A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
Last night’s Super Bowl was terrific. It featured everything that a big, epic sporting event should have, right down to a final play in the end zone deciding the winner and loser.
Unfortunately, last night’s Super Bowl also featured something that is all too common in the aftermath of big, epic sporting events: dumb things.
And here are the two dumbest, one from a writer and one from the supermodel wife of the game’s most visible star.
If you had a safety as the first scoring play of Super Bowl 46, you are likely just now done jumping around in celebratory bliss.
Because, amazingly, that’s exactly what the first scoring play was tonight.
Tom Brady, on the Patriots’ first play from scrimmage, dropped back into his own end zone and fired it down the center of the field. The only problem is that no receivers were in the area. That’s a safety folks.
The Super Bowl is finally here!
The Giants and Patriots are preparing to face off in Indianapolis, and it may surprise many to find out that Peyton Manning is not taking part in the game. He has been talked about so much this week that is may seem like he is preparing to play. It is his home stadium, for now, but Eli of course will be the only Manning taking part in the game.
By now, you’ve had a couple of weeks to watch the point spread for Super Bowl XLVI fluctuate a bit. After opening with the Patriots as a four-point favorite, the line dropped to 3.5 before eventually settling at Patriots -3.
Super Bowl XLVI is tomorrow, in case you were not aware.
As usual, by Saturday pretty much every angle of the Super Bowl has been picked apart, dissected, twisted inside and out, and we have all reached the stage of fatigue where we pretty much stay away from football today before totally immersing ourselves in it tomorrow.
But it hit me today that one video clip I thought I’d see a lot of this week, but that I’m not sure I’ve seen even once on TV – granted, I haven’t watched too much Super Bowl coverage on TV – is Tom Brady’s infamously smug response to Plaxico Burress’ score prediction before the first Patriots-Giants Super Bowl four years ago.
Two weeks between the NFC and AFC Championship games and the Super Bowl seems like way too long.
I’m a Packers fan, so I’ve been on both sides of the spectrum. Last season, I could not wait for the Super Bowl to come, the anticipation building each and every day.
This season? I can’t wait for it to be over.
The New England Patriots were one of the eight charter members of the American Football League, founded in 1959. In 11 seasons in the AFL the Boston Patriots, as they were known then, advanced to the post season only once, losing to the Chargers 51-10 in the AFL Championship Game.
Things didn’t get much better for the Pats after the AFL-NFL Merger.
Leading up to Super Bowl XLVI, much has been made of some New England Patriots and New York Giants players competing more intensely than others because they feel slighted, overlooked, underappreciated, and of course, as is exceedingly common in sports, disrespected.
Obviously, some players feel the need to create motivation for themselves, especially given the already heightened competitiveness that professional athletes possess.
Watching football is good for three things: drinking, gambling, and having something to do on Sunday nights.
Thankfully, Super Bowl Sunday is the perfect combination of all three.
And what fun is it to just sit around and drink casually on your own terms? Why not have a little fun with it?
When the New England Patriots take the field versus the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, several of the same names, players, and stars from their first Super Bowl encounter, Super Bowl XLII, will be back.
But perhaps not as many as you think.
In this afternoon’s first conference championship game, the top two seeds in the AFC face off as Baltimore travels to Gillette Stadium to face the Patriots.
For Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (the subject of a recent MSF photo story) this is a big opportunity to show that he belongs in the discussion of the upper tier quarterbacks in the NFL. For Patriots superstar Tom Brady, today provides an opportunity to avenge a playoff drubbing at the hands a Baltimore a few years ago with a win propelling the Brady-Belichick duo to its fifth Super Bowl appearance.
Here is all the basic info you need to know, what MSF’s writers have said about the game this week, and a poll so you can take your pick.
There have not been many Super Bowls to be hotly contested for a second time. The last one was the Dallas Cowboys versus the Buffalo Bills in 1994, won by Dallas 30-13.
The Bills were seeking revenge, but they didn’t get it as the Cowboys rolled over them in another lopsided big win. It was basically a repeat of the previous year, 1993, that the Cowboys won, 52-17.
Unfortunately, both Super Bowls were not close and provided very little drama.
The best two teams in the AFC will play for a berth to the Super Bowl on Sunday, as the top-seeded Patriots welcome the second-seeded Ravens to Gillette Stadium.
It is not often that the top two seeds both win in the divisional round, but their opponents both had shortcomings. The Broncos ran out of steam and were overwhelmed in New England, while T.J. Yates could not get anything going against the Ravens’ defense.
The AFC Championship Game this weekend between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens hinges on one person.
That’s right: just one.
Tom Brady? Nope, not the sure-fire first ballot Hall of Famer.
Ray Rice? Sort of, but that’s not the answer.
Joe Flacco?
Bill Belichick?
John Harbaugh?
No. No. No.
Actually, the most important person in deciding who will advance to represent the American Football Conference in Super Bowl XLVI is none other than the gentleman who holds the worst all-time record of any “non-interim” head coach in NFL history: Baltimore Offensive Coordinator Malcolm “call me Cam” Cameron.
This past weekend featured two highly anticipated quarterback matchups – Brady v Tebow and Manning v Rodgers – and a third that unexpectedly ended up being the most thrilling of the weekend – Brees v Smith. And as quarterbacks are wont to do after competing on the field of football battle, these duos all met at midfield after the game for quick makeout sessions in front of the leering press.
Wait…what?
