the big one
I grew up loving football. Playing it. Organizing teams. Tackle. Touch. Flag. It did not matter. Strategizing (I'd argue none better!).
And today we all – at least the ratings say so – gather to watch the big one. The Super Bowl.
I recall watching my beloved Jets from a living room chair maybe four feet away from the set watching the greatest ever Super Bowl (At least it remains such for me.). I can only hope they return there in my lifetime; there’s a radio host almost as young as me who remains certain he’ll not live to see that day. I feel better about my Mets and Knicks in their respective sports than the Jets and it remains a source of frustration; I think it involves the failure to return to Queens when the chance existed under the previous mayor. Indeed, at her State of the Borough address last month, my Borough President called for a soccer stadium on the site I argued should be a football stadium for the Jets and more. Watching from the audience I felt a sense of vindication. We’ll see how things play out for the European version of football.
I also find it amazing how so much in the political world today competes with discussion of whether the Patriots or Eagles will prevail. I even enjoyed reading about how certain New York fans appear set to root for the AFC team because they somehow think it will make the two victories of their team two coaches back more meaningful. Some readers of this blog may concur (Certainly they root blue.). Other articles talked legacies if a team that prevailed many times in the recent past, again wins. Others talk about teams that did well will a backup QB at the helm.
In contrast, talk about the release of a memo dominated the news going into this weekend. Follow my twitter and Facebook feeds if you want my take; indeed just before going out yesterday evening another interest document comes out and certainly caught my attention.
So let's look at the record: Some friends I can disagree with on politics, I can avidly discuss music and calmly discuss sports, and without the rancor that pervades the political. Indeed polling I viewed yesterday suggests little we can say or do – no matter the merits in our arguments – will change someone’s political views; the polling suggests why even bother to try (that might be another blog if it ever muses me.). So perhaps it remains best to just focus on this game at hand.
Talk strategy. Offense. Defense. Special teams. Coaching.
Or even just where you plan to watch?
Or who you plan to root for?
Or who you think will win and by how much (My friend Eric asked that of everyone after we played our regular weekend basketball (won all of those games by the way!).).
Or if you participate in any pools. (I was a winner last year.).
Do tell (aka “comment below”).

Comments
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On the football front, as a die-hard Giants fan, it's a no-win scenario: A Super Bowl between a division rival and the hated Patriots. It’s practically unbearable to admit, but I dislike Brady, et al. more than I do the Birds, even though my team beat the Pats twice in recent Super Bowls. So – reluctantly, I’ll be with the Eagles in spirit (but in very fine print...)
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Hollander Sends
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Football, also like Americana, is at its best when it engenders stories of redemption, such as the player whose mistake ended the Eagles' first drive of the day prematurely ending up with the winning score, but more so the first ever time a QB (typically the standard-bearer of his team) losing his job, and then his team, and, in the rarest of football returns, boomeranging back to his old franchise, and then, unprecedentedly (particularly for a franchise that had never won a Super Bowl) earning, literally and figuratively, the ultimate victory, perhaps the most stark return to glory story in NFL history, a team leader being dismissed only to return home again to win it all. To paraphrase Johnny Cash-Berman: Carson "Wentz Down"? Nick "Foles In Prism" Victorious! The Eagles Have Landed.
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