Tag: Super Bowl (Page 3 of 3)

Bittersweet Days

February 1, 2012 / DB

By all accounts, events downtown are going swimmingly. The locals have shown up in force, setting attendance records for the official NFL events. The weather has been great. My fears, that the national press would be ripping the choice of Indy as a Super Bowl host, have so far not come to fruition. In fact, many national writers seem smitten with the city so far.

But, strangely, all that is secondary to the looming resolution of the thing on most local football fans’ minds. ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill filed this excellent measure of the city’s mood.

When Indianapolis won the bid to host the Super Bowl four years ago, it never could have imagined this: That the big event would be played in the backdrop of a miserable 2-14 Colts season, with its seemingly unbreakable quarterback out with a neck injury and now presumably on his way out of town.
Is Peyton Manning done in Indianapolis? That — and not the merits of the two Super Bowl teams — was the big news last week.

Promising Start

January 30, 2012 / DB

When the new Giants/Jets stadium was constructed, without a roof, and New York was awarded the 2014 Super Bowl, plenty of people talked about how great it would be if a Super Bowl was played in true winter conditions. Like a playoff game in Green Bay or Chicago, why shouldn’t the NFC championship be decided in the elements. While there were some naysayers (“Why should the title come down to a kicker slipping in icy conditions?”) it seemed like the majority decision was a Super Bowl played in the snow would be kind of awesome. After all, isn’t the gold standard for title games the 1967 NFL title game, aka The Ice Bowl.

While I’m on board with that, I also know if the weather is shitty in Indianapolis next Sunday, it won’t matter that the game is being played under a roof. People, tired of spending a week in a city where the entertainment options are limited, will complain. “Please, no more cold weather city Super Bowls,” will be the mantra of pampered columnists across the country.

So, all that said, we’re off to a promising start to Super Bowl week.

I should add that while it’s pretty far out, next weekend is forecast to be seasonably cold, with snow chances both days.

The Big One

January 23, 2012 / DB

Indianapolis is now on the clock in two ways. Sure, there’s the countdown to April’s NFL Draft. And now, with the conference championship games out of the way, the final countdown for the Super Bowl is on. In two weeks, a city where you can’t buy alcohol on Sundays¹ will host America’s biggest single-day sporting event.

Anyway, a couple of great games on Sunday. Perhaps not artistic masterpieces, but tremendously entertaining. As an unaffiliated fan, you can’t ask for more than two games that go down to the final play. Two fan bases are broken hearted, and add new goats to their list of players to dislike. Two other fan bases are celebrating their good fortune and considering which team has the most luck left.

While America may be sick of another Boston-New York media love-fest, that matchup is probably a good thing for Indy. The national media has plenty of material to work with, between the rematch of the 2008 Super Bowl, the traditional rivalry between the cities, Belichick and Brady, and Eli Manning attempting to surpass his brother on his home turf. Compared to a San Francisco- Baltimore game there will be plenty of distractions from the weather (which I expect to be shitty) and the limitations of Indy to entertain people.

Don’t get me wrong: Indianapolis is a nice city to live in and raise a family. And it’s a decent place to entertain visitors for a weekend. But keeping the coastal celebrity contingents occupied for a week is another thing. I think I’ll just turn off the national media next week to avoid all the “Indy is boring” columns. And I’m not going anywhere near downtown.

Enough of that. Rather than talk about yesterday’s goats, I prefer to focus on Eli Manning. I’m not sure why he’s so maligned, although I guess some of it just comes with playing in New York, where no amount of success is ever enough. But that guy is a stud. He got hammered on play-after-play yesterday. Each time, when the camera returned to him, he was standing up, looking to the sideline to get the next play call while adjusting his helmet or tucking his shoulder pads back in. People talk about how guys like Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger hang in the pocket. You have to put Eli in that category. And you have to admit he’s one of the top five quarterbacks in the game right now.

Oh, and he makes the rooting interests for most Indianapolis residents easy. Colts fans hate the Patriots/Belichick/Brady. They may not love the Giants, but that is Peyton’s kid brother leading them. I would expect the Giants to be received warmly in Naptown.

Funny how times change. Each time they showed Alex Smith’s rather modest stats, I kept thinking how in the 1970s, Bob Griese was winning Super Bowls, Smith’s stats were perfectly reasonable. In fact, in winning back-to-back Super Bowls, Griese threw for less than 200 combined yards.

I also kept thinking about how technology changes our perspective. I was watching the game in glorious HD on our new TV. You could see individual rain drops, details in the crowd, and the bright hues of the uniforms. Contrast that to video of The Catch back in 1982. Montana-to-Clark was in HD, too, but only for those at Candlestick. Those of us at home were watching on small TVs with blurry pictures, and the remaining video from the game is grainy with muted colors.

Finally, for all the NFL does wrong (attempting to legislate fun out of the game, for example) one thing they get right is fourth quarters. All those touchdown-commercial-kickoff-commercial sequences in the first three quarters pay off with the continuous football they offer in the closing minutes.

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There was an effort to rush a change to the Sunday alcohol ban through the Legislature last week, but it failed. You can still buy all the beer you want in restaurants and at Lucas Oil Stadium, because it’s better to force people to drink-and-drive than allow them to get blitzed in the comfort of their own living rooms. ↩

Not So Super Monday

February 8, 2010 / DB

Well, that was disappointing.

Teased by the first quarter, the Colts got out-Colted for the rest of the game. Throw in the gutsy on-side kick to begin the third quarter that seemed to completely unnerve the Colts, and it was about a perfect performance by the Saints. They weathered the early storm, settled down and methodically picked apart the Colts’ D when they had the ball. On defense, they rarely brought all-out pressure on Manning, but rather sat back and clogged up the passing lanes. That gave up a few big runs by Joseph Addai, but they knew that Addai alone was not going to beat them. Contain, contain, contain and hope they get the ball last. Instead, they got the game-clinching pick-six, but I doubt they’ll complain about how it all worked out.

I imagine it was a pretty exciting game for neutral fans. Porter’s interception and touchdown is one of the all-time great Super Bowl plays. Rather than be awed by the moment, as I was a year ago during that fantastic finish, I was busy dropping f-bombs in front of a bunch of sub-six year olds, not all of which are my kids. In my defense, I think everyone else was thinking the same thing, and I didn’t scream or anything. I saw Porter, the ball, and a lot of open field and muttered, “Oh fuck.” These things happen.

Also, having a rooting interest kept me from paying as much attention to the commercials as I did last year. I did notice a lot of partial nudity, mostly by men. I don’t mean to sound sexist, but that’s not what I want to see between plays. When Megan Fox sitting rather demurely in a bathtub is the best T&A we get, I call it a bad year for ads.

L. got into the spirit of things right off the bat. During the national anthem, she stood with her hand over her heart. When it was over, she waved her hands in the air and laughed. It appears as though she thought she was singing.

The Who sucked. The Old Rocker Complaint meme has been beaten to death. But at least the other old rockers that have been carted out in recent years rocked. We’re talking about one of the most important, influential, best, and loudest bands of all time and they came off as a bunch of old men awake past their bed times. Coincidence that each time Daltrey tried to hit a high note the camera cut away? People in the stadium commented that there were a couple guys playing guitar on the sides of the stage, out of the light. So Moon and Entwistle are dead and Daltrey and Townsend many not have even been singing/playing live? Awful.

So, I suppose my grade for the night would be a big Suck Minus. However, we did have some good good, some friends and family over, and a decent game to watch. I also downloaded the iPhone version of the classic Mattel electronic football game and was able to play a few games. That took me back exactly 30 years. In January and February of 1980, I spent about a million hours playing that game, trying to see how many points I could score. I kept records in a little notebook. I remember that’s how I blew off steam between periods of a certain hockey game on Feb. 22, 1980. The defense seems a little more stout in the iPhone version.

Pitchers and catchers report next week. March Madness is a month away; spring not far behind. I guess we’ll get through these 11 degree mornings and another 6″ of snow tonight.

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Big Game Predictions

February 5, 2010 / DB

Finally, it is time for the game.

I’ll admit, my confidence in the Colts has been shaken a bit. I always get nervous when everyone seems to be picking the same team when the opponents are fairly evenly matched. Most people seem to love the Colts this week. Dwight Freeney’s status is troubling. It’s one thing to beat the Jets without Jerraud Powers. If he’s not on the field and healthy against the Saints, that will be another huge blow to the Colts.

But I’m not so worried that I’m changing my pick. Rather than a relatively easy win, I think we’ll see a shootout. Given what the Colts have done this year, winning a bundle of close games with late scores, and that they have Peyton behind center, I think they’ll be able to overcome whatever challenges their health on defense will present.

Colts 31
Saints 27

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Super

January 25, 2010 / DB

There were some football games yesterday.

One of my favorite parts of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch is when he relates how he and his soccer loving friends debated what the perfect win was. They settled on a 3-2 win in which their team twice trailed and tied and then scored a late game-winner.

I’ve often thought of what my criteria would be for the perfect win. It obviously varies from sport-to-sport, but I think the perfect football win is when your team struggles early, rights itself, and by the end of the game has imposed its will on its opponent. The Colts’ win over the Jets Sunday might qualify. Down early, looking sloppy and overwhelmed, it appeared that the Colts might again be wetting the bed when the games mattered most.* They steadied themselves, remained patient, slowly turned the momentum, and midway through the third quarter turned into the Colts we watched through the first 15 weeks of the season.

(Had they lost, my postgame Facebook update was going to reference Colts shirts going on sale around the city tomorrow, but the buyer would be left to remove the pee stains.)

Whatever, the Colts are in the Super Bowl again. That’s pretty cool. It was a fine performance. Not as cathartic as the win over the Patriots three years ago, but still pretty great. On both sides of the ball it was the Colts who made the adjustments that changed the course of the game. The defense was outstanding, aside from two plays. The offense was as explosive as we’ve seen this year. It was interesting watching the Colts struggle with the Jets’ blitz early and then render it totally useless by the second half. Pierre Garcon was huge. Austin Collie and Joseph Addai made some plays. Peyton Manning finally played great in a big game. Check that, he’s never played as well in an important game in his career. This should help balance all those awful games in January in the first half of his career. And, once again, a few flukey bounces with their way (Reggie Wayne’s fumble that bounced right back to him between four Jets defenders being one example). They just might be a team of density, er, destiny.

So that might have been the perfect win. But the NFC title game was pretty damn exciting, too. Nice of the Drama Queen to wait until the last possible moment to revert to his classic form with a senseless turnover that cost his team the game. As much trouble as Minnesota had holding onto the ball, I was beginning to wonder if either the balls were being doctored somehow, or if the entire Vikings roster had money on the outcome.

It’s a shame we’ll have to see two dome teams built to play on a fast surface contest the Super Bowl on natural grass. Let’s just hope the weather is better than the last time the Super Bowl was in Miami, when the Colts and Bears played one of the sloppiest Super Bowls ever in the rain.

The Saints offense seemed out-of-sync yesterday, and I expect them to correct that. Their defense could not slow down the Vikings, though. Given what Manning and company just did to the Jets defense, that does not bode well. The Colts have been here before, and Manning will keep them focused all week as he did three weeks ago. I see an easy Colts win in two weeks.*

(Bookmark this post for jinx references after the game.)

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Wrapping Up The Week

January 30, 2009 / DB

It was a busy week here. Let’s try to catch-up.

First, we had the sixth biggest snowstorm in Indianapolis history. They measured 12.5″ at the airport. I had 10.5″ at our front door, although I think we might have had another inch on top of that based on how things looked away from the house. Of course it hit during a week when S. was on the day shift, so there was no sleeping in and letting the snow fall. I got the driveway cleared out just in time for the plows to come do our street. They saw me and did a good job of keeping our drive entrance clear, and S. had no trouble getting out of the neighborhood or to work. I’m just glad the previously flat tire on the snowblower held air. Shoveling that much would not have been cool.

We had a snow day on Wednesday, then school was delayed today. On top of that, S. got called into work (for the first time ever) Wednesday night because of an illness. So the girls and I had some quality time together. We reached the point where they got to watch whatever they wanted on TV as long as they left the baby and I alone for awhile. I was able to get the big sisters out in the snow Wednesday afternoon. They loved it, although C. seemed to think that since there was so much, she needed to swim through it. She kept getting down on her stomach and crawling through it. Perhaps she’s part penguin?

While we were busy hunkering down under the snow, the Royals went out and did a good thing. They signed Zack Greinke for four years. Others have written more and better than I can about the contract, and there is a little debate about how good a deal it is for the Royals, but I think it’s a great move. Sure, there is a lot of risk in the deal, but I think both sides enter it with some risk. Given the recent history of the Royals, they have to accept a little extra risk in order to get deals like this done. Now, if Gordon and Butler can round into form, Crisp rediscover his Cleveland persona, and the top prospects in the minors continue to develop, this is a franchise that has every chance of competing in the division in two years. A couple of Dayton Moore’s moves this off-season have been curious, at best. But getting Greinke signed makes up for a lot.

Of course, since these are the Royals, something is sure to go wrong.

Super Bowl: Don’t like either team, don’t know who to pull for or against. I have a feeling things are going to get ugly, though. The Steelers might kill old man Warner, which would bring on the high comedy of seeing Matt Leinart on the field in the Super Bowl.

You may have noticed something missing from the blog this month: no Reader’s Notebooks. I’ve been struggling so far. Part of it is out of a desire to read more lengthy books this year. I only read one or two books than were longer than 300 pages last year. But I think I also needed a break after doing 54 books in 52 weeks last year. Anyway, I’ve read one book so far, but it took forever to get through. I’m working on a bigger one that requires more effort, and am just getting a few pages a night knocked out.

And with that, happy weekend.

Indy Grows Up

February 4, 2007 / DB

For the first time in 21 years, I live in the home of a world championship team. And with the Colts’ title, Indy officially becomes a football town. I’ve shared this story often: the Colts couldn’t even sell out the smallest stadium in the league in time to lift the TV blackout for their home opener against their arch rivals the first fall I lived here. Four seasons later, they are Super Bowl champions, a sparkling new stadium with the fifth highest capacity in the NFL is being constructed across the street from the RCA Dome, and this city has finally fully embraced the team. It’s been an interesting and exciting run.

This Super Bowl was not one that will go down as a classic. Sloppy track. Sloppy play. Rex Grossman. A bunch of shitty commercials. But what matters is the Colts won and there are thousands of drunken idiots downtown at Monument Circle running around in the -15 windchills. (I was all bundled up just to take the trash out tonight. There are guys downtown without shirts on. I guess that’s the difference between drinking two beers and 20.) Oh, and lots of bad local TV which has been the real highlight of the night. There’s nothing like seeing a reporter who usually covers the Statehouse get stuck in a bar for six hours, and then receive kisses on the cheek from other men while trying to do a live report.

If this was college basketball, Dick Vitale would already be telling us who will win next year’s Super Bowl. Sometimes pro sports are better. When do pitchers and catchers report? (Correction: at 12:15 the tools on ESPN started discussing next season. Typical.)

Super Duper

February 2, 2007 / DB

Somehow I’ve managed to avoid most of the Super Bowl hype this week. It was S.’s week to work days, which helped. That meant I rarely had a chance to do more than glance at the paper, often in the evening, and when the local evening news is on, I’m generally finally taking a shower or hitting the books after a long day with the girls. So I’m actually looking forward to the game for the game itself, rather than as a break from the interminable hype leading up to it.

Oh, and I’m anxiously awaiting the rumored announcement that the Beatles catalog will show up on iTunes later this month. That could be a memorable commercial, if the rumors come true.

One piece of news I did follow this week was Indianapolis formally bidding on the 2011 Super Bowl. On the one hand, I think it would be cool to have a Super Bowl here. On the other, I don’t think it would be the windfall for the city proponents expect it to be. Indy is a nice city, but I shudder to think how thousands of people who will come for an entire week will keep themselves occupied. There are only so many nice restaurants and clubs in this city. It works for a weekend event, like the races at the Speedway or a Final Four, but I expect the columns slamming the city would start as early as Tuesday. Second, the forecast low this Sunday is 2. Monday, we’re expected to dip below zero. Sure, there’s always the chance we could get some balmy weather and have temps in the 50s, but chances are it will be cold in February 2011 just like it is most other Februarys. People will be stuck in their hotels and bored, and despite the city’s efforts to shine itself up, there will be few good things said by the out-of-towners.

Finally, according the the Indy Star, the NFL mandates that all hotel rooms the league reserves for the game have taxes normally levied upon them waived. So the league, which I’m guessing grosses in the billions each year, and makes hundreds of millions off of the Super Bowl alone, is too cheap to pay the room taxes that Joe and Judy Fan will have to pay if they follow their team to the title game. I’m not sure where Indy sends its hotel tax dollars, that’s a pretty good chunk of change that will not hit the city’s coffers. Yes, the city will experience increased sales tax revenues, but it will also be picking up a huge tab for extra security, lots of last-minute repairs and beautifications, etc. Every dollar counts. I’m not sure if it makes a huge difference in income for the week, but Indy isn’t exactly a city that is awash in money. Seems like a cheap move on the NFL’s part. Too bad no city ever called bullshit.

On to the game. My thoughts have not drifted much from my initial reaction when the match-up was set. I think the Colts are just too good offensively and the Bears too limited offensively. Interestingly enough, the Bears O has outperformed the Colts O in the playoffs, and the Colts D is playing slightly better than the Bears D. I’m not sure what to make of that. I think the Bears have to get an early lead, and I’m talking 10 or 14-0, no a field goal or single TD, to have a chance. If the Colts score early, I think the game is over early. The wildcard is what the Bears can do when they get a turnover or on kick returns. They need at least two take-aways and a return TD to win. They might get those and still lose.

I see Dallas Clark and Joe Addai catching a lot of short passes early in the game, moving the chains, setting up the running game. The Colts grab an early lead, take it into the locker room, and in the second half, Reggie Wayne and Marvin Harrison get into the act. Feeling pressure to catch up, the Bears start passing, which plays right into the Colts defensive strengths. Then, it gets ugly.

Colts 38 Bears 21

I won’t be surprised if the score is different. I will be surprised if the result is different.

Happy weekend. Stay warm.

Super Bowl Thoughts

February 7, 2005 / DB

(Posted at 2:30 AM because I’m still waking up with coughing fits. What is this, emphysema I have?)

Super Bowl Sunday was a Mr. Mom day for me with S. working a 24 hour shift. As an added bonus, not only is M. teething, but she’s also fighting what appears to be her first illness. In other words, there are parts of the game (along with the corresponding commercials) that I just didn’t see. Oh, and I watched none of the pre-game hype. At 6:30 I turned on picture-in-picture and flipped to Fox only when I saw the ball was about to be booted.

First, for the game itself, I don’t think it was a classic game; there were far too many sloppy turnovers; but at least the result remained in doubt until the final seconds. I’m sure the anti-Patriots backlash is going to really get going now that they’ve won three titles, but even the haters have to give them this: they’ve given us three decent Super Bowls. The best part of the game was how ferocious the defense of both teams played in the first half. Once, while feeding M., I was literally gripping her bottle extra tight each time someone got hit on the screen. Those guys were all teeing off. The worst part was, without a doubt, the nearly criminal clock management skills of Philadelphia on their next-to-last drive. Sure, they scored on the drive, but even having half a clue on how to run a 2:00 offense probably would have saved a good 45-60 seconds that would have come in very handy the last time they had the ball. I was not surprised the game was close at the end of three quarters. I was surprised that the Eagles still had a chance to win or tie late. I figured the Pats would dominate the fourth quarter and win going away. Despite the turnovers, Donovan McNabb and especially Terrell Owens deserve a lot of credit for their performances. TO earned a lot of respect from people around the country with his come-back and stellar performance.

I know there’s going to be a vocal group of pundits who say the Pats aren’t a dynasty. Those people are idiots. I agree with Troy Aikman; what the Pats have done and how they’ve done it is more impressive than what the star-studded, free-spending Cowboys did ten years ago. I don’t want to hear the nonsense about how the Pats couldn’t have played with those Cowboys, the 80s ‘Niners, the ’70s Steelers, or the ’60s Packers. Whether that’s true or not, and we can never know, it doesn’t diminish what they’ve accomplished. But I tend to think what the Eagles have done in the last four years is pretty impressive, too. And despite their four Super Bowl losses, I always though the Bills were a dynasty. Maybe I just don’t get it and all the blowhards who have national columns and appear on shows like Around the Horn can explain to me why I’m wrong.

Speaking of pundits, my favorite anti-Pats column last week was the one, written by several different people, that reminded us that Bill Belichik wasn’t always a genius. As if what he did in Cleveland has any bearing on putting his accomplishments in New England into perspective. Being a snarky blogger, I know I do more than my share of nit-picking. But do we have to always find a dark cloud in every accomplishment?

OK, other things I saw on TV Sunday:

I did accidentally see one pre-game show that was on at 11. It was Fox’s Inside Access, or Super Secret Access, or some nonsense like that about the broadcast team preparing for the game. Only part I saw was Joe Buck filming his Budweiser commercials, and preparing for his next broadcast during downtime. “I feel like this is how Gerry Coleman went to school. Shot a few scenes, hung out with Willis, then did some math.” Good stuff.

Did anyone else see Puppy Bowl on Animal Planet? Three separate three hour shows of puppies, well, playing. They were in a room designed to look like a football stadium, complete with “artificial turf”, yard markers, and so on. There was generic, highlight quality music in the background, but not commentators. It was just video of dogs playing. I hit the info button at one point and was greeted by this description: “A shepherd mix, a French bulldog, a lab, and a chihuahua play.” OK. I guess if you know no one is watching, that’s a unique way of filling the air. It certainly got me to stop a couple times. I did enjoy the “referee” who came onto the field and threw a penalty flag when one of the puppies soiled the field.

I missed a lot of commercials, but I think my favorite was the P. Diddy Pepsi ad. It was a pretty clever use of how what’s trendy is dictated to us by celebrities. And, of course, it continues the long, lonely battle by Pepsi that continues every Super Bowl. You know, they spend more money than Coke, have several clever commercials, and a year from now their market share will not have changed a bit. Think of all the good that could have been done with the money Pepsi has spent in the last 20 years to spin their wheels. The monkey ads for Career Builder were good, too. I would be remiss not to mention Jon Gruden telling his kids to knock it off in the NFL Network commercial.

While flipping around, I went by poker on NBC while they were showing the obligatory Rounders clip. After the clip, one of the announcers said, “Rounders is to poker kind of what Field of Dreams is to baseball.” Really? So baseball was this niche game people played but didn’t really talk about much until Field of Dreams was released? Then it exploded upon the nation and soon everyone was playing it?

Is the fact Hammer was in two different commercials a sign that the world is coming to an end very soon? Or just a sign to prepare ourselves for 90s nostalgia?

Doesn’t George Bush (#41, not W) look like he just wants to go take a long nap and not have to be The Former President any more? Even his opponents always credited him for being a very decent man. I bet he gets pissy with people fast now.

Speaking of yawn, Sir Paul McCartney ladies and gentlemen. If he’s performing live and gets to do more than one song, even money you’re hearing “Hey Jude”. He might be boring, but he’s not stupid.

Isn’t it a little silly to shoot fireworks off and drop millions of pounds of confetti when the Super Bowl ends? It’s really a false celebration. All that paper is going to be dumped and those fireworks shot off no matter who wins and what the score is. It’s kind of like crowds at golf tournaments. Whether it’s Tiger, Els, Singh, or Michelson, people are going to go nuts when someone crushes a drive, sinks a 50 foot bomb, or wins by ten strokes.