There's a Reason Why it's Called the Super Bowl
We'll sit in front of the television, we'll invite over friends and family, and we'll throw back a few drinks all in the process.
It's Super Sunday when you and yours get together and for three-plus hours to watch a bunch of multimillion dollar commercials. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. In between all those commercials there's actually a football game - this year Super Bowl XLIII and a halftime performance by Bruce Springsteen.
Unlike any other sporting event, the NFL's annual championship game is a big draw. People will stop what they're doing, even if they don't care who wins or loses. It's that big of a spectacle, even if most of the 70,000-plus seats that were sold for this year's festivities in Tampa, Fla., went to the upper class. Thanks, NFL.
That's why the Super Bowl is more of a made-for-TV event. It's pretty much the only way the actual fans will get to see the game because getting a ticket, well, that's almost as hard, if not more so, than winning the lottery.
But we don't care. When Faith Hill started singing "America the Beautiful" to the "National Anthem", sung by Jennifer Hudson, to the opening coin toss with John Elway, Lynn Swann and Roger Craig participating, you almost forget there was a game about to be played. Super Sunday wasn't a football game. The pomp and circumstance made this an event like none other on the sports calendar all year long.
Not the World Series. Not the Final Four. Not the Stanley Cup finals. Nothing compares to the Super Bowl. Ask most people what happened at the World Series, Final Four or Stanley Cup finals and they're not likely to tell you much. But ask them about the Super Bowl and they'll be able to tell you something, even if it was their favorite commercial. That's the NFL's media machine working at full speed. How else can you explain it?
If you're like me, you probably didn't have much of a rooting interest in the game. The outcome was somewhat meaningless unless you happened to be a fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers or Arizona Cardinals. I'm a fan of neither, though I openly cheered for the underdog Cardinals. Not so much because I wanted to see them win as much as I wanted to see the Steelers lose. But there were more selfish reasons for that as the Steelers shared along with my beloved Dallas Cowboys and the San Francisco 49ers the record for most Super Bowl titles with five each.
But, truthfully, it didn't matter which team won the game. By the way, the Steelers won 27-23 and Pittsburgh wide receiver Santonio Holmes, who caught nine passes for 131-yards and the game-winning TD with 42 seconds left, was named the MVP. I was going to watch even if I didn't have much interest in the outcome. It's the Super Bowl, and there's nothing like it.
(c)2009, The Berthoud Recorder
Super Monday
Some game, huh? I can (or can't) remember a lot of Super Bowls that pitter out long before the last three minutes. It's no surprise that Kurt Warner's been involved in three Super Bowls that were all decided in the fourth quarter. Not having seen the guy play every week in a few years - not really counting the twice a year we've seen him recently - you can really appreciate what a gamer he is, like him or not.
Now, with the 2008 season out of the way - oh, I guess there is the Pro Bowl, meh - we can get back to the Rams offseason. Free agency is weeks away, and I suspect Spagnuolo, the new pro personnel department and the new bevy of coaches are busy deciding which players to keep and which player to pursue in free agency. Guess what we'll be talking about this week...
There's also a little thing called the draft coming up, and the rookie scouting Combine starts on Feb 18. The NFL has now released the list of players that will participate in the event. Should be lots to talk about, no?
A quick programming note. I'm compiling a free agent database and a mock draft database (well, tables really) and will have those up this week. Mostly, I thought they'd just be handy to have around here...save us opening a new tab for a Google search every 10 minutes.
I also wanted to invite some reader participation for draft hype/prep. I know we have a lot of people around these parts that watch college football or at least follow the draft. I want to encourage you to create fanposts about prospects you like, guys you'd like to see the Rams take in the draft, anybody. The goal here is to gather as much info and opinion about players that we could be seeing with a ceremonial Rams jersey come April and have that opinion/information in one easy location. 3k and I will throw up plenty of draft stuff, but since this is a community site, it makes the most sense to get as many opinions/analysis as possible. Not only does it give us something to refer to whilst debating, it opens eyes to other possibilities. For instance, if someone can convince me there's reason to take someone other than an OT with the #2 pick... Then, we'll have a little mock draft contest in March; stay tuned for details.
Copyright 2008 Sportsblogs, Inc
This Super Bowl especially rewarding for NFL's old-school owners
When George Halas wanted to check out a suitor courting his daughter Virginia, then a student at Drexel University in Philadelphia, the Bears' founder called on a man he trusted.
Thus Art Rooney Sr. did his buddy a favor when he set up a grilling session with Ed McCaskey. McCaskey, a University of Pennsylvania student who sang in the school choir, passed muster with the Pittsburgh Steelers' owner.
And if he was good enough for Rooney, he was good enough for Halas.
A Steelers organization trying to win its record sixth Super Bowl next Sunday in Tampa apparently has always had a knack for evaluating talent and character: Ed and Virginia McCaskey were married for 60 years until Ed passed away in 2003.
"I've heard that story a lot and I love it every time," said Bears Chairman Michael McCaskey, Ed and Virginia's oldest son. "The relationship we've kept with the Rooneys over the years has been a close one."
The bond between families that have owned NFL teams for generations makes the Super Bowl XLIII matchup between the Steelers, still run by the Rooneys, and the Arizona Cardinals, owned since 1933 by the Bidwills, even more meaningful.
More so than in any other league, NFL teams are treated as heirlooms. Consider that five teams still have ownership rooted in the early years of the league: the Cardinals, Bears, Packers, Giants and Steelers. The Bills, Chiefs and Titans are still owned by the families that founded them as charter members of the American Football League in 1960. Eleven other NFL teams have had the same owners since 1980.
That's eight more ownership groups than stayed intact in the NBA, MLB and NHL combined over the same span, according to a New York Times study.
As contemporary pro sports ownership threatens to become dominated by billionaires or corporations, a backyard Super Bowl between the Rooneys and the Bidwills represents a victory for the NFL's old guard. That will be true regardless who wins, though McCaskey is pulling for the Cardinals because the Bears' ties with that franchise date back even further than they do with the Steelers.
The Chicago Cardinals had been playing two years before the Decatur Staleys became the Chicago Bears in 1922. Charles Bidwill Sr., whose son Bill is the Cardinals' current owner, was part-owner of the Bears with Halas in 1933 when he bought the team from Chicago dentist David Jones variously reported for $12,500, $25,000 and $50,000. Halas stayed close enough with the Bidwills to be a pallbearer at Charley's funeral in 1947, and the connection between the families remains.
"I've called them each week before their playoff games and they won, so they said, 'We're not superstitious, but make sure you call us before the Super Bowl,' " McCaskey said with a laugh. "I'm a big fan of the Rooneys. [But] I'm an NFC guy and I think it would be great for the league if the Cardinals won."
True, an Arizona victory would give the Bidwill organization traditionally mocked for its frugality its first championship in 61 seasons and the NFL a nine-victory poster-child team for league parity. But Pittsburgh would view another title as a fitting end to a season the Rooneys too often found themselves at the dangerous intersection where personal feelings and professional business collide.
In the celebratory Steelers locker room Sunday night at Heinz Field, team President Art Rooney II sighed wearily when asked if this Super Bowl trip was more satisfying than the club's previous ones.
"It has been an unusual year, that's for sure, and to have a chance to win a championship makes it even more special," Rooney said.
It was in September that four of Art Rooney Sr.'s five sons considered selling the Steelers to New York financier Stanley Druckenmiller for an estimated $840 million. The alternative was to accept a proposal by Dan Rooney that would have kept the one-time expansion franchise Art Rooney bought for a fee of $2,500 in 1933 in the family.
By mid-December, as the Steelers' consistently strong play overcame uncharacteristic uncertainty in the front office, Druckenmiller had withdrawn his offer and the Rooneys had found a solution. It addressed the increasingly tricky issue of estate taxes that the NFL Finance Committee has put on the agenda of many family-owned teams with aging owners in recent years.
By a 31-0 vote, team owners approved a plan to restructure their ownership model in such a way that essentially allowed Dan Rooney and his son Art II to acquire at least 30 percent of the club from Dan's brothers, who sold their interests to Dan and other investors.
"That's the way it should stay, under our direction," Dan Rooney said.
In Chicago, the McCaskeys watched closely. Virginia McCaskey, who turned 86 earlier this month, is the principal owner of the Bears. Each of McCaskey's 11 children, and the two children of the late George S. "Mugs" Halas Jr., received a piece of the Bears. According to Tribune archives, each of Halas' 13 grandchildren received 3.8 percent of the team when he died in 1983, which would amount to 49.4 percent of the franchise if they all retained their shares.
The total McCaskey-Halas stake in the franchise is 80 percent, a team spokesman said, with the other 20 percent having been sold to Pat Ryan and Andy McKenna in 1990. Mrs. McCaskey has the 30 percent stake in the Bears the NFL requires of principal owners. Michael McCaskey represents the team at league meetings.
The Bears never have disclosed how the team's shares are divided among family members - or how they might be in the future - and prefer to speak in generalities whenever the subject is broached. Asked about parallels between the Rooneys' recent experience and the McCaskeys, for example, Michael McCaskey politely evaded the issue.
"I don't think it's particularly complex [and] each team is different," he said. "We don't talk much about it, but it's in good hands here. We expect it to be that way for a long time."
In 2007, around the time the Bears went to the Super Bowl, the NFL Finance Committee was curious enough about the team's ownership structure to ask McCaskey to clarify the succession plan. Team officials have faced similar questions in Buffalo, where Bills owner Ralph Wilson is 90, and in Tennessee, where Titans owner Bud Adams is 86.
"I think we have been healthy and we'll continue to be healthy for years to come," McCaskey said.
Out in the desert, 76-year-old Bill Bidwill has never felt healthier.
The man notorious for staying in the background showed rare public emotion when comparing this Super Bowl run with the franchise's first NFL championship he witnessed as a Cardinals ball boy in 1947.
"The closest I've come to a little breakdown was when I heard some of the 1947 and '48 players were singing the fight song over the radio at some station here in Arizona," Bidwill told the Arizona Republic in his only public comments of the week. "It's a song ... the words they made up themselves. And they're very proud of it."
From Glendale, Ariz., to Pittsburgh, that pride extends to families whose business is football.
"Families that stay in it truly love the game and that's what they bring to it more than anything," McCaskey said. "They also bring a long-term view of it. Every decision, what's best for the next 40 or 50 years is considered."
A better NFL future consumes families such as the Rooneys, the Bidwills and the McCaskeys. Almost as much as a rich past defines them.
Copyright (c) 2009, Chicago Tribune
Giants' title rental could elapse today
Teams don't own championships. They just borrow them until the opening game of the following season. It's why they are rewarded not with tattoos, but with jewelry. Rings look great for a while, but eventually they slip off.
Technically, then, it is inaccurate to say that the Eagles are playing the "defending champion" New York Giants today. If they were, they would be facing Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan. If they were, Plaxico Burress would be playing instead of wondering how that hole wound up in his leg. If they were, Jeremy Shockey would be somewhere causing a stir, even if it were not in the passing lanes.
The Giants were champions last year, and may be champions again in a few weeks. But the Eagles aren't playing the Giants who beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII. They are playing the Giants who they beat 35 days ago in the Meadowlands.
And they know it.
"We're confident," Sheldon Brown said. "I mean, that's the way we are. It has nothing to do with the last game. It will be a totally different contest and totally different game. Both game plans will be different because neither team will do what they were susceptible to the last game. One of those NFC East rivals that we should enjoy."
Figure the Eagles to enjoy it the most.
(c)Copyright 2009 The Delaware County Daily Times
One Out Of Four Ain't Bad
What's the name of that Meatloaf song?
Well, the first weekend of National Football League playoffs is out of the way and I'm ready for a new sports season.
Just kidding.
Four teams were eliminated from playoff contention this past weekend in the NFL. Gone are the Atlanta Falcons, Indianapolis Colts, Miami Dolphins and Minnesota Vikings.
As some of you may recall, I blogged on Wednesday, Dec. 31, regarding the upcoming playoffs and provided readers with my predictions of the playoffs.
Well, time hasn't improved my prediction abilities.
In that blog, I reminded readers when I was Sports Editor of The Brazil Times, I never won the "Beat the Sports Editor" game we had, where I picked game winners for college and pro football games.
Nearly 10 years later, nothing has changed.
I picked Atlanta, San Diego, Philadelphia and Miami to get out of the first round.
What was that Meatloaf song? "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad?" That's right.
Well, in this case, it was two out of four, meaning I got 50 percent of the picks right.
Not bad, but not great.
Making matters worse, my beloved Vikings and my fiance's beloved Colts are now out of the playoffs.
What to do next weekend.
Well, watch more football of course.
The Ravens will face Tennessee Saturday at 4:30 p.m., and I still like the Titans to win the game.
However, now Arizona will face Carolina Saturday, at 8:15 p.m. I had the Panthers winning against Atlanta and still like their chances.
On Sunday, the Eagles still face New York at 1 p.m. I got this game right, and I still like New York winning.
San Diego will face Pittsburgh on the road and I still like the Steelers in this game.
I'm sticking with my Super Bowl picks, which would pit the Panthers against the Steelers, with Carolina winning its first championship.
Again, I am challenging all of you to prove me wrong. And if history proves correct, you will.
Give me your picks. Tell me who you think will win this year's Super Bowl.
I guess the name of the song, in this case, ought to be "One Out Of Four Ain't Bad."
(c)2009 Brazil Times
