Sunday, February 03, 2008

Super Bowl Thoughts Updated!

* I'm surprised, like everyone else is, that the Giants won. But in retrospect, should we be? The Patriots have looked totally mortal since week 12 with the Eagles. They got pushed to the limit by a bunch of inferior teams--like, for instance, the Eagles. Now on the one hand, they kept winning, even though they played like crap most weeks. But on the other hand, they kept playing like crap. Plus, they were due for a lose. Plus, plus, Randy Moss didn't touch the ball until the 4th quarter. The greatest offense ever was impotent.

And maybe the NFL should have a No Celebrity Girlfriends At the Game Rule.

* I bet a lot of people lost a ton of money on this game. Without bothering to look up the numbers, my guess is that most people saw the Pats and the Over as the value plays of this game. I bet they didn't work out that well.

* Another great halftime show. Maybe it's just me, but the halftimes I remember from my youth were nothing but empty spectacle with some Top 40 Act of the Moment. Having Prince last year and Tom Petty this year was brilliant and actually very entertaining.

Plus, they seem to have done away with the "crowd for hire" rushing the field to be next to the stage. Maybe the camera was deceiving me, but those folks looked like normal people.

* I loved the gimmick of having the Fox Robot fighting the Terminator. Couldn't get enough of it.

* Most annoying family sports dynasty: the Williams sisters or the Mannings? Discuss.

* Ordinarily, I root against New York teams by default, particularly the Giants. Really, I can't stand the franchise.

But I was kind of thrilled to see them win this game because of recently departed Galley Friend Bryan Sierra, a monster Giants fan who passed away 10 days ago and wasn't able to hang on to see the game. At least, not here. For Bryan I say, go Big Blue.

Update: Galley Friend S.B. sends along a story saying that bookies actually got killed last night. Huh?

According to The Spread, 64 percent of the money bet online was placed on the Giants. Considering that the Super Bowl is traditionally the biggest betting event of the year and that's a whole lot of payouts for Sports Books.

1 comment:

Paris said...

I've been saying it all season: New England is a better than average team, but they also benefited from an incredibly weak schedule. Two games each against Jets, Dolphins, Bills; pretenders Cincinnati and Cleveland; Chargers when they were struggling; horribly overrated Cowboys; injury depleted Eagles; Redskins. The only meaningful games they proved their talent in was against Indianapolis (and I believe Dungy lost that game along with their kicker), Baltimore, Pittsburgh, and the Giants.

The game has to be played, but they were almost guaranteed ten victories before the season began.

16-0 tells me more about how depleted the talent in the NFL is than it does about a supposed New England dynasty.