Yes, I watched the Super Bowl yesterday. Not only did I watch the Super Bowl, but I watched all five hours of the pre-game show too. You might find it amazing that I have watched all 46 Super Bowls except one. Then again, maybe not. When the Giants beat the Buffalo Bills 20-19 in 1991, when Scott Norwood missed a winning field goal in the last two minutes of the game, I was driving a UHaul truck to Tucson, Arizona, so I had to listen to the game on the radio. But I did. I listened to the entire game.
I was ecstatic when Norwood missed the field goal. Not because the Giants won as a result, but because the Bills lost and became a four-time loser of the Super Bowl in four consecutive years. And it was mainly because they tied the Denver Broncos at that point with the most Super Bowl losses. I’m a Denver Broncos’ fan. I have been a Broncos fan since the franchise began in 1960 and I have never jumped off the band wagon. As evidenced by my obsession with the big game, you can tell I’m a football fan. In fact, I don’t watch any other sport on television, although I have been known to go to a college basketball game from time to time, and a baseball game once in a while. I’ve been to a couple of soccer games recently because my granddaughter and grandson play, but I just can’t get into it.
Because I hate the Patriots (It appears to be the most reviled team in the country outside of Boston, so it’s no surprise.) I found myself rooting for the Giants again. It was billed as the rematch of 2007, although it’s truly impossible for it to be a rematch since the players and schemes are totally different from the teams of 2007. I also did not think the two best teams in the NFL made it to the big game. The NFC Championship game ended in overtime with a fumble by the 49ers and the AFC Championship game ended when the Ravens missed a game-winning field goal in the final seconds of the game. Super Bowl XLVI should have been between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. I would have been more interested in that game. But that is how football games go. Any professional football team can beat any other team on any given Sunday. Commissioner, Bert Bell, coined that phrase back in the 1940s.
So I was stuck watching a game I didn’t care about except that I didn’t want the Patriots to win. A team heavily favored to win, both times they played the Giants in Super Bowls. And it turned out that the most exciting part of the game for me was Madonna’s halftime show. And not so much Madonna, but the stage. It was incredible. But most of you saw it, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Commercials during the Super Bowl have become one of the most important parts of the event as well. There is even a $100,000 prize for the best commercial, a bit short of the $117,000 per second cost of this year’s Super Bowl commercial, and it’s probably the only place you will see a naked M&M. There was a lot of “sex-sells” advertising on this year’s Super Bowl, and I’m always amazed by the “Go Daddy” ads which probably started it all. Because they go “naked woman” to a point and tell you “to see more” go to godaddy.com. It drives an incredible amount of traffic to their site, and, no, they don’t show any “more.” My favorite ad was the overweight dog that wanted to chase a Volkswagen and couldn’t get through the doggy door.
I used to have a Super Bowl Party, like millions of others do as an excuse to eat snack foods that are bad for you and drink yourself into oblivion when you have to get up for work the next day, but I stopped. Not because of the eating and drinking, but because I wasn’t getting to see the game. Now that I have DVR, of course, I can rewind and watch something I missed, but the party atmosphere wasn’t working for this football fan. I should also mention that the cost to throw one of these parties was getting a little over the top. Super Bowl Sunday is number two behind Thanksgiving for the day when the most food is consumed, but number one in snack food consumed.
How about an estimated 1.25 million chicken wings were consumed during the game, enough to circle the earth twice. West Coaster’s have less time to binge because of the earlier start of the game there, I guess. A good majority of the food consumed at Super Bowl parties will come from Texas, specifically the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Yeah, Salsa and chips. There were two of us at our house for the game, and we had con-queso and corn chips, potato chips and dip, cheese, cream cheese and Ritz, and Buffalo Wings. We ate all of it.
So another football season is over, and now I’ll go into football withdrawals, sneaking a peek at the NFL Network to re-live some of the past games, keep up on all the trades and drafts in the coming months, and waiting for the opening day kick-off, September 6, 2012, the 93rd regular season of the NFL. From now on, today is just one day closer to football season. I’ll get things done around the house on Sundays now. That Denver loss to the Patriots in this year’s playoffs will become a thing of the past. All will be right with the world.
WTF...What The Fluffy 
Now you can get those shelves built.
My favorite thing about the day after the superbowl is that now we’re all even again; no team is better than any other. The Giants weren’t the best team, but as you say any given Sunday. I rooted against the patriots since my dislike for Bill Belichick and Tom Brady is stronger than my dislike for the Eli, or the entire Giants team, who by the way, owe several teams a thank you for going out and losing games that the Giants were participating in.
Yeah, like one field goal in the Dallas game would have put them out of the mix. Damn. Working on those shelves already…in between all those job interviews.