bowling for fun

wow. this is the first season i haven't blogged much about football, and the only one i had was even before the season started. since then, we had another copy of Pro Football Prospectus, Spygate, HGH, steroids, broken records, Sean Taylor R.I.P., dogfighting (i wonder if my Madden 2004 would fetch any value in eBay someday), Bootgate, and my brother-in-law catching up with me in football and is ready to kick my ass every Madden game we play.

now SuperBowl XLII is almost upon us, and either way, history will be made for one team - the New England Patriots completing a much-dissected and hyped lossless season, or the New York Giants pulling off a colossal upset. the latter could trigger a spike in suicides among the betting sort. obviously the Pats are the prohibitive favorite, although the current line is just minus 12 for the Boston juggernaut.

i started out with the usual teams to root for (Jets, Chargers, etc) but then we all know how that turned out. Gang Green never made it out of the gate (Man-Genius has been laid to rest), and the Chargers couldn't stop yapping without even really doing something (well, relatively, winning 2 playoff games with Norv Turner is already something).

recently, i procured a copy of Michael Holley's 2004 book, Patriot Reign, going for half price at Strand Books. quite an informative book - i've learned the names of the personalities behind Darth V- er, Bill Belichick - names like Ernie Adams and Mike Woicik - who helped make the Patriots what they are. and how could i have missed that "F.U. Tom Jackson" thing?

"19-0? i have no comment on that."

the Pats continue the current streak of Boston sports excellence by defeating all comers and make their 4th SuperBowl in 7 years. but in doing so, their transition from populist darling to conscienceless machine turned off a lot of people, when it was clear that their reassembled 2007 team was heads above everybody else. league parity was exposed as a myth, and you either rooted for the machine or for someone to take them down. for myself, it would be historic to witness a 19-0 season, which would be a notch above Michael Jordan's 1996 72-game winning Chicago Bulls.

on the other hand, the surprising Giants have defied all expectations and are back in the big game after 7 years. Tiki Barber must be choking himself. if they win, it would be a fitting end to Michael Strahan and Amani Toomer's careers. but admittedly, the infighting got to me early and it was pretty easy to get soured on them; plus am not an easy Manning convert (it took me around a dozen Peyton commercials). like i told my cousins, i'll finally respect Babyface (below) when he wins at least two Lombardi trophies.

"is this the Manning face you want?"

ah, well - one thing to look forward to (no, i still don't have HDTV) is the game food. this is the third SuperBowl my wife would be preparing for, and she's probably okay with it because she only cooks for one person. imagine if i had a group of (imaginary) friends who'll watch the game with me (an American pastime) ... maybe somewhere down the road.

"i don't know what vinegarette is but hey, am sure it tastes as good as vinaigrette."

ok, it'll be another 6 months before the next season (except the Draft of course). so what's to feed the hunger till then? oh well, there's the DVDs. and a paperback copy of Michael Lewis' The Blind Side.