A Super Bowl touchdown is just that

When Ahmad Bradshaw tumbled backwards, like a third grader at field day, into the end-zone for the game winning touchdown everyone cheered. New York Giants fans and New England Patriots fans alike, although drastically different but solely differentiated in thick accent, not fandom or obnoxiousness, were ecstatic.

But analysts and Bradshaw’s own quarterback, Eli Manning who was screaming “Don’t go in the end zone”, saw the scenario differently. They were concerned about giving the ball back to Tom Brady and the Patriots offense. But why? Bradshaw’s finest moment wasn’t filled with joy, elation and seeing dreams that he had as a young kid on the playground in Bluefield, Virginia, instead it was filled with doubt.

Bradshaw is a hero; one that, in the final moments, slayed the dragon even with an uncertain survival and victory.

If the touchdown had some earlier in the game, or for a matter of fact, if one, lone Patriots player had decided to attempt to tackle Bradshaw on his six yard trot up the middle he may have been the MVP of the Super Bowl. Of his 72 yards on the day, 50 of them came on scoring drives for the Giants. He accounted for numerous first downs and set the tone for the game in the second quarter.

In Super Bowl XX, Walter Payton, “Sweetness”, widely considered the best running back to ever play the game never got to smell the sweet air of the end-zone. Looking back, most Chicago Bears fans and general football fans find this to be a travesty. A Super Bowl touchdown is something special; a game-winning one is something no one should be able to forget. (Note: He did not score in Super Bowl XLII four years ago.)

It would have been a lack luster end to an NFL season that was almost for not. Let Lawrence Tynes kick a field goal and inevitably have his exuberant holder shout profanities after the kick sailed through. So don’t be mad at Bradshaw.

Is the Super Bowl overhyped?

Is the Super Bowl overhyped? The answer, to me at least, is plain and simple, no.

This is true for many reasons, but it’s most obviously seen the next year. They continue, they being the NFL, the networks that host it, the city that it is located in, the media, and the fans that continually go to these events, to make the event bigger and bigger. These faculties want to outdo each other on a year to year basis; so to say that this Super Bowl is more overhyped, especially compared to the one a year in the future doesn’t make sense.

But there are other reasons that are in play that affect the atmosphere and the playing of this singular game.

Super Bowl Sunday is a National Holiday the same way Halloween or St. Patrick’s Day is. There is no denying the fact that people, who have no interest or bearing on the game located thousands of miles from them pay attention or are at least aware of the spectacle of it. I saw the fact that some seven million people will call in sick to work the Monday following the Super Bowl. It impacts football fans, some beyond what should reasonably affect a grown man, and non-football fans alike. It creates a reason to gather, a reason to celebrate and Super Bowl Sunday is a holiday that should be, and rightly so, recognized.

And that brings me to my last point. The game of football has progressed so much in the last 20 years, that it has, to many sports fans, easily taken over as the most popular sport in America. The NFL is the American culture and the fans that follow are as faithful as any in all of sports. So pitting the two best teams in the most popular sports is going to be overblown, that’s just the way it’s supposed to be.

The Super Bowl is unlike any other sporting event. It is its own entity and holiday.  So to say it is over-hyped doesn’t sound like the truth; it’s big, it’s boisterous, it’s the Super Bowl.

A Brady guarantee

When Tom Brady beat the Broncos, 41-23, in Week 15 of the NFL season he did so with ruthless conviction. He didn't hush the critics that were righteously jumping aboard the Tim Tebow bandwagon. He blatantly turned them against himself, he made them into socks puppets that harassed himself as motivation.

So it's no surprise that he told Tebow after the game, "I hope to see you again (in the playoffs)." He wanted Tebow again, he wanted or envied the opportunity. And he got it; again he turned outsiders against him and he went out and made a mockery of the Broncos defense.

Now as the Patriots head to their fourth Super Bowl in the last 11 years their quarterback should practically Joe Namath-guaranteeing a win.

The Patriots and Giants will play the game, but one side will have all the advantages. New York has little to no chance of doing the unthinkable twice against the most accomplished head coach-quarterback combination that ever was apart of football. And it's not due to their lack of, well, anything. They may be the most qualified team in the playoffs to take on the Patriots. They have everything they need, a stout defensive line to put pressure on Brady, a decent secondary, an Eli quarterback and a coach that has experience and knows what it takes.

But they have no chance.

You do not ruin Brady's perfect season, his name forever, furthermore etched in the history of football, in the most dramatic way possible and get away with it. You just don't.

Brady and Belichick will make your wait, answer 'no comment' on what it would mean to win this game seeing as the Giants were the team to take away their last ring, and then come out on February 5th with no remorse. The Patriots won't be ashamed when they waltz to the victory, because in their minds it's the natural order of things.

SuperBUST

How anticlimactic was SuperBowl XLV?
(I don't think it's any coincidence that it says 'Cope' and 'terrible' on a towel for the Super Bowl.)

So much so that people were willing to pay $200 to stand outside the stadium in 40 degree Dallas weather and watch the game being projected on a white tarp. If that’s not good, wholesome family-fun then I don’t know what is.

The game itself was in hand from the get-go. The early Ben Roethlisberger pick-6 sealed the deal, and an insignificant late run by the Steelers was hardly enough to make it a game. The Green Bay Packers were the better team, the best team all year, and showed it with their talent, depth and precision. It just didn’t have the feel of smash-mouth game that should have resulted from such good defenses coming together.

The commercials were also weaker than a Circus strongman. Way too much money, and way too much research went into them. They outdid themselves, and by ‘outdid’ I mean couldn’t put a memorable or funny ad together for the life of them.

The NFL Championship game doesn’t have to be Super to be called a SuperBowl… this year proved that.

[They didn't even say I'm going to Disneyland.... tradition?]

Lambeau Leap... of Faith

Fairy tale stories usually don’t start with a light cover of ice.

But as the Dallas/Fort Worth area shut down on account of freezing temperatures (Did I mention it’s -8 degrees here in Boulder now, and I still have to go to school?) this seems to be what it happening.

The Packers are the Darlings of the Midwest. Aaron Rodgers will step out of Brett Favre’s shadow and and Bart Starr will gladly make a spot in Lambeau lore for #12. Mike McCarthy will bring in the ghost of The Minister of Sack, Reggie White, to give the pregame sermon to put the Cheeseheads in the right mindset. And the Black Eyed Peas will sing a 12-minute ode to Clay Matthew’s hair at half time.

I was getting sick, so I had to stop.

Green Bay thinks it’s their destiny to win this game, and they are wrong. Showing up, and, evening playing well does not guarantee them a victory.

Clay Matthews looks more like Wendy Peffercorn than an All-Pro linebacker. (Yet, both pack a punch.) Aaron Rodgers waited in the green room on Draft Day, he waited behind Brett Favre for his turn, and now it’s his chance to kick back, grab a magazine and relax because the Football Gods are not ready to see him yet.

And fairy tales rarely end the way most people see fit. Just saying.

Mind-Boggling

What is going on?

The NFL sounds more like a reality radio show… if there ever was one. (Not a bad idea, right? Jersey Shore mixed with Don Imus… could turn out to be some good radio.)

Last week it was, “Who could have the biggest grudge, talk the most smack?” media week. Jets and Pats were throwing, and sometimes landing, soundbite after soundbite. Steelers and Ravens had nothing good to say to each other, obviously they ran out of compliments because they said them during their 2 regular season matchups.

This week it’s the role reversal, “They are real good, I don’t know how we are going to compete.” They are playing the ultimate underdog, just like Dean Smith did with his Tar Heel squad. Ben Roethlisberger can’t seem *says he is in awe of the Jets defense. And Charles Tillman, Bears CB, *thinks the Packers wide receivers are THE best in the league.

I’m excited. This is going to make for one heck of a quote happy, drama stirring, crazy fun Super Bowl week. Yea I said it, I’m not really that excited for the big game… only the pregame festivities that involve athletes, mind games and microphones.