Super Blah

I haven't been watching very much football this January. Not since the first 3 quarters of the Rose Bowl, actually. My wife and I are experimenting with life without cable TV. I think we can see pretty much whatever we want on the internet, and, starting next month, our bandwidth will increase almost 10-fold for only five more dollars per month. But one thing you can't watch on the internet is the NFL, so I've let it slide.

I've missed some good games. Some big plays, some exciting finishes. But, in the end, I'm left with the Giants-Patriots matchup.

Super.

The Super Bowl party I've attended the last few years, thrown by my talented and prosperous friend Matt (who writes music for reality TV - the royalties are nice), is off this year. Matt now has a 7-month old daughter, and he and the Mrs. couldn't get together on how many people constituted a "smaller" party. Just as well. I might skip watching it altogether this year.

It might be a good game, though I doubt it. The Patriots strike me as pretty similar to the big football factory schools: they may look bad here and there (while still winning), but they definitely show up for the Bowl game. I think the Super Bowl is going to turn out like all the big bowl games this year, where the Pats are USC/LSU and the Giants are from the Big 10. Yawn.

Regardless of how close it turns out to be, there are two possible bottom-line outcomes of the game:

1. Boston wins. Again. Didn't they just win 3 of the last 6 Super Bowls? And 2 of the last 4 World Series? And aren't the Celtics kicking butt too? I guess they're making up for 80-some years of agony all at once, but I'm already ready for them to resume their suffering and gnashing of teeth. Too smug, too confident, yuck.

2. The only NFC franchise that really bugs me wins. I don't know why they do, it came on somewhere in the last 8 or 9 seasons. The Vikes have more or less given as well as they've gotten during that time (other than the 41-0 NFC championship game), but I still feel like the Giants are always there to foul things up for me. I was so pulling for Favre to go out on top, particularly because, had he won, he might actually have gone out finally. Now, he'll probably be back next year, helping the Packers win games they have no business winning. Stupid punk Giants.

Oh well, only 4 weeks 'til Spring Training...