Tag: super bowl

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an ode to tom brady (and objectivity)

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Let’s face it:
Growing up in Indy, it was kind of hard to like you.
Maybe it’s how Baltimore felt, when their Colts
— the team they had rooted for and relished for 30 years —
(… yes, 30 years…)
Sailed away on that Mayflower in the middle of the night.
One feels justifiably spurned.

In Indy it was all about Peyton…
Tom vs. Peyton.
So many years your Patriots were the hump we couldn’t get over…
The obstacle in our way…
The blocking of what we wanted most…
And I’m not sure that it was because you were
So evil or mean or some other severely negative connotation
(… or that Coach Belichick seems totally unable to smile).
But we couldn’t get what we most wanted,
If you got what you most wanted.

And so it felt disloyal, dishonorable, or dis-something
To root for you…
Or better yet…
To acknowledge how good and incredibly talented you are.

Granted, a few curve balls came our way…
I don’t really know what you did or what your role was
In some of that ambiguous, questionable activity.
Sometimes you seemed dishonest.
But the truth for me is best found in my first phrase:
“I don’t really know.”
My lack of knowing provided one more reason to dispute how gifted you are.

And then came Sunday night:
Super Bowl 51.
Down by a ton of points,
With the Falcons owner already on the sidelines
And champagne bottles moving into the Atlanta locker room,
You did the unthinkable…
You did what hadn’t been done all game long…
You led your team back,
Sending the first Super Bowl ever into OT,
And dramatically won the game.

As my son and I sat there on the couch,
Serious sports fans with eyes glued and jaws dropped,
We both thought the exact same thing:
“This is impressive. Brady is impressive.”

There I said it.
After all these years.
After all these years that my objectivity was skewed…
And I couldn’t see it.
I absolutely could not see it.

And it wasn’t because I’m stupid or ignorant
Or some other insult that my Patriot fan friends have graciously
Withheld from calling me
(at least publicly).
It was because I had other loyalties and reasoning that had gotten in the way —
That had blinded me from seeing any other perspective.

It doesn’t mean I was wrong about everything.
It doesn’t mean I now have to be a fan.
But it does mean that there are
Things I could not see.

I think about the amazing, past calendar year in sports…
Villanova over North Carolina…
LeBron over Stephen…
The Cubbies over the Indians…
And Clemson over Alabama during New Year’s…
All victories that went down to a dramatic, climactic wire…

But if I was so focused on my loyalties and loss,
I would miss the unprecedented contest that each was.
I would miss the objectivity.

Here’s to you, Tom Brady…
To your Patriots and New Englanders, too…
Well done.
You simply played incredibly.
Enjoy your well earned break…

May you bask in the joy of extraordinary accomplishment…
May you find gratitude and humility in the sweetness of success…
And know we look forward to seeing you again next year.

(P.S. Go Colts… Bengals and Packers, too…)

Respectfully…
AR

Posted on

‘super’ bowl

A “super” day…

 

If we compare to last year, 111.3 million of us will sit down in front of the television at some point this evening and turn on Super Bowl XLVII.  The San Francisco 49ers — led by Coach J. Harbaugh — will face the Baltimore Ravens — led by Coach J. Harbaugh.

 

We will watch the obviously super brothers, and… we will eat…

 

In fact, we will eat a lot…

 

Some of us will grill.  Regardless of snow covering half the country, Super Bowl Sunday is the second biggest grilling day of the year — the first being the Fourth of July.

 

We’ll eat chips; an estimated 11 million pounds of potato chips will be consumed.

 

(… uh, not a ton of health food…)

 

Pizza will be served in plethoras.  It is, no doubt, the busiest day of the year for pizza restaurants, with major chains supposed to sell double what they do on a regular day.

 

Not to be out done, however, by wings and rings and even more things, as 1.23 billion chicken wings are expected to be consumed, accompanied by 49.2 million cases of beer.

 

Second only to Thanksgiving, Americans are expected to double their food consumption to 33 million pounds of snacks.

 

So we should be satisfied physically, enjoying the creativity of newly aired commercials and thus money exchanging hands…

 

CBS is charging advertisers an estimated $3.7 to $3.8 million dollars per 30-second spot.  30 seconds.  3.8 billion.  That equates to $125,000 per second.

 

(…I could do a lot with $125,000 per second…)

 

How about betting?  Is the Super Bowl the number one gambling day of the year?

 

Probably.  According to “Business Week” magazine, “No one knows for sure since the huge majority of the money changes hands under the table.  Last year, Nevada’s 184 sports books wrote $93.9 million worth of bets.  The NCAA men’s basketball tournament, aka March Madness, recently surpassed the Super Bowl’s handle (the total amount wagered) in the state with roughly $100 million in bets, but that’s over 67 games.  According to the American Gaming Association, a gambling lobby in Washington, the Super Bowl is still the biggest for illegal wagers.  The AMA says the Nevada handle accounts for only 1.5 percent of the Super Bowl total, which would make for more than $6 billion nationwide.  March Madness, the lobby says, citing the FBI, is a $2.5 billion betting event.  But Pregame.com founder R.J. Bell estimated in ‘USA Today’ that March Madness topped the Super Bowl last year, $12 billion to $10 billion.  Again, nobody really knows.”

 

So allow me to get this straight…

 

Tons of money exchanges hands…

Money that could arguably be more wisely spent is gambled away…

We will eat and drink lavishly, ‘stuffingly’, unhealthily…

And upon completion, the winners will call it the ‘best day of their lives’…

… the losers will articulate the utter agony of defeat.

 

All for what is best described as a “game.”

 

A “super” game, no less — but still just a “game.”

 

Yep, our country is sure messed up sometimes…

But can’t wait to watch…  love those brothers Harbaugh…

 

Respectfully,

AR