fact, the hype surrounding the game has basically dwarfed the game.  Rarely does the game itself measure up or carry the same interest as the concept of the game.  Sure, some years like the Patriots/Giants matchup a few years ago and Saints/Colts last year can actually hold our interest.  But, for every game like that there is a Steelers/Seahawks that doesn't.

I've written about the Super Bowl several times on this site.  I've examined how the Super Bowl gains and loses interest based on how many national/regional/local teams are involved.   I've talked about how important the event is to me.  I've even looked at how the Super Bowl contributed to my eating problems over on my Darth Fatso blog.  This year, I wanted to look at the matchup - along with a little on the issue of loyalty in today's sporting world, especially when it comes to the Super Bowl.

For most of the fans of the other 30 NFL teams, you probably don't really care too much about the outcome of this game.  Sure, Browns fans hope the Steelers get annihilated.  The same goes for Vikings and Bears fans with the Packers.  But your average Dolphin fan or Cowboy fan or Rams fan (are there those?) probably doesn't really have a rooting interest.  [If you are gambler, of course that is thrown out the window due your financial interest.]  This year's contest has two very popular teams - ones who have a long history, many Super Bowl wins, a huge national fan base.  They are two of the six or eight truly national teams - franchises that have large groups of fans all over the country.  So, for the NFL, this is a great matchup.  People have a knowledge of the Packers and Steelers.  The game sounds important.  It has a Super Bowl aura about it - unlike something like Jaguars/Seahawks or Chargers/Lions.  Those games don't have the regal sound like this one does.

The really strange thing about this matchup, though, is that it shouldn't work.  Yes, there is a ton of history and everything.  But leagues always are hoping for matchups between big market teams.  You know, the LA and NY and Chicago and Dallas teams.  They want the ratings those teams bring - between their huge population and former residents.  Green Bay and Pittsburgh hardly qualify.  They are "small market" teams.  In every other sport, Pittsburgh is always in danger.  The Pirates are horrible.  The Penguins nearly disappeared a few years ago.  They don't even have an NBA team.  Green Bay is known for freezing weather, cheese, beer, and Brett Favre - and the legacy of an old team.  Basically, the city's entire identity is wrapped up in this team.  Without it, that city is just another Duluth or Lansing - a frigid northern city.

Leagues also want to showcase their super duper megastars.  They want Kobe and LeBron and Jeter involved.  They want Sid the Kid and Peyton/Eli Manning in it at the end.  In today's sports culture, the superstar is more important to the league than the team.  Free agency has seriously eroded team loyalty.  It used to be a team would sign a player and he would play there his whole career.  They went hand in hand. Think of the great players and you immediately think of their team.  Now, though, players jump ship all the time - even the big name guys.  Look at LeBron to see this demonstrated the best.  He should have stayed in Cleveland forever.  Those two should have gone together - with kids growing up as Cavs AND James fans.  Instead, he left for Miami.  Overnight, there were a ton of "Heat Fans."  Team loyalty isn't there.  It's hard.  You get attached to a team, then they trade half the team.  I'm a Magic fan.  I like the way the organization is run.  So I follow the team, and develop a fan relationship with the players.  You get to know them and connect with them.  Then they don't get resigned.  Or the team trades them away and takes on some head case (Arenas).  Shaq is the poster child for this.  Easily one of the ten best players ever - and he's played on SIX teams (and counting).

But the Steelers and Packers aren't jam packed with these stars.  The biggest name is Big Ben Roethlisberger - someone with a seriously damaged reputation.  Aaron Rodgers, while one of the best QBs in the NFL, still isn't a "name" player yet.  Troy Polamalu and Clay Matthews are both stars, but not on the same plane as the big names (Brady, Brees, Manning) - largely because they are on defense.  The rest of the roster is filled with guys doing their jobs without the fanfare.

The thing is, these are actually easy teams to root for.  They are doing things right.  The Packers are not owned by some mega-billionaire software developer or former Russians mobster.  The team is owned by the fans - people who bought shares in it years ago.  How cool is that?  Back when I was a child picking teams, I didn't care about that stuff.  I just hated the Packers because they had ugly colors.  Then they kept messing around with the Cowboys and Bucs.  Now, though, as I get more and more disgusted with the business end of sports - something like the Packers' ownership situation would get me to root for a team like that.  The Steelers are a family-owned team from the old days of the league.  They don't overpay for big name free agents.  Frequently they lose players to other raiding teams (Randel-El, Santonio Holmes).  But they just rebuild and challenge again.  They are loyal to their players and coaches - but they don't tolerate idiocy.  (Proof of that was when they seriously considered cutting Roethlisberger during his scandal this year.)  They have only had three coaches in the last 40 years  (Wha!?!?) - Chuck Noll 1969-1991, Bill Cowher 1992-2006, Mike Tomlin 2007-present.  And, with the way they treat coaches and how well Tomlin has done (and how young he is), he could be there for another thirty years.

The Steelers and Packers both have so many positives.  They have two of the best stadiums in the NFL - legendary Lambeau and the beautiful Heinz Field.  Their uniforms are two of the best in the league.  The Steelers are 6-1 in Super Bowls.  The Packers are 3-1.  Together they hold 20% of all Super Bowl titles. They have likable coaches, players, owners.  And both are located in hard-working cities with hard-working citizens who "deserve" something to rally behind.

This is why I find it so hard to believe an adult can stick with one team their whole life.  It may be different for someone who grows up in an area with a rabid fan base - like New York or Boston (shudder) or St. Louis.  But for most Americans who are trying to pick a team, how do you stay loyal?  Things change over time.  People change.  I don't like the same things I liked as a kid.  Why would I like the same teams?  I used to eat fern leaves and paint from off the chair in our living room.  I don't do that now.  I used to think the Flinstones were the funniest thing ever.  I owned albums by Nelson and Color Me Badd.  I had big round glasses.  Times change.  People change.  I'm older with a family.  I struggle financially and have a hard time having tons of sympathy for "financially strapped billionaires."  Different things are important to me.  When I was younger, something like uniform color or the team having the same name as my street (Georgia Avenue - UGA) could sway things for me.  Now, though, other things matter.

I used to have a complete set of NFL pencils.  They all laid there in a tray - each one painted solid in the team colors, with the team name written in the secondary color.  Later, I got another set with fancier markings - the logos, mascots.  I never used either set.  I just would arrange them in the order that I liked the teams.  Dallas was always first.  Washington was always last (biggest Dallas rivalry, also as a way to tick off my brother - a Redskin fan).  The Dolphins were always second to last - actually last, but the whole brother thing kept them from really going where they deserved.  Things in the middle would change over time.  But the bottom ten or so never changed much.  Washington, Miami, Oakland, Jets, PACKERS, STEELERS, Giants, 49ers, Broncos.  Without fail, those teams were in my bottom tier.  I hated those teams.

So imagine my surprise when I was watching the championship games last weekend.  Jets, Steelers, Packers, Bears.  I couldn't care less about those teams.  The Bears was the only team I never "hated" - largely because my dad was a huge Bears fan.  Yet, I found myself rooting for the Packers and Steelers.  As I thought back, I realized this was not the first time, either.  I remember rooting for Pittsburgh against the Cardinals two years ago and the Seahawks in 2006.  Why was I rooting for the Steelers?!?  And why in the world was I wanted Green Bay to win?  That was a new thing for me.  I realized that my total hatred of them really disappeared when Favre did.  Now, I admired those teams.  I had positive feelings for them.  That can't happen, can it?  If you hate a team, hate it forever.  Sure, if Pittsburgh was playing Jacksonville, I would have been rooting for them all to have their legs fall off.  But in this case, I actually found myself aligning with former enemies.

I've changed.  The league has changed.  Teams have changed.  Things that used to be important aren't now.  I loathe the Cowboys.  They used to be my team.  I had so much Dallas Cowboy stuff.  That was true through college.  But at some point, I just couldn't take them any more.  I got tired of the signing of guys of poor character.  I couldn't stand Jerry Jones and his weasel act.  Their ego and overinflated view of themselves just got to be too much.  Now, they have dropped into that bottom tier.  And a couple other teams have crawled out.  I'm excited for this game.  Either way, a good team will win.  The teams seem to match up well.  It should be a fun watch.  And, of course, the commercials and movie trailers will make up for it if the game is a snoozefest.  I just find it humorous that a matchup that would have sent me to the movie theater a decade ago actually has captured my interest.

What We Can Learn From SB XLIV

Just when you thought it was safe to forget about football and focus on the lamest Winter Olympics in recent memory, here I come to throw in my two cents.  Now that we are removed from the Super Bowl, we have had time to think about the game.  But it isn't just morning-after reactions, repeated by thousands of annoying sports radio dimwits nationwide.  We can actually look at The Big Game (trademarked by the NFL) and come up with some lessons.  Some of these can be sports related.  Some are entertainment related.  And some are, considering the source, useless drivel.  And if you think that is going to stop me, then you haven't been reading this blog very long.

LESSON I: THE COLTS SHOULD HAVE PLAYED OUT THE SEASON
If there is one thing I hate, it is a professional sports franchise throwing in the towel.  It could be because they are terrible and want to get a better draft spot - like the NBA sees happen every February and April.  Or it could be because they are too good, and want to rest their players.  This is what happens to the Indianapolis Colts just about every year.  They start off with an amazing record, clinch their division by Thanksgiving, and cruise through the rest of the season.  This year, they started off 14-0 and only had games left against the struggling Jets and pathetic Buffalo Bills left.  They could have done what only two teams have ever done - gone through the regular season undefeated.  But the coach pulled the starters and they lost both games.  They won both playoff games convincingly, but seemed off in the Super Bowl.  And so, in the game they were supposedly helping their odds by sitting players, they just didn't have their mojo.  I really think the Colts threw themselves off by taking the break.  The one year they won the Super Bowl, they started 9-0, but finished 12-4.  It was one of the weaker Colts teams Manning had in his recent run.  But they had to play every week.  They had to play in the Wild Card round, instead of getting a playoff bye.  And they went on to win the title.  If they were going for 19-0 and football immortality, there would have been an added level of focus - even for Manning.  It seems like every year they take weeks off, they end up losing in big games.  Which leads into the next lesson...

LESSON II: PEYTON MANNING'S ADVANTAGE DECREASES BASED ON TIME BETWEEN GAMES
One of the things that makes Peyton Manning so great is his psychotic preparation.  He breaks down film and studies harder than anyone else.  And so he is more prepared than everyone else.  You can see that in the games.  He calls his own plays and seems to know what is going to happen before it does.  That is why he regularly has ridiculous regular season records.  Eliminating his first year, when the Colts were still atrocious, Manning has a 73% win percentage in the regular season.  But he is 9-4 after bye weeks (69%) - all of those four losses came against quality teams.  He's 2-4 in playoff games that he had two weeks to prepare for.  In college, Manning compiled a 40-9 record (81.7%).  In games after bye weeks, he was 10-3 (77%).  But against QUALITY teams after a bye, he was he was 3-3 (50%).  Two of the four UF defeats for Manning came after two week byes.  And the loss to Nebraska in the Orange Bowl his senior year was after having a month off.  It seems like maybe his preparation is so great during one week layovers - greater than anyone else.  But that second week gives others a chance to catch up - especially quality teams.  Cruddy teams are going to get beaten by Manning even if they have a month to prepare.  But when those opponents are on a similar plane, the extra week seems to nullify the Manning advantage.  And it gives Manning a chance to think about things too much.  I've heard announcers say, "You don't want to give Manning two weeks to prepare."  Yes!  Yes I do!  Give him two weeks.  He may just prepare himself out of beating me.

LESSON III:  WE WON'T SEE A SUPER BOWL LIKE THIS AGAIN SOON
I am certainly not saying this was the best game ever.  It was exciting.  There was a lot of drama and great moments.  We have had some great games lately - the Patriots/Giants game, the Cardinals/Steelers game last year, even the Colts/Bears game.  We haven't had a lot of those nauseating blowouts from the 90's.  Compared to those other games, this game wasn't that great.  BUT, the entire spectacle of the Super Bowl may not be seen again.  The unique situation of the Saints being involved against one of the five biggest stars in the NFL gave it dimensions far beyond a normal Super Bowl.  I thought that the Patriots going for an undefeated season against the Giants set the stage for the biggest game ever.  But, there are a lot of people who hate the Patriots.  And Eli Manning is not the same as Peyton Manning.  So that game was dwarfed by this one.  The Saints story was too compelling.  The nation as a whole really adopted the team after Katrina.  It was like anyone with any interest in football was invested in this game.  We all knew how big the game was to the whole Gulf region.  Last year, I wrote a preview of the Super Bowl, where I talked about the NFL teams and labelled them as national, regional, state, or city teams.  I incorrectly placed New Orleans in the State level.  I had no clue how huge they were to all the states around Louisiana.  And, after Katrina, they actually have become a national team.  That was evident by the numbers for this game.  The NFC championship game between the Saints and Vikings was the highest rating show since the Seinfeld finale.  The Super Bowl was the biggest show in television history - finally beating the MASH finale.  The Saints victory parade was shown live on CNN!  It was a huge deal with huge story lines.  The Saints, former league doormats, were going for a title.  The city of New Orleans looking for something great to grasp on to.   The Manning showdown - Archie's career in New Orleans vs Peyton.  Top that off with Drew Brees having one of the cutest kids in the world.  It was a huge game.  What could compare to that?  The long-suffering teams in the NFL do not resonate with the public like the Saints did this year.  Detroit?  Cleveland?  The Jets?  They aren't going to draw those numbers.  The Vikings?  I don't think so.  Too many people have some tie to The Big Easy - from a trip there or going to school there or getting arrested or naked there.  The only way I could see another game being this big is if Las Vegas got a team which stunk for 40 years.  Then Vegas would get destroyed by Transformers or a demon tornado.  Then they would rebuild and win the Super Bowl in a victory over the grandson of Peyton Manning and Jennifer Aniston.  Like I said, not likely to duplicate this soon.

LESSON IV: THE GOLDEN AGE OF SUPER BOWLS ADS IS OVER
So, did you run out and re-watch the Super Bowl ads?  Yeah, me neither.  There were four that I thought were really good.  The Betty White Snickers ad - largely due to the fact that Betty White is absolutely hilarious.  Abe Vigoda just put it over the top.  I liked the Dodge Charger "Man's Last Stand" ad, although I find it hard to believe that would be the car guys chose to make their last stand.  And I thought the Kia Sorrento ad with Muno and the giant Sock Monkey was great.  Each time I see it, I find new stuff.  The monkey getting a tattoo sewn on, Muno's dice themed bowling ball, the monkey on the bull.  Great ad.  Of course, the one with the biggest buzz was the David Letterman/Jay Leno/Oprah ad - which was brilliant, funny, and shocking all in one.  The problem is that these companies now are trying to live up to an imaginary standard.  They want a legen-(wait for it)-dary ad.  So they try to get something that everyone will love and talk about forever.  But, they are missing the boat.  With their focus groups and big name agencies and wilder reaches for humor, they are not really taking any risks.  The huge ads that have remained icons, they all were enormous risks that really paid off.  But they also were hated by a huge group of people.  The Apple 1984 ad?  There were a ton of people who thought it was creepy and confusing.  The Cindy Crawford Pepsi ad was deemed as sexually exploitative.  The Catfight Miller Lite ad was deemed pure filth.  But that is also what made them such legends.  Are you going to sit there and talk in awe about the first time you saw the house made out of Bud Light?  No.  The only ad from this Super Bowl that will be remembered for any length of time will be the Late Show one - due to how shocking it was to see Jay and Dave together.  It inspired as much analysis after the game as the game itself.  Shoot, there were articles already being posted about it DURING the game.  But that is the modern era of advertising and television programming.  It is analyzed and focus grouped to death.  Anything truly stunning is removed early in the process.  The Late Show ad was thrown together at the last minute.  Less than a dozen people knew about it.  That is why it was great - surprise and shock.  Not something manufactured to represent those things.

LESSON V:  UNTIL THE NETWORKS STOP BEING AFRAID, THE HALFTIME WILL USUALLY BE A WASTE OF TIME
The fear from Lesson IV is also apparent even more in Lesson V.  The Who?  What?  That is exactly what I said when the announcement was made months ago that they were performing.  Who the heck picked them?  We like to point at Janet Jackson as the reason why halftime shows have stunk lately.  But they were getting to be pretty dumb before that.  They want to replicate the spectacle from Michael Jackson's show years ago.  So they keep going for big stars.  Only now, they also are worried about content.  There have been XLIV Super Bowls.  We have, to this point, only seen one nipple (nipple shield actually).  And it was not planned.  So, is all of this caution is being exerted to stop something from happening that was never supposed to happen in the first place?  Shoot, one year they had Aerosmith, Britney Spears, 'N Sync, Nelly, and Mary J Blige on stage together and everyone stayed clothed.  If nothing happened then, why would it now?  So the networks keep picking "safer" acts - ones that appeal to a wide variety of people.  But, in those safe years, we have had Prince placing his guitar in front of his groin to make it look like, um, his unit.  And we have had Bruce Springsteen slide crotch first into a camera.  How's that safer acts going for you, guys?  What they need to do is pick someone who is going to be a great performer - someone who has a track record of great concerts.  Not someone who used to put on great shows.  Someone who still does.  Look at U2 and their performance back in 2002.  It was phenomenal.  They put on a great show.  But they are a risk.  They are very political, vocal, and Bono one time dropped a F-bomb during the Grammy's.  They do a great show.  The networks need to go to these artists and say, "Listen, we know you are a musician and have the desire to shock.  But if you do anything stupid, we will tell our parent company to ban you from everything they ever do again.  We will throw you under the bus and destroy you.  Put on the best show you can.  Sing well.  Keep it clean. Don't mouth off.  100 million people will watch you and if you do a great job, they will go buy your albums.  If not, they will eat you alive and we will help them.  The end."  Then they need to go to groups that are doing great stuff now.  If they are too modern, tell them to do a big cover with an older guest star.  If they are old, tell them to do a big cover with a newer guest star.  Coldplay, Bon Jovi, Beyonce with Gladys Knight, Metallica with an orchestra (seriously - it is amazing), U2 again, Justin Timberlake, Black Eyed Peas and Stevie Wonder.  There, you have acts through Super Bowl LI.

Super Bowl Outlook

So here we are again in the bye week between the wildly exciting NFL playoffs and the sure-to-disappoint Super Bowl.  Why do I say that?  How many Super Bowls are exciting.  Even last year's Giants-Patriots matchup seemed a bit of let down.  No NFL needs a two week buildup.  And they can't live up to it.  The hype and bologna around the event dwarf the game itself.  Just wait until this week when every station sends someone to Tampa - every radio show, tv show, newspaper, magazine, pamphlet, town crier will have someone there.  And there will be 168 hours of coverage, culminated by the ten hour Super Bowl pregame show and the parade of commercials.  And then eventually the game itself (with Bruce Springsteen playing at halftime).  The game is almost an afterthought.  It takes something unbelievable to launch the game into legen-(wait for it)-dary status.

For the NFL, this is often based on the teams involved.  A truly great matchup with two truly great teams don't need hype.  That will organically happen.  But when you have games like Carolina vs. New England or Arizona vs. Pittsburgh, the hype machine starts running.  Why?  The NFL needs the ratings.  They need the whole country to be involved.  And in the NFL, the way to make sure that happens is to have the right teams in the game.  Basically you can break the NFL down into four categories as far as interest in the teams go: National, Regional, State, and City.  A National team has fans all across the country.  Regional teams have tons of fans in states all around its home base.  State teams are pretty much THE DEAL in their state, or have lots of fans in their state and right around it.  City teams, um, have fans in their city - and that's about it.  These are the teams that always are in danger of relocating.  They just don't have the support they need in the modern NFL market.  

National teams usually are teams that have been successful for a long time - and have had success in several decades.  They have fans of all ages.  They are always relevant - even surviving bad stretches.  Each of the National teams had bad streaks, but they became players again.  (You can actually do this with every sport.)  Regional teams are wildly popular in their area - and may be on the verge of becoming National teams.  Some of those teams have been good for a while, but they don't have the older fans (Indy, N.E.).  Some were good, but have been out of it for a while (San Fran, K.C).  Here is how I break down the NFL in those categories.

NATIONAL TEAMS (6)

Dallas

Pittsburgh

New York Giants

Oakland

New York Jets

Green Bay

REGIONAL TEAMS (10)

New England

Chicago

Washington

Miami

San Francisco

Indianapolis

Philadelphia

Kansas City

Denver

Tennessee

STATE TEAMS (10)

Minnesota

Tampa

San Diego

Baltimore

St. Louis

Arizona

Carolina

Cleveland

Atlanta

New Orleans

CITY TEAMS (6)

Detroit

Buffalo

Cincinnati

Jacksonville

Seattle

Houston

I'm sure I would catch some flack for some of these categorizations.  But I tried to evaluate based on several things.  First, as I travel around, I notice which teams are popular in which areas.  How far is their reach?  How many miles away can you get their merchandise in gas stations?  Second, based on going to games in Jacksonville and Tampa, I look to see which visiting teams sell out the stadium.  I've been to Pittsburgh vs. the Jaguars.  More Steeler fans than home town players.  The same deal with the Packers.  When it comes to Houston, Buffalo, Detroit - lots of very empty seats.  Third, which teams are considered "marquee" teams by the League?

Sure, things can change with the teams.  A really good player can escalate a team (Manning with the Colts).  A really stupid coach can submarine a team (Marvin Lewis with the Bungles).  The challenge is whether those teams will be viable or rebound after the current lineup leaves town.  Remember, the Cowboys went 1-15 once.  Their head coach was once a guy named Dave Campo.  But they still are the highest selling team in the NFL - even if their current roster plan is trying to compile a real life The Longest Yard.  

Now, the NFL would ideally be able to put on Super Bowls with some combination of the National teams - with appearances by up and coming Regional teams, with hopes of them becoming National teams.  So the NFL is thrilled when a matchup like last year comes along - a National vs. a big time Regional (Giants vs. Patriots).  Throw in the back story of the quest for 19-0, the underdog Giants, a Manning brother at play.  Let's just say it is hard to top that.  Cowboys/Steelers has happened three times to huge ratings.  So that's ideal.  When a team like Atlanta, San Diego, Tampa, Cincinnati gets involved - it may make for good stories.  But it just doesn't make for good ratings.  There just isn't a big following for those teams.  [The exception would be the Buffalo Bills during their heyday.  They are a total City team, but their players and story were quite engaging.  Watching the same team choke away four straight Super Bowls?  Man, that is just amazing television.]

However, the addendum to this is that the NFL wants to engage as many areas of the country as possible.  You want an Eastern team to play a Western, or a Northern to play a Southern.  Ideally, if the teams were in two major markets, even better.  The Colts/Bears game was two big Regionals with Peyton Manning, the minority coach story line.  It should have been huge.  But since both teams were within the upper Midwest, it seemed small.  I remember some of the biggest games from ones I watched were Oakland/Washington, Giants/Broncos, Cowboys/Bills.  There was a big distance involved, which seemed to ramp up the interest.  When you get games like Chargers/49ers, Eagles/Patriots, Tennessee/St. Louis - they just seem smaller.  

So we get to this year's matchup.  You have a National team (Pittsburgh) against a State team (Arizona).  There is a good distance going on.  Phoenix is a big market, even though Pittsburgh is not - its huge fan base will make up for that.  You have some big stars and some good stories going on.  The problem is that the Cardinals have virtually no fan base.  Most of Arizona are still Cowboy fans.  And the St. Louis fans have either abandoned them or jumped on the Rams or Chiefs wagons.  Honestly, they get so little airplay that most people couldn't name ten of their players.  That is going to hurt viewership.  A lot of people think the matchup is not even close, assuming the Steelers are going to destroy the inexperienced Cardinals.  That will hurt.  And the commercials have been so disappointing lately, combined with the fact that advertisers are spending less.  So I doubt that there are going to be any hall of fame ads going on.

So here is my prediction.  I think the game will seem dwarfed by the surrounding goofiness.  It will be exciting, but ultimately disappoint.  I doubt it will be a blowout - Warner, Fitzgerald, Boldin won't allow that.  There will be some cool movie previews to watch.  And it will be mostly forgettable.  But The Boss will probably put on one heck of a show.  

Oh, you wanted a sports breakdown?  Go read ESPN.  I don't know that stuff.

Should be Something Super

So I watched the entire Super Bowl on Sunday.  I mean the entire thing.  I missed maybe one commercial - and it wasn't very good.  What I saw - according to just about every sports journalist and talk show host was "THE GREATEST SUPER BOWL EVER!"  After all, it contained "THE GREATEST SUPER BOWL UPSET EVER!" and even had the "GREATEST SUPER BOWL PLAY EVER!"  At least, that is what they all said a million times and still are saying.

Want to know my assessment?  It was okay.  The game was very competitive, but it wasn't that exciting.  The last ten minutes were pretty thrilling, I will admit.  But I didn't sit there afterwards and just stare at the wall, trying to come to grips with what just happened.  In fact, I would say that at least four games this past year were better.  I don't know if it was because I don't have any interest in either team, and I don't know anyone who does.  In fact, the people who seemed the most happy about the outcome were Miami Dolphins fans and the 1972 Dolphins team.  

I wanted something, you know, Super.  I wanted something unbelievable.  I think this is the problem.  With the way that modern media is, nothing can possibly live up to the hype.  We have a solid week of media blitz before the Super Bowl and twelve hours of pregame activities.  This year, I tried a new approach.  I didn't read anything beyond my normal columnists (Peter King, Bill Simmons) and didn't listen to sports radio except for Mike and Mike for my usual 15 minutes a day.  I didn't watch any pregame stuff - except for Alicia Keys' mini concert [Side Note: Why don't they give HER the halftime show?  The girl can sing.  And she's had a hit since I was out of high school.  Guess I answered my own question.]

With my self-imposed media blackout, I nearly forgot about the game.  Well, not entirely.  But it was certainly not a huge event to me.  We had a fun dinner at home with lots of fun food.  I gave Josiah Mountain Dew for the first (and last) time.  We had banana splits.  The kids ran off to watch Backyardigans.  Heather called her sister-in-law.  I sat there with my four month old Gabriel and watched the game.  And mostly was unimpressed.  The commercials were okay - but nothing absolutely incredible.  The halftime show was okay, but hardly impressive.  The game was good and competitive, but not something I am going to be crowing about in ten years.  It was a blip.

Sports in general are becoming that to me.  Want to know how much of the BCS Bowl games I watched?  All combined, maybe three quarters.  I maybe watched ten minutes of the championship game.  I didn't care.  I watched none of the World Series.  I only watched bits and pieces of the NBA Finals.  Unless it is one of the few teams I am pretty serious about (UCF, Orlando Magic, Yankees, Jaguars) I don't want to be that invested in the whole thing.  I can't relate to these guys.  They are freaks of nature - huge mountains of men, towering over us.  They earn ridiculous amounts of money.  We know too much about them.  Back when sports coverage was limited to the paper and a few minutes on the local news, these guys were mysteries.  We didn't know they were dating supermodels and using HGH and fighting with ownership over money.  We never saw their agents.  They were these Titans for us to look up to.  

I remember when I was a kid, everyone had sports players as their heroes.  Nowadays, I would never steer my boys towards an athlete as a role model.  I mean, take a look at the people in the Super Bowl.  You have the Patriots, a very driven and business-like team that has drained every ounce of fun out of this "game."  Their coach is a humorless, rude, arrogant genius who treats everyone out of his circle like dirt.  Their star quarterback is a celebrity with shaky morals.  Their star receiver has been a cancer on every team he ever played on.  Their main running back was so spoiled and wussy that his own teammates turned on him before he got straightened out.  Their top defensive back held out for money - even though he was one of the five highest paid at that position.  Their top safety was suspended for steroids, and for illegal hits.  And the whole team has already been busted for cheating - and is probably going to be in bigger trouble soon.  And it goes on.

The Giants?  Their coach is a foul-mouthed and borderline abusive tyrant who only changed his ways when he was about to get fired.  Their quarterback is a churlish and spoiled brat who bullied the team who drafted him into trading him.  Their defensive star has publicly berated his coach, his teammates, and ownership and is one of the most arrogant and annoying players in the NFL.  Their (injured) tight end is a loud-mouthed party boy.  And it goes on.  The player most people were most happy to see win the title?  THE PUNTER!  

It is the same story in every sport.  We know too much, we hear too much, there is too much hype.  And these teams and games cannot live up to all of it.  As our access to sports grows and grows, I find that my interest gets smaller and smaller.  I don't like what I see at the center.  It covers all sports.  Once upon a time, the Olympics were my favorite thing on TV.  Now, I have a hard time getting into it.  There are so many stories and backgrounds and fluff pieces.  I just want to see the routines and races and fights.  I don't want to hear about all the other stuff.  I just want to know what country they play for.  I want to see spectacular, spontaneous, super sports feats.  I want to be blown away and awestruck - and not because the players or coaches or refs found a new way to screw up.  I don't want to see someone do something awesome and wonder how many drugs are in their system.  I don't want someone to have to tell me a hundred times that something was great - I want to be able to know it for myself.  

WEEKEND LIST: 5 FAVORITE SUPER BOWL MEMORIES

The Super Bowl is this Sunday!  Since I really don't have an active rooting interest in either team (although I would love to see the Pats go 19-0 to shut up those smarmy Dol-fans), I plan on doing what I do every year -- enjoying the spectacle of it all.  Oddly enough, when thinking about my five favorite Super Bowl Memories, most of them didn't involve a game.

1 - THE CARD TABLE AND PUBLIX PIZZA - Growing up we had a steadfast rule: you couldn't eat in the TV Room.  Well, mainly meals were included in that edict.  We would snack or eat ice cream, but my dad was never even too keen on those.  Often he would eat his snack at the dining room table.  As years went on, this rule eroded.  But for my formative childhood years, we never ate dinner in the TV room - except on Super Bowl Sunday.  My dad would come up with a bunch of snacks that he made.  We were allowed to pick TV dinners at Publix (another no-no at our house) or my mom would buy cold pizzas from the Publix deli case and we wold cook those.  We got the card table out and set it up in the TV room and ate dinner in there.  To this day, this is my favorite Super Bowl memory - and the first thing that pops in my head when I think of the Big Game.

2 - SUPER BOWL 27 AT THE WILD PIZZA - I had gone away to college at UCF and this was my first Super Bowl away from home.  Watching the game was a huge tradition for our family and I was missing the chance to be home.  What made it worse was that I was a lifelong Cowboys fan and they were playing in the Big Game against the Buffalo Bills.  Over the past few years, my brother's favorite team (Redskins - twice) and my dad's favorite team (Bears) had won the title.  But my team had not won since 1978, which I was way too young to remember.  [The first Super Bowl I remembered watching was 1981.]  Well, UCF was having a Super Bowl viewing party at The Wild Pizza (on campus restaurant).  It was free and up on the big movie screen.  My roommate Matt and I went and watched the whole thing - basically the last people to leave.  Thus began my new stage of SB watching - watching the Game at big Super Bowl Parties.

3 - SUPER BOWL 34 CHILI COOKOFF - This was my last Super Bowl in Tampa.  I had helped plan the Super Bowl parties at the BCM at USF for the previous three years.  This one, I took the lead on planning one for my church.  We had a churchwide chili and hot wing cookoff.  Then we subsidized with other snacks and food items.  After watching the game with a bunch of college students for the last, um, seven years, it was different to have people of all ages there.  It was a raging success.  I felt so good about being able to pull off an event like that for all ages.  And the game was amazing - with Tennessee coming up about a yard short in their upset bid against the Rams.  I felt very grown up.  I was about to get engaged (in Feb) and married (in Aug).  I had successfully made the transition to integral staff member at the church.  And I felt I really knew what I was doing with the college group.  Little did I know that by the end of this year, I would no longer be working at this church (or anywhere) and be expecting our first child.

4 - SUPER BOWL 38 AT TONEY'S HOUSE - With the exception of the first half of SB 39, I had now moved back into watching the games at homes.  I was tired of trying to watch with 100 people screaming.  I love commercials and the entire game - halftime show included.  Well, a bunch of the parties would turn non-game time off for giveaways or sermons.  So I was back to watching the game.  Toney had an awesome food spread, Natalie was just a little baby, and Josiah actually was watching some of the game (not much, but some).  It was another great game, too.  The Patriots barely pulled it out.  But this was the whole "Did you just see that?" Game.  I thought the halftime show was actually really good.  And then all of the sudden, "DID YOU JUST SEE THAT?"  Half of us had caught what happened and half had not.  As Lewis Black has brilliantly and hillariously commented in his stand-up on the issue, Janet Jackson for a split second revealed herself.  And nothing was ever the same on television.  (Wait a minute, that was a favorite memory?)

5 - SUPER BOWL 20 WHEN THE BEARS WON - I have had my favorite team win the Big Game four times in my life (3 for Dallas, 1 for Tampa - after the big switch in my allegiance).  My dad was a different story.  He was 56 years old and had rooted for the Chicago Bears for as long as he could remember.  This storied franchise had never even BEEN TO the Super Bowl.  His beloved Celtics had won before, but the Bears had never come close.  So in 1985, the Bears were the most dominant team I have ever seen (ever - even to this date - they would have destroyed the Patriots this year).  Their only loss came to the Dolphins on a Monday Night game - ironically the first professional game my dad ever went to.  So when the game came on, I was rooting for the Bears harder than I had ever rooted for a team in my life.  I wanted this for my dad.  I had been actively watching Super Bowls for six years, and I knew how much it meant to see your team win.  And my dad was so excited.  He was not often a happy man.  Much of the time he was kind of emotionless - and would mostly break that for burst of anger or unhappiness.  But on occasion he would bust into a huge belly laugh that wouldn't stop or actually get excited about something.  This game was one of those times.  And as we watched the Bears absolutely humiliate the Patriots, he enjoyed every second.  All the way until the team lifted both Mike Ditka and defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan up on their shoulders when the title was won.  Honestly, I think I enjoyed that win more than even the four of my team.  I was spoiled - I cheered for teams that did well often.  I didn't know what it was like to cheer twenty or thirty years for a team that never won.  I was just so happy for my dad that he was able to finally see that.  Even though I hated the Bears.