Super Bowl Again

Another year has come and gone, and here we are again on the eve of another Super Bowl in the National Football League. Last year’s championship game was a classic matchup between an undefeated New England Patriots “team of destiny” and an upstart, maligned New York Giants team with a lowly wild-card playoff status and a major chip on their collective shoulders. And that game was unforgettable, with the Giants coming from behind to upset the Patriots in the game’s final seconds. This year’s matchup has a vastly different feel to it. Yet the term “team of destiny” hasn’t gone away. It’s just being applied differently.

The Arizona Cardinals (formerly the St. Louis Cardinals, formerly the Chicago Cardinals) haven’t won an NFL championship since 1947, nineteen years before the first Super Bowl game was ever played. Usually consigned to the bottom of their NFC East division in the past, they “lucked” out a few years ago by being moved to the West (where they belong anyway`). And this division has been very weak this year, with Arizona winning it with its own weak 9-7 record. Not given much of a chance in the playoffs, the Cardinals proved their critics wrong and, behind popular and inspiring veteran quarterback Kurt Warner, they’ve managed to get this far. But now they are facing a pretty strong Pittsburgh Steelers team, who were impressive throughout the regular season and the playoffs.

I’ll be rooting for the Cardinals, but it will be an uphill battle. Still, that’s the kind of thing they said about the Giants last year. I’m not very passionate about this game (as I was last year), having had my NFL season this year already “made” when the Miami Dolphins won their division and made the playoffs. I just hope this year’s Super Bowl game is close enough to be interesting to its conclusion, regardless who wins.

And as a side note, I’m finding myself dreading commercial time during the game, as the quality of the ads never seems to live up to the hype leading up to their airing. I plan to take frequent kitchen, bathroom, and “chores” breaks during these commercials. And the half-time show? Forget it!