My Sunday Feeling

As anyone but those who live under bridges are bound to know, as I type this, tomorrow is the 43rd edition of that yearly display of wretched sports success known as the Super Bowl. I find the fact that this is the 43rd game in the series remarkable for a couple of reasons: The fact that I remember watching the first game means I am really old. And secondly, I have actually been able to decipher the pretentious Roman numerals that have graced the recent logos.





I am not a huge fan of the product that the National Football League puts out. It is too tightassed and corporate minded when compared to the college version where you have the likes of a Tim Tebow at quarterback. I was mainly interested this year to see how long it would take for Dallas to implode under the weight of Jerry Jones's boundless ego. Answer: About the time brilliant personnel move Adam "Pac Man' Jones got kicked off the team for getting into a fight with his own security guard in a hotel. At least Tank Johnson-another reclamation product-didn't shoot anybody while under Jerry's supervision.





The Saints proved that their Katrina fueled run to the Division finals 2 years ago was a fluke. Oh, the Saints weren't bad. They just weren't much good. And it was truly awe inspiring to see the Detroit Lions go winless in a league which is as much a socialist collective as anything. In a 16 game schedule they couldn't beat anybody?





Outstanding.





But I am at best a casual pro football fan. Which makes me avis rara among some people I know. I ran into a college classmate of mine who introduced me to a woman that, as far as I could remember, was not wife # 2. He's gambles big on the NFL. Maybe there's a cause and effect re: his marital status. I would not about these things. I have a buddy in Mississippi who owns stock in the Green Bay Packers which is the only publicly traded franchise in the NFL, if not in sports. He actually went to a stockholders meeting up there a couple of years ago. This is despite the fact the could not buy a ticket to actually see a game at Lambeau Field in a million years.





There a million NFL fans that don't actually attend games. The average fan can't. You could walk up and buy a ticket to see the Arizona Cardinals as recent as 5 years ago. They were that bad. Which makes their presence in tomorrow's game all that much more remarkable. And I suppose if you were an absolute masochist you could have gotten a ticket in Detroit fairly easily this year.





But the pricing structure for seats at NFL games puts the cost of a game well outside the reach for many people. And it is going to get worse. Jerry's billion dollar-you read that right-tribute to himself is set to open next season. Already, lifelong Cowboy fans are being told that they need to up the ante or they won't have a place at the table. Some of these folks are retirees who have had tickets for 25 years. Tough. Cough up or you can watch the games on the big screen at TGI Friday's. The NFL doesn't care. Between the corporate skyboxes, the folks willing to purchase personal seat licenses which merely give them the right to buy the exorbitantly priced tickets, the TV and radio income and the royalties it gets whenever you and I buy a cap or a shirt, the NFL doesn't need to sell the average guy a ticket to make its money.



And yet, this will be the most watched sporting event of the year. More money will be wagered, legally and otherwise, on the Super Bowl than any other sporting event this year. More than the NCAA men's basketball tournament even. It is said that domestic violence spikes during and after the Super Bowl. That one is an urban legend. Which is to say it is utterly false. But tomorrow afternoon will be a good day to play in the streets if you have the notion. Won't be no cars out there after kickoff.



Ambivalent though I may be about the Super Bowl as a sporting event, I will watch the damn thing. Friends will come over. I will have a pot of chili in the crock pot. Drinks will be poured. And most likely it will be over by the 3rd quarter.



Not that I am very good at predicting these things. But I think that the Steelers are just too good defensively to let the Cardinals run around all over the field as they have done to others. But while I think the smart money says that the Steelers win, I like the Cardinals. Kurt Warner is having a career year after taking over for flash-in-the-plan Matt Lienart. Warner's story is remarkable. 15 years or so ago he was sacking groceries. Now he is in the Super Bowl again. I even like his wife now that she has put a zip on her lip. Wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald may be the most dangerous receiver since Lynn Swann or Jerry Rice. They may make a game of it. We'll see. But Pittsburgh's secondary has hired killers back there. And 4 weeks ago or so, the Cardinals were annihilated by the so-so Patriots. Pittsburgh may have lost 4 games but they didn't get their ass kicked a single time while doing so.



Cardinals Owner Bill Bidwell deserves none of this good fortune. For years the Cardinals organization was the laughing stock of a league that has the Fords, Daniel Snyder, Jerry Jones and Al Davis in it. They must be all scratching their heads in amazement.



The Cardinals may make a game of it. After all, that's why they keep score.



But it says here that the Steelers will win. Not that I much care.