Quote of the Week...from Tony Dungy

As big a deal as the Super Bowl is, it's not the most important thing going on in the planet.

                                                                                 ---Tony Dungy

I've always respected and admired Tony Dungy, the National Football League Hall of Fame coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Indianapolis Colts.  Focusing on revamping the Bucs' sagging defense in the late 1990s, he built them up into the talented and cohesive unit that won the 2002 championship under his successor Jon Gruden and then went on to bring a Super Bowl title to the Colts after the 2006 season.  His style has always been one of soft-spoken dignity while still demanding quality from his players...proof that you don't have to be a jerk to coach a football team.  I obviously picked his above quote since this coming Sunday will be the next installment of the annual Super Bowl spectacle, this time pitting the Los Angeles Rams against the Cincinnati Bengals.  It doesn't matter to me who wins, but just for the sake of having a side to root for I am going with LA because (1) I have always believed that their quarterback Matthew Stafford was very underrated because he played for so long with an unsupportive franchise (Detroit) and (2) I always liked the Rams' cool helmets with the horns...it was the first NFL team I rooted for in a game, back in 1967 when they played the 49ers during that regular season.  Much ballyhoo has been made about the Bengals' second-year quarterback Joe Burrow as if he's going to be the next Tom Brady...maybe he will, but do I really care?  And then there is the overhyped halftime show and the numerous expensive commercials, some of which are so contrived that not only do I often not understand them but also fail to even see what product they're selling.  I don't necessarily think that Tony Dungy wants us to sit around, instead of watching the Super Bowl, dwelling and worrying about Covid, politics, the environment, social change, Russia, or other running news stories...but they are more important than some dumbass football game.  Also, knowing what an introspective man of character and honor Dungy is, I imagine he was also referring to the fact that although spending a little time on Sunday watching a game is okay, fun entertainment, each of us has our own personal lives and relationships that dwarf it in significance.  Anyway, the day after this game the focus will be on next year and the champion will be something receding into the past to merge with the lengthening (and increasingly forgotten) list of earlier winners: it never ends...