I can’t remember a Super Bowl where I cared less who won. I guess we could back to St. Louis vs. Tennessee or Atlanta vs. Denver. But, I always rooted passionately against John Elway, which is also why I simply cannot get behind the Broncos today. Yet, I’ll never root for a sports team from any further south than Washington DC. I’m just prejudiced that way. I also don’t get excited about expansion teams. If the team didn’t exist when I was born, and preferably for decades before I was born, I’m highly unlikely to want to see them crowned as champions. Maybe the only exception could be the Seattle Seahawks, but I rooted against them both times they were in the Super Bowl. I kind of like them, though, so I could see pulling for them against a lot of teams, like Houston or Atlanta or Tennessee or Jacksonville.
I did root for New Orleans out of post-Katrina solidarity. But New Orleans is a special case, like Miami. It’s not your typical southern town.
Anyway, a Bronco win would be a nice capstone on Peyon’s career and tie him with his brother for Super Bowl wins. The Panthers, on the other hand, have an admirable defense and it would be a great triumph for Cam Newton if he can finish off one of the greatest seasons ever with a win against one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.
Either way, it will have a nice story line. So, I can live with either result.
Likewise. Friends, food, beer. And there’s a game on in the background.
My middle son is in Charlotte, but he’s a Steeler fan. I do have good friends there who are rooting for the Panthers, though, and I was just there last weekend. Panther fever is high, and I hope they win.
I never did care. I only watched once, when my dad was still alive. It was nice to sit in the living room with him, eating potato chips and sipping beer. He explained a lot of things about the strategy of the game and I duly memorized and commented, but I really didn’t care. It was just nice to do something with my Dad.
My son is a very difficult kid. He is depressed, often very unpleasant, and full of his own opinions.
I very carefully cultivate a sports line of discussion with him. That’s one of the few ways I can still have a discussion with him without him getting mad at me.
I wonder how much of sports fandom is like that? Dads trying to find something that they can discuss with their kids as the kids get to being adults. God knows that any serious topic is out of bounds.
It’s good to know professional sports can serve a worthwhile purpose. I know what you’re going through. Had I stopped with one child, I would have thought myself a great dad. My 24 year old son, my second child, taught me everything I know about parenting. There were times I had to call the police, times when I threatened to kick him out of our home, times when he was out and I worried every day whether he was dead or in trouble. Even today, though he’s doing much better and I’m pretty sure enjoying his life, I rarely hear from him. So my heart goes out to you. Good luck getting your son through this challenging time.
Yes, it is a real difficult situation. He is staying with our daughter, his twin, who he likes and he treats her with great disrespect. He even is a little violent at times. She lives with her boyfriend, also a friend of my son, and he cannot be civil to them. I know a little of psychiatry, and recognize some danger signs. We take it day to day. But he is a load of concern. I had thought that he could get a Biostat degree, but he has become convinced that he can be a great poet and this will enable him to survive. He also expresses disdain and annoyance that work is involved with living day to day.
Got a grandson like that. Probably about your son’s age (25?).
I used to get really scared twice a day, driving by a cemetery on my way to and from work. He was really depressed at the time and would go off his meds without warning. He was living on his own and I didn’t know from day to day if he was alright.
A few years later, he’s doing much better. He found a life he enjoys. Thank God he was able to pull it together. We even have a nice time when we’re together, though it’s not often. He’s in San Francisco, working in the software industry. He’s very bright, on the spectrum, might even have Aspergers. Seems to have found his niche. But of course there are no guarantees and I still don’t know from day to day how he is.
You’re so fortunate your son lives with his sister. My daughter and he got along well but lived on opposite sides of the country.
I really appreciate your comments. We go to the local unitarian church, and we are members of a Parents of Troubled Adult Children. Some of the parents have children who won’t talk to them. Some have kids who are unable to form relationships, and have multiple kids with multiple partners. Some have kids in prison. So we talk about our children, and it is good to have a place to verbalize.
You think that getting the kids through the issues of preschool is hard until grade school. Then junior high and high school. We have 1 very successful child, who is always responsive, sends us presents, and is otherwise a good kid. A second child is possibly righting her situation. She has a job. But she doesn’t call much. The third is the troubled son. Last night, in the middle of the Super Bowl, we had an emergency arise with him, and I had to talk very carefully with him for 45 minutes. We will see today.
It’s a good sign that he calls you for help when he’s troubled. I have faith that your family will be reunited.
Thanks for your kind words. It’s a challenge.
Boy, do I know it! Two generatons worth of challenge. As my sister says, “We were angels by comparison”
Yes, that lovely Peyton, who’s never done anything like forcibly shove his testicles on a woman’s face or anything. Peyton would NEVER do that.
seriously. u got some caveman territorial phobias? And you consider a 20 year old team still an expansion team….jesus! gramps,some of your backwardness is telling.
Booman, I understand that you might not be able to answer this question on a public forum, but did Manning (or Ari Fleishcer) send the Pinkertons to your house to ensure that you would write something nice about him?
I don’t care much, either, but Manning sort of annoys me and the Broncos cheated to win a championship over my Packers by paying their stars under the table and violating the salary cap, so screw ’em.
Another Stupor Bowl!!!???
And we’re supposed to to pay some sort of attention to it?
other than the further sociological ramifications of the Panthers’ ghetto chic vs. the Broncos’ white, suburban, Papa John’s faux pizza-eating bullshit, who gives a flying fuck?
Not me, for sure!!!
Later…
AG
Arthur, finally (finally FINALLY) something on which we can agree. :0)
Keep listening. I’m not as bad as some people think.
AG
Hey, I care.
But you knew that already.
I also don’t get excited about expansion teams. If the team didn’t exist when I was born, and preferably for decades before I was born, I’m highly unlikely to want to see them crowned as champions.
Yeah, that’s a pretty typical northeast attitude. You liked it better when there were 6 teams in hockey, 10 in football, and 16 in baseball. Ideally the years in which the New York team treated the rest of the teams like a barnstorming league.
This attitude is pretty prevalent. It’s why there are so few baseball hall of famers from the post-60s era – so many baseball writers are from the northeast and to them almost no players from the last half century can measure up to their idols from the Giants, Dodgers, and Yankees – and I mean the New York versions of the first two teams.
Well, suit yourself.
But I wonder if your hatred of Elway goes back to when he refused to play for Irsay’s Baltimore Colts. I hope not – I mean, there are a lot of valid reasons not to like Elway (or, for that matter, most NFL owners, GMs, and coaches). But a lot of the northeast-centric sports writers also hate Elway because of the Colts thing. That’s a very non-progressive position to take. It’s frankly ridiculous that the US has settled on sports systems in which professional players have no say in where they work or who they work for. You don’t see that in many other places in the world, and certainly not in other professions. (I’d love to force investment bankers and top lawyers to go through a “draft” to work for whatever law firm and for 1/5th their market price and be stuck there for half of their careers before they would be allowed to move.) What Elway did is what all players should do – and the owner he wanted to get away from was one of the most atrocious in the league’s history.
I was in Baltimore in the early 80s when Elway refused to play for Irsay and even flirted with Steinbrenner and baseball. Don’t see how anyone can fault him for that. Irsay was one of the worst owners in sports at the time.
100% on the Panthers side. Cam Newton is just a ton of fun to watch. He is such a talented guy, and has a lot of fun playing. Some complain that he is a hot dog. As Daniel Boone said, “It ain’t braggin’ if you done it.” And that is why I am backing Carolina.
Plus me and my wife met when we were both in school at UNC-CH. So put me down for a Panthers win.
Professional sports is such an odd phenomenon. The core of its appeal seems to be some ancient psychic need to be part of a tribe, though in this case it’s a chosen, fungible tribe. We may have nothing in common with other fans and yet, in our alignment around our team, we have a sense of family or clan.
Having lived in many regions, I’ve been a part of many tribes. I retain a certain fondness for some of them based on fond memories (such as my childhood with the Yankees). And I still hold a sense of affiliation with the Arizona Wildcats basketball team, again because of memories while attending law school and while practicing law in Tucson. Watching the National Championship games in bed with my second wife, high-fiving each other with each basket and messing around during commercials, are some of my fondest sports memories. At the games she would become like a little girl, squealing with delight.
At the same time, it’s a rather odd phenomenon that feels utterly hollow. People care who wins but why should we? It makes utterly no difference. Players and others in the industry amass great wealth because people think these games matter, when the entire spectacle is really just a bunch of sound and fury signifying nothing. And we all know this, and yet we suspend disbelief and allow ourselves to be entertained in this odd tribal way.
Pretty much this.
I root on the teams I supported when I was younger, and I root on the teams here in Atlanta, my new home.
Otherwise, I don’t actually care one way or the other. When the team, I spend roughly 3-4 seconds caring, and then move on to more important things, such as whether I want to get up to get some more tea, or whether I want to google some random topic that I just thought about.
The whole bread and circuses thing is as alive and well as it’s ever been, that’s for sure.
Pats fan. No interest in this game.
I’m playing games on the PS4 instead.
New Englander here, casual Pats fan, will be reading a good book.
And savoring what a fool Roger Goodell and the NFL look, by claiming the data so carefully collected and ordered to be recorded and reported during the season on football PSI measurements was…
Not going to be released. Because…
They hadn’t kept it. The whole elaborate exercise was just for, well, scaring people into behaving, I guess.
Couldn’t possibly be that the data showed that the Patriots hadn’t in fact deflated the balls, now could it? That this whole witch hunt was based on falsehoods, jealousy, and spite?
No, no, can’t have that! So… No data.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhtttttttttttt…..
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/02/03/why-tuesdays-news-from-roger-goodell-was-a-huge-story/
Goodell is pathetic.
Damn straight — and not just over the Patriots.
Finished the book; watching Mythbuster reruns.
Goodell has done me a huge favor by giving me the opportunity to reevaluate my interest in following the NFL. Turns out it’s not that strong after all!
My rule of thumb when I don’t care about a sports event is “which place would I rather visit?” I guess that gives Denver an edge, but not much of one. Had no plans to watch, but was pleasantly surprised to discover that CBS has entered this century and is live streaming it. So its something to check in on while I make dinner.
Going for Carolina, simple reason: I loathe the Mannings. Plus a win for Cam Newton is a black eye for Tim Tebow. Without the Vikings or Pats Im not really bound up in the outcomemore than that.
Falcons fan, you M*&%#($)*@!
Glad to see Von Miller dismantle Cam Newton. And thanks for writing off the entire South. John Lewis is as much a part of Atlanta as Newt Gingrich. More so.
Still not really over what was done to John Lewis.
The choice of the defensive player as MVP was entirely correct. This game was won by the Denver defense. I congratulate the fine Denver team.
Game????????????
What game?
I saw that Beyonce made a statement (at least within the limited constraints of the Super Bowl). Good for her.
Not quite the One Love Peace Concert but it’s a start.