>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hey check this out. It's the Monday after the Superbowl and I still am not really sure who won the game. I did not watch one second of it all day yesterday. Before I went to bed last night I checked the little scoreboard widget that I have on the Mac just to see what happened (I kinda had to know) and when I looked at the score, it looked to my tired time-for-bed brain that the Colts had won. So I felt semi-iritated for a few seconds and then went to bed glad I had not witnessed Manning's smug face and the blue and white confetti raining down..

I only read a couple stories to catch up but this was my favorite quote:

"But the way people were talking about him [Manning] the last two weeks was shocking, especially when you consider that his entire post-season reputation hinges on what happened in 2006, when he beat a Bears team led by Rex Grossman in a rain-soaked mess. (And he didn't even play that well, despite being named the game's MVP.) In fact, if Bill Belichick hadn't decided to force Tom Brady to play that season with junior varsity wide receivers, I'm convinced Manning wouldn't have even made it to that Super Bowl."

That's right. Is the lame-stream media finally waking up? I'm sure it's only temporary..

(GO PATS)

So there you go. I know it's considered abby-normal in this day and age, but I'm not watching the Superbowl later. I might go with a Superbowl alternative and watch my Patriots Superbowl 36 Champions DVD instead, but that's about as Superbowl as I'm gonna get today. Go Saints and I'll check the final score later.

In the meantime, when's truck day? I made the ceremonial switch out of Football Mode and have been wearing Red Sox head-gear for over a month now, which symbolizes the official transition from Football Mode to Hockey / Waiting For Baseball Mode. 

Go Truck Day! Brooons, feel free to win a game, anytime soon would be good for me.

Ok. Read on if you want.

AFC - I turns out I actually hate the Jets less than The Colts. Amazing isn't it? Amazing but true. To be honest I really don't hate the Jets that much. For me it's just an AFC East rivalry thing with them. I dislike Miami more than I dislike the Jerzey Boyz. However, I really do hate the Colts. A lot. Really it's Manning I dislike. And really, it's the Manning suck-up show that I truly dislike. Plus all those non-stop commercials he seems to be in. Anyway.. can you believe I used to like The Colts back in the day? Like when Jim Harbaugh was their QB, playing with the big cut on his chin. Well those days are long gone. 

NFC - Well I already said I want the Saints to win the Superbowl so...

(I wrote this post at 6:30 AM waiting to pick my daughter up from a kid-activity. God it's early for a Saturday.)

Ok got that out of the way.

AFC

Balmer / Indy:

This choice is kind of like asking which would you rather have, a kick in the head or a kick in the nuts. I guess I'll go with the kick to the head option and take Balmer. Really anybody but Indy is what it all comes down to at this point.

Jersey Boyz / San Diego:

This choice is only slightly easier to make than the one above. As much as I dislike the Jets, I will admit that Rex Ryan seems a likable guy. However, I'm still not rooting for his team. It's the JETS for chrisssake. San Diego... as far as I'm concerned the team is fully of whiny bitchy babies who over-celebrate their accomplishments or complain and point the finger when things don't bounce their way. Believe it or not the Chargers were once one of my primary back-up teams. Now I loathe them. However I do have some measure of respect for Chargers QB Philip Rivers after he came into Foxboro a few years ago and gutted out the AFC Championship game on a bad leg while the awesome and ultra-classy Ladania Tohmalaua (spelling, whateverz) sat on the bench with his super cool Darth Vader helmet on and sulked the game away.. Rivers may be somewhat of a tool, but he's got guts and sometimes guts is enough. Plus he's playing against the Jets. So in case that long winded explanation did not make it clear, I'm rooting for San Diego.

NFC

Dallas / Minnie:

Ok normally this would be a no-brainier because I generally like the Vikings. They've never done me any harm and are a traditional backup team for me. Unfortunately that does NOT go for Brett Farve. I generally DIS-like Brett Farve. A lot. So that throws a big old wrench in everything. However, despite Farve's presence I will still root for the Vikes, even though it causes me a lot of stomach churn to root for a Brett Farve helmed team. The rationale here being that Vikes fans deserve some joy in their lives and they've never won a Superbowl, unlike America's Team Dallas. F them. Can you imagine having to listen to that America's Team crap for a year if they made The Big Game?

Zona / Nawlinz: 

So this is another sucky choice because these are the two teams in the whole thing that I actually LIKE so of course they are playing against one another.. The Football Gods love their little games don't they? My heart says Arizona but my head says New Orleans, simply because I think they'd have a better chance to beat whoever wins the AFC. I can't decide. I'm going to flip a coin. Heads Arizona, tails NO. It's heads. 

Whatever. Go any NFC team. 

This post brought to you by:
Bookmaker bonus code

The Ravens are up by 24-0 as the 1st quarter comes to a merciful end. Holy crap this is horridly bad.

All I can say at this point is I hope the Patriots will at least put up a fight and not roll over. Losing a playoff game at home would be painful enough, but losing because they flat out quit would be worse. 

I have faith in this team. No more typing time to send all possible positive vibes out to Foxboro.

GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE

somber update:

Alright. Well. The game is over. The Pats lost. Spotting a team 24 points in the 1st Quarter is not a good way to win a playoff game. So there you go. The team simply did not have that spark and I kept waiting for them to fight back a little more. It just didn't happen. There was no counter-punch to the Ravens attack. 

I thought Edelman played his guts out, Kevin Faulk was obviously not giving in, Brady kept fighting.. congrats to those guys. I can't really say I saw that fighting spirit from many other guys though, unfortunately. 

So now it's time to re-tool and get ready for another year. The Pats had a good year. Hey they went 10-6 and won the AFC East, they made the playoffs so despite the outcome of today's game, they were a good, playoff team. As a fan that's what you want. Obviously I wish The Pats could have advanced but as much as I may want them to, the Pats can't win the Superbowl every year. 

One thing the Patriots seemed to search for all year was consistency. This was an erratic team. There are all kinds of factors that contribute to that, both on the field and off the field.. I won't go into my opinions on what some of those factors might be, I'll just say that hopefully next season they will regain that consistency that was missing this year. On the superstitious side, one thing I will be glad to see is the nautical blue uni's and Flying Elvis, all year long. Until then... one more time.

GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE

This post brought to you by:
NFL Parlay Betting

This year, The Patriots are 10-6 and are AFC East Champions. That's one of the things ya gotta love about the NFL. Every year things are different. 

I'll tell ya, missing out on the playoffs last year, that sucked. Fully. So this year I am feeling so upbeat and am just psyched for The Pats to be back in and competing for that chance at a Superbowl. A lot of people don't give the Patriots much of a chance, but as has been shown year in and year out, anything can happen once you make it into the Playoffs. So lets do this.

It's about a 1/2 hour till game time.

It seems like all of the talk and print and what-have-you out of the lame-stream media has been 110% focused on Julian Edelman this week. All I've read all week is how Edelman is going to have to step in for Wes Welker after his truly unfortunate injury and how is he going to do it, how are the Patriots going to adjust, what happens to their offense... yadda yadda yadda. On one hand it's kind of annoying. Since when were the Patriots a one man team? On the other hand, it keeps the focus on that one aspect of their game and the rest of the team can go about the business of prepraration without harassment. It also gives the Patriots some motivation, since it's been made clear that the prevailing lame-stream opinion is that they can't win without Welker. At least that's how I interpret it..  

Alright it's like 15 min till game time. As Tom Brady once said so eloquently, 'We're baaaa-aaack!" 

Enough with the typety-typing. See you on the other side.

GO PATS - TEAM OF THE DECADE

This post brought to you by:
types of football bets

So here's who I'm pulling for this weekend, other than The Pats.

AFC

New England / Baltimore: I think this is clear. Look around you.

Cincinnati / The Jersey Guys: No Brainer once again (Cincy).

NFC

Dallas / Philly: Philly. C'mon, I can't root for the C'boyz. Even though The Pats are the team of the 00's, I still can't bring myself to cheer for the team of the 90's. I can hold a grudge my friends. Maybe if Jessica Simpson were still on the sidelines.. Is she still on the sidelines? I don't pay any attention to that stuff. I'm sure Tony Romo's got a hottie rooting for him somewhere over on the Dallas sidelines, other than Wade Phillips, but he doesn't count. I'm rooting for Philly.

Arizona / Green Bay: Another pretty easy choice, Arizona. I always root for the teams that have been down for a long time, kicked around as doormats of the league forever and now have finally risen to the top. I know the feeling of rooting for a team that was bad for a looong time and then finally finds it's stride and wins three Superbowls, two of them back-to-back (*sniff* Patriots, Team of the Decade... sorry, where was I? I just got a little dust in my eye..) That's why I'll always root for teams like Arizona, New Orleans, Cincy, over teams like Dallas, Green Bay or The Steelers. (Of course, I know that's how a lot of people feel about my team now, but I'm ok with that.)

GO PATRIOTS - TEAM OF THE DECADE (get used to it because I love typing it)

This post brought to you by:
Handicapper Reviews