Not Super, Just Good Enough...

I had a pretty good weekend, or at least it seemed to be. Mostly, it wasn’t long enough. But that’s just the way it goes, of course. What was really great was when my wife made me oatmeal scotchies.

I didn’t realize when I wrote my column a couple of weeks ago that my wife would actually read it and then decide that she would make those cookies for me. Does that make my column a subliminal message? I won’t test my luck for fear that the results won’t be nearly as fantastic as the cookies are.

If the oatmeal scotchies weren’t enough, she made me a gooseberry pie on Sunday. Since she doesn’t like gooseberry pie, it is up to me to pace myself and finish it off. I think I can handle it.

I’m sure most of you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. It turned out to be a pretty good game. The matchups in the last few years have been very good so the game has kept fans interested, and made the last few minutes exciting and the outcome in doubt until the last few seconds. What more could a fan want?

Was it the greatest Super Bowl ever? Well, probably not the greatest, but it was the best one played this year and really that’s all I care about.

If there is a gripe I have about the game, it might be the over analysis by the game announcers, especially late in the game when the Giants were marching toward the end zone. Cris Collinsworth kept talking about going down to the goal line and taking a knee before scoring, run out the clock, kick a field goal to win the game and not allow Patriot QB Tom Brady a chance to march his team to victory.

The best thing I heard came Monday morning on the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN radio. Former Viking receiver Chris Carter said that the Giants did the right thing by scoring the touchdown to get the lead in the game because, “I don’t trust that the kicker will make the field goal with the game on the line!”

I agree with this statement. The touchdown put a lot of pressure on the Patriots and they had trouble making plays that could have brought them victory. A Hail Mary pass that ended the game fell to the ground and the Giants started their celebration again.

What makes this game so great is when individual players make plays at key times. Many of those plays aren’t seen in the regular season but certainly show up in prime time, in the biggest game of the year.

I’m sure many people could care less about the game and more about the commercials. I’m not sure there were many really good ads.

There was one commercial I thought was funny, but I certainly can’t tell you what they were trying to sell. That seems to be a problem when a company is spending $3.5 million or so per minute. But if the company has that much money to spend on Super Bowl ads, you would hope those ads would leave the business name indelibly etched on our minds. Sorry, I still don’t know!

Now that football season is over, teams will be vying for free agents and working diligently to build their team with a good draft of college football players. What will the Giants and the Patriots do to improve their prospects of returning to the big game?

What is interesting is if the Giants’ players who are free agents will want to come back and see if magic can repeat a year from now.

Or if like so many athletes, who have achieved the ultimate success, think they are worth a bigger paycheck with a less formidable team.

If that happens, they may make more money but there is a good chance that player may never be heard from again in a big game situation.

I guess I would much rather play for a winner for less money than be a rich guy on a losing team. But that’s just me because I like to win. Hold your breath because the trading will get going in the not too distant future.

I hope you had fun on Sunday. I know the Super Bowl is a special game and I look forward to watching it. Even if the game isn’t top notch it usually is very good and appreciated by the fans. This game however, was pretty darn good.