Some Super Bowl 50 Thoughts

Payton Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game.  He will be a first ballot hall of famer.  But his post-game interview exemplifies why I’m not a huge fan of Payton.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the guy.  It’s not like he’s Greg Hardy or anything like that.  It’s just a preference thing.  In the interview Manning couldn’t help getting in a couple of corporate references.  I’m all for players making as much money from endorsements as they can.  Were I a famous player, I would cash in as well.  But when you win a Super Bowl I think the corporate sponsors will forgive you for being joyous and celebrating the accomplishments of your team and teammates.  Manning always says the right things.  Win or lose, the guy is all class.  But you always get the vibe that things are scripted with him and that he makes a conscious effort to only let out what he wants.  This makes him like everyone else.  So what’s the problem with Manning?  While I understand that every famous person is conscious of their image, Manning comes across as plastic.  He’s likeable, but plastic.

This is why I think most of America enjoyed Richard Sherman’s rant after winning the NFC championship game a couple of years ago.  That was genuine.  He didn’t like Michael Crabtree and he let everyone know.  That’s what I like to see, a genuine non-scripted reaction after a big game.  I don’t want to see someone getting in as many corporate references as possible.  There is plenty of time for that later.  But after a big game, I want to see a genuine human being out there.

This is why I prefer Brady over Manning.  Of course I prefer Romo over both, but that’s another story.  Brady does endorsements too.  But when you watch Brady in any football game, you know his chief concern is football, pure football.  Of course Payton cares too.  Everyone says he is obsessive.  But he comes across as caring about a lot of other things too.  You wouldn’t see Brady putting in watch references after winning a Super Bowl.  He probably doesn’t even remember who he endorses after a big win.  He’s there for football and that’s it.

As for the game itself, it wasn’t the best Super Bowl.  After possibly the greatest of them all last year between the Patriots and Seahawks, it was doubtful the next one would equal that.  But since I like defence, Denver’s defence was a pleasure to watch.  And I am glad to see DeMarcus Ware, a long time elite Cowboys player, finally get his just reward.  Analysis of the game is pretty simple.  Carolina blew it.  But then, I’ve been saying that about everyone who has lost to Denver.  Every time I watch them I think they shouldn’t even be in the game.  And then they win.  And in the end, that’s all that matters.

One of the great prop bets of all time came to fruition as well.  The bet was that Mike Carey would be wrong on a challenge.  He was.  Had I been able to get that bet in Australia I would have put money down on it.  But sadly, I wasn’t.  Only this time, Mike Carey was actually right.  I’m not sure what those replay officials saw.  Maybe they had money on that prop bet so made Carey wrong, even though he wasn’t.  And of course, that blown call, then blown replay review, led to Denver’s first touchdown.  And this exemplifies Denver.  They had all the luck this year.  Every close call and close bounce of the ball went their way this year.  Had the Cotchrey catch been allowed, as it should have been, Denver probably doesn’t score a touchdown and the game is vastly different.  So congratulations to Denver.  They had great skill on defence, and great luck too.  Despite one of the worst offenses I have ever seen, they are the champions.

Another thing that struck me about the game is a report that 1 billion chicken wings were consumed on this day alone.  And that’s only in America.  My goodness, the amount of slaughtered chickens defies comprehension.  So 500 million chickens were killed just for this one day.  How many chickens in captivity are there?  When you consider there is no shortage of chicken in the United States, even after 500 million have been killed for one day, there must be. . .I don’t know how many.  I’m not saying this is reprehensible.  These chickens are food after all.  But 500 million in one day?  I can hardly conceive of the number.  This sort of thing does make me wonder whether we simply eat too much meat.  Most of us don’t see the chickens being slaughtered.  To us it’s just something that appears on the plate.  But wow!  That is a lot of dead chickens.

So another Super Bowl has come and gone and the count is now 20 years for the Cowboys.  But at least my team has climbed the top of the mountain five times.  There are still teams who have never experienced the glory, including the Panthers who, despite a 15-1 regular season and two comfortable playoff victories, do not raise the trophy this year.  I’m glad I’m not a Panthers fan today because losing that game really sucks for those fans.

Despite this, Panthers fans, along with fans of the other 31 teams will be right back into it heart and soul hoping that 2016 will be the year.  And for one fan base, it will be.

Totally Random NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl

As we get closer to the Panthers Broncos Super Bowl, all of America wants to know what happened to the Totally Random Football Playoffs.  Well, I didn’t have the time to post anything until now, but the playoffs were played in this alternate universe and here are the results.  I should say at the outset that in this alternate universe, neither the Panthers nor the Broncos made it to the Super Bowl.  I should also say part of the reason for not posting this until now is my complete disgust at the Cowboys 4-12 season.

Wild Card Weekend

For Wild Card Weekend, 3 out of the 4 teams paralleled our universe.  The only difference was the Houston Texans who actually had a pulse, and a quarterback actually capable of throwing the ball to someone other than a Chief.  Too bad that didn’t happen in our universe.  The Texans downed the Chiefs 28-27 in a thriller.  Otherwise, everything else pretty much ran to course.  The Steelers and Bengals played a defensive game for the ages with the Steelers winning 10-3.  Or was it an unwatchable game for the ages? 

Divisional Round

In the Divisional Round, the Broncos bowed out going down to the Steelers 22-11.  I must say this is what I actually thought would happen in our universe.  I figured the Broncos might score 11 points or so while Big Ben would drive for enough points to get the Steelers to the Conference Championship game.  But Denver managed to pull it out.

And speaking of Denver, how lucky can you get.  In the real world, they played two teams absolutely ravaged by injuries and both down to their 27^th string running back.  And everyone says “you can’t run against the Broncos.”  Heck, the Steelers and Patriots might as well have had me in the backfield.  Had the Cowboys been there instead of the Broncos, both the Steelers and Patriots would have been completely healthy, and there would have been a miracle stem cell breakthrough the week before the game which would enable all injured players on the opposition to be like the season was just starting.  Yes, I’m bitter about the Cowboys.  Seriously, though, Denver is a lucky team and I think we’ll find out that Carolina will run just fine against the Broncos.

But back to the random universe.  The Texans reverted to what we would expect as they got wasted by the Patriots 26-6.  Meanwhile the Seahawks made the Panthers one and done beating them 37-23 while the Cardinals took out the Packers.

Conference Championship

In a snow storm, the Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl with an 18-5 win.  Hey, the random universe got the Patriot’s score exactly the same as in the real universe.  The random Steelers couldn’t take it anymore and bowed out.  Meanwhile in the NFC championship game, the Seahawks beat the Cardinals 8-5.  If this had been a real score, I wonder what might account for that silly score.  After all, Arizona is not known for snow storms.  But in the random universe, games like this happen quite often.

The Random Super Bowl

In the Random Super Bowl 50, and thank goodness it’s not Super Bowl L, we have a rematch between the Patriots and Seahawks.  And can I just say something about Roman numerals?  Why are we still using them?  They are useless.  The only reason for having them around is so people can look smart.  I mean, when you really think of it, who cares if you can figure out that MCXLIX is. . .uh. . .uh. . .whatever that works out to be.  If you can calculate MCXLIX squared using just Roman numerals, that is kind of impressive, but that is offset by the stupidity of even trying.  We have advanced mathematically since then so let’s use numbers which are just plain better than what the Romans had.  That the Romans could build what they did without our mathematics is remarkable though and they should get credit for that.  But I think if Roman engineers had been introduced to our number system, and the concept of zero for that matter, they would have dropped Roman numerals faster than one of their ballista stones, which were pretty darn fast.

In this rematch, the Patriots did not need to rely on the dumbest call in Super Bowl history and a heroic last second interception.  In this version, the Patriots handled the Seahawks easily beating them 39-17.  And so the Totally Random 2015-2016 NFL champion is the Patriots.

And most of America is now breathing a sigh of relief that the Patriots won again in the random universe, and not in the real world.  Still, I think many people would have thought a rematch is what we could see.

My Real Super Bowl Prediction

In the real world, I think the Panthers are a vastly superior team this year and I believe they will slaughter the Broncos.  Of course, Denver has a knack of winning close games, but then, they have been very lucky.  I think their luck runs out and it will be Broncos Seahawks all over again.

Whoever wins, enjoy your time at the top because the Cowboys will gun sling their way back to glory next year!  Oh my goodness, a pig just flew past my window and I’m on the 5^th floor.  Honest, that pig just whizzed by.

Note:

MCXLIX = 1,149.