So here we come to the end of another exciting year of NFL football. We've had everything this season. Shootouts, blackouts, shutouts, upsets, upset stomachs, drama, Oh Jesus injuries, and, as Second and One predicted earlier, two of our most unstoppable juggernauts - the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints - are now going head to head, after the championship round proved two things to us:
A) The Jets were a total fluke, proving that "run the ball and play defense" has not worked effectively since the Bears blew the Patriots out of Super Bowl XX;
B) In the contest of Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre vs. Drew Brees Drew Brees Drew Brees, the latter prevailed as the former threw a real stomach-punch of an interception at the end of the NFC championship, and effectively ripped the bowels out of the Vikings' fan-base, which seems to happen every decade or so.
Ahem. Anyway, I figured that today, instead of sitting around prognosticating about whether the Saints will be able to cover Dallas Clark or not, or whether or not the Colts' rush defense will get off the bus, that I'd try something different and make this more personal.
The Super Bowl means something different to everyone, and is generally associated with a good time. My earliest memories of such events were of the number of Big Ones the Cowboys won in the 1990s. I also remember being very young, and remembered my dad attempting to explain the rules of the sport to me. I promptly got frustrated and lost him right around the explanation of what a "first down" was, and eventually toddled off to play with action figures, or whatever I liked playing with when I was about six or seven.
Super Bowl XXXI, where the Packers beat the Patriots. There was a lot of snow where I grew up, and a lot of Packer fans as well (the neighbors who owned the house in the back of my parents' woods even had a dog called "Packer") and my sister and I ran out into the snow before the game, content on building some kind of Packers-related snow sculpture to show our NFC pride. Once we got outside, however, there we stood, bundled up to our eyeballs, and realized we had absolutely no idea what the heck we were doing.
Practicing for future commercial endorsements, Mr. Manning and Mr. Brees practice staring awkwardly at each other. Source: dunno source, please don't sue me!
I didn't pay much attention to the Super Bowl in my teens, because I was more concerned with my "studies," (which was probably wacky MC-talk for "I was more hung up on my underdeveloped nerdishness and on chasing various members of the opposite sex"). I started paying attention to them again when I started graduate school. One of my favorite Super Bowls, of course, is when the Bears went again in 2007, and I was at my buddy Marc's house going ballistic as the Devin Hester ran back the opening kickoff. There were so many good moments: David Tyree making that amazing side-of-the-helmet catch when he played for the Giants in '08, Marc's house decked out in Steelers finery in '09, where everyone simply showed up wearing the regalia of their favorite team, regardless of whether they were playing or not- the chicken wings, the beer, the betting cards, and here were the lot of us, not caring about our races, or countries of origin, or political persuasions, yelling and screaming and waving various objects about through force of sheer passion and nothing else. Funny how that works out.
And now here we come to 2010. Whether we can even agree as to whether 2010 is the start of a new decade or not, we can all agree that this will be one heck of a game, regardless of whether the Stampede or the Scoring Machines emerge victorious.
In honor of today's game, I've been paying attention to what people I know have been doing. One of my buddy Eric's* roommates is a die-hard Colts fan, and will no doubt come prancing out in his Joseph Addai jersey. On the NFC side, my friend Catherine (who is from New Orleans and loves her Saints perhaps more than the entirety of Bourbon Street combined) ordered a Saints-themed king cake for the occasion (Wikipedia). I am going to a party with some other scientists, and, due to conference loyalty and a host of other reasons which may or may not involve senseless Drew Brees worship players who attended the Large University Where I Work, will be rooting for the Who Dats.
Enjoy the festivities, everyone. Recap to come in the following days.
*Football fan and avid reader!
