Given the city of my birth, I was obviously rooting for the Giants. I've never watched a professional football game before; it seems to be quite exciting. Though I can't say my glee was evenly shared around the room.
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Great game
04 Feb 2008 08:49 am
Comments (28)
Okay 1) FIRST PRO GAME EVER? "The Natives were dressed in their gaming attire and it was all so festive!" (Remind me sometime that, yes, Yankees are different . . . ;-)) 2) Watched football in England once (yes, American football broadcast on the BBC), and at first it was slightly confusing . . . something was wrong but I couldn't quite put my finger on it . . . then it hit me: they edited out all the huddles and in between play stuff, it was all crash crash crash.
Exactly my experience as well.
I can't believe every game of football is that exciting, though...
Benquo: I'm not much of a football fan myself(I usually see 2-3 games a year), but in my experience that Super Bowl was actually a pretty terrible game. Aside from the Giants defence and the one Patriots drive near the end, nobody on either team played worth a damn, and we had to put up with a Tom Petty concert at halftime. Neither of those is exactly conductive to good football.
"Given the city of my birth, I was obviously rooting for the Giants."
You were born in Hackensack?
"they edited out all the huddles and in between play stuff, it was all crash crash crash." You mean that you'd rather watch the committee meetings?
Typically NFL games suck. And the superbowl sucks the most.
A lot of the commentary on the NFL centers on, "the NFL is awesome and is bigger than the NBA and MLB. Look how big we are".
it reminds me of Nascar. Some type of strange insecurity is in play.
Was Fox giving high school interns a chance to try their hand at editing last night? Dead spot, awkward cuts, etc.
Am I the only one who thought the half time show sucked? Isn't it supposed to showcase some of the top talent the country (or world) has to offer (if in a decidedly middlebrow, mainstream fashion)? I can't say I dislike Tom Petty -- and he's crafted some pretty cool songs over the years. But couldn't they have come up with something a tad fresher, more contemporary, and more compelling?
The game was an awesome defensive struggle; for people who like defense, it was an exciting game and the outcome was in doubt right to the last 19 seconds. For media types there were plenty of "storylines" coming together (the perfect season, Eli Manning "coming of age" and out of his brother's shadow, the Giants coming out of nowhere, Tom Coughlin almost being fired after starting 0-2, Tiki Barber, Randy Moss' resurgence from a failed career, and more).
Tom Petty gave a tremendous set (I thought) of three of his best songs, and there were no controversial "wardrobe malfunctions" or revolting Justin Timberlake sightings; that alone made it one of the Best Halftime Shows Evar. What would have been a better show, Hannah Montana? 50 cent?
Liberalrob: how was your 12 lbs of meat?
I missed the game; if I had hours to sit around doing nothing, I'd use them for sleep.
Am I the only one who thought the half time show sucked? Isn't it supposed to showcase some of the top talent the country (or world) has to offer (if in a decidedly middlebrow, mainstream fashion)? I can't say I dislike Tom Petty -- and he's crafted some pretty cool songs over the years. But couldn't they have come up with something a tad fresher, more contemporary, and more compelling?
They tried that four years ago. The result, as liberalrob alluded, was a washed-up teenage heartthrob exposing the bosom of a 38yo woman, followed by an FCC fine.
Be grateful it was at least a Tom Petty concert, and not, say, an Amish nun reading gradeschool poetry while handcuffed between two federal agents.
The result, as liberalrob alluded, was a washed-up teenage heartthrob exposing the bosom of a 38yo woman, followed by an FCC fine.
The sad part was, that wasn't the most disgusting part of that particular show.
"Given the city of my birth, I was obviously rooting for the Giants."
You were born in Hackensack?
East Rutherford, man. Get it right.
It was a great defensive game, but the ads pretty much sucked. But then, I saw more ads last night than I've seen all year--I tend to TIVO or change channels, so ads are an annoyance of the past for me. Are normal ads all so edgy now?
Liberalrob: how was your 12 lbs of meat?
Delicious! 10 lbs. of it is in the freezer now. It's dead simple to cook up a brisket on the grill...just season it (I used Texjoy steak seasoning), wrap it in foil a couple of times, throw it over a good hot fire for three hours, and voila.
Actually now that I think about it it's more like 4 lbs. left out of 6 lbs. of actual meat...untrimmed briskets are half fat, which I cut away almost completely after cooking. Makes the meat taste mighty good, though!
For once, I agree with liberalrob 100%.
"The Natives were dressed in their gaming attire and it was all so festive!"
Best comment ever!
"I've never watched a professional football game before..."
provides, at least anecdotally, backing for the reports that this SB was most widely watched..
an·ec·dot·al (nk-dtl)
adj.
1. also an·ec·dot·ic (-dtk) or an·ec·dot·i·cal (--kl) Of, characterized by, or full of anecdotes.
2. Based on casual observations or indications rather than rigorous or scientific analysis: "There are anecdotal reports of children poisoned by hot dogs roasted over a fire of the [oleander] stems" C. Claiborne Ray.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
anec·dotal·ist n.
anec·dotal·ly adv.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words AntonymsAdj. 1. anecdotal - having the character of an anecdote; "anecdotal evidence"
2. anecdotal - characterized by or given to telling anecdotes; "anecdotal conversation"; "an anecdotal history of jazz"; "he was at his anecdotic best"
anecdotic, anecdotical
communicatory, communicative - able or tending to communicate; "was a communicative person and quickly told all she knew"- W.M.Thackeray
"I'm not much of a football fan myself(I usually see 2-3 games a year), but in my experience that Super Bowl was actually a pretty terrible game."
Just keep repeating to yourself, Alsadius, "I'm not much of a fan -- what would I know? I'm not much of a fan -- what would I know?" until you realize the answer is, "Not much."
Every real fan I talked to said it was one of the greatest games they had ever seen.
Gene: I didn't say I'm unaware of how the sport works, or that I've seen one game in the last decade. I don't watch it often because I don't watch much of anything on TV often, and the "not much of a fan" line was designed to explain that in a format short enough for a worthwhile blog comment. And as far as I'm concerned, as well as every "real fan" I've talked to, the game was unimpressive. The results were dramatic enough, but the gameplay wasn't. That was my point, and I don't think I'm off-base making it. Yes, our subjective opinions and anecdotal evidence differ, but I'm not a complete poser here.
It's like clay court tennis: unless you understand that you're watching a different game than your usual 120 MPH serve, ace-and-volley blastfest and can appreciate the technical perfection it demands, you probably won't think there's anything to recommend it. Or like soccer, which to most American football fans is just a bunch of guys running around kicking a ball all over a field for 90 minutes.
A great game is not just a 42-38 track meet where both offenses march up and down the field at will.
Yeah, Giants fans from the Lawrence Taylor days quickly recognize and love these kinds of defensive games where the battle for field position and time of possession is actually important. Read the beginning of Lewis's "The Blind Side" (which talks about how LT changed the game) to get why the Giants won. QBs are only as good as their system. Brady's system was badly disrupted. Eli's was not. This is why everything starts with the lines.
But any football fan who loves to see strength matched up with strength had to appreciate that game.
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An NFL game = three hours of commercials for cars, beer, life insurance and limp-d*ck drugs, interspersed with very brief snippets of actual, you know, play.
Posted by Peter | February 4, 2008 9:15 AM