Blathering Lockdown: Day Nine
Posted on February 1, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 139 Comments
BLATHER TEST:
Is the book done? NO
Blather limiter: ON
Your question for the day: Honestly now, do you really care what happens in the Super Bowl this year?
I think the last Super Bowl I cared about was in 1979, because I watched it with my Grandpa, and he had money on it, and if he won, he was going to take me to ice cream (he lost. I got ice cream anyway).
Think about it and let me know. See you tomorrow.
I’m from NYC originally, so yes, I’d like the Giants to win. But I won’t lose any sleep if they don’t. i’ve learned over the years to expect them to fall apart in the 4th quarter.
That’s football, right?
Here’s how much I don’t care about the Superbowl:
My HDTV arrived last year on Superbowl Sunday, and I set it up in time for the game, and didn’t watch it.
This one’s easy. Just cut and paste from my own blog:
Since the age of six, my family has assumed I was switched at birth. I do not give the first crap about football. If I TIVO’d the Superbowl, it would be so I could watch the commercials.
I do not care about the Giants. I do not care about the Patriots. If I have any thoughts whatsoever about the game, its that I hope whatever controversy occurs to inspire all of the endless post-game arguments next week is at least interesting.
Possible controversies I could live with:
-Whoever sings the National Anthem has a wardrobe malfunction and drops trou.
-Game called at half-time due to somebody spiking one of the teams’ Gatorade.
-Last five minutes of the game is preempted so that a rerun of Bewitched can start on time.
Don’t care about Football, Soccer, Tennis, Basketball, Hockey, Bowling, Archery, Curling, Lacrosse, Polo (water or horsey), Jai Lai, or competitive eating.
I can’t even think of all the sports I don’t care about. Don’t Care. Don’t Care. Don’t Care.
Ask me about sports when baseball season comes around again. Golf is OK, too.
Personally, I only watch if my team’s in it (which is rare). Otherwise, it seems silly to watch a bunch of commercials and pretend they’re entertainment.
I’m interested, because I don’t want NE to go undefeated (rotsa ruck on that one) and because I’m actually going watch it at a party with alcohol and chili and other stuff that makes parties fun. Sports is more fun when you watch it with others.
the ads
I find it’s usually a bunch of cool commercials being constantly interrupted by some tedious game.
OK. I have been a New England Patriots fan for about 15 years now. So, yes I do care about the game and I do want the Pats to win. Will I fall into a deep depression if they do not? Nope. But it would be a bummer.
I have the dubious honor of living in Glendale, AZ, where the Super Bowl will be held.
I am so-o-o-o glad that they built that stadium in the southern part of the city, whereas I live in the northern part. This means that on Super Bowl Sunday, there is a vague possibility I could go grocery shopping without being stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, getting diverted onto roads where All Routes Lead To Stadium, and having to pay umpty-ump bucks for a parking space.
Nonetheless, my plan is to stock up on BBQ and munchies, hunker down in the house, and celebrate National Netflix Day. Boo-yah!
Nope, don’t particularly care. I’d like to see NE lose, but then again I’d like to see the Giants lose badly, just because it would make GRRM punish the Starks even more, and maybe after he ranted and raved a bit he’d sit down and finish the darn thing.
It is desperately important to me that one of the teams win. Which one, not so much.
The Seahawks are not involved.
Boo.
And that was one of the most horrible awful terrible playoff games in HISTORY.
The super whatnow?
Honestly, I couldn’t care less. Totally not my thing. In fact, the only times I care about any sport at all is either when the St. Louis Cardinals are playing, or when I’m at a hockey game. Yes, AT a hockey game. Hockey is the most boring sport to watch on TV.
I don’t really care who wins this year or most years, although the NY Giants will make George R.R. Martin happy. Grew up sort of a Chiefs fan because they were the nearest team.
What I do care about is that I live less than a mile away from the official super bowl parties being held in Downtown Scottsdale (Glendale isn’t hip enough yet to host the parties, they just have the new stadium). So it’s now well after 11 pm tonight and I can hear the bass thumping from what I thought was my upstairs neighbor. I stepped outside and realized it was what sounded like a rapified version of Mr. Roboto coming from the direction of the dancing spotlights in the sky a few blocks away. I figured the police would be getting complaints about the noise, so gave them a call to add my name to the list and was told they had permits to keep it going until 1 am! I guess I can come in late to work tomorrow and say I didn’t get any sleep because Paris Hilton was hosting a party next door and wouldn’t turn it down.
No
I find it useful to know when it’s on so I can go someplace that would otherwise be crowded on a Sunday afternoon to enjoy the peace and quiet.
i agree with arachne jericho, seahawks not envolved? don’t care.
I actually have the opportunity to work a public health tent at the super bowl this year. So when people start dropping in the stadium I get to decide if it was because they drank too much, or because someone left the hot dogs out all night. So in terms of everyone’s gastrointestinal health, yes, I care.
Nope. I really do watch it for the commercials and the ensuing wackiness. I can’t remember the last time I actually cared about the game. Maybe in ’86.
Superbowl Shuffle.
Well, I care insofar as dinner business at the takeout where I work will be nonexistent on Sunday, and I’m hoping to talk my way into a day off. If not, I’ll probably bring a book to work.
*raises hand*
Patriots fan since Drew Bledsoe arrived(which was the same year I started watching football, in general)
Superbowl – that’s on Super Tuesday, right? ;-)
But seriously, no – I don’t give damn. Given that the match kicks-off somewhere after 11pm (UK time) I won’t be even tuning in out of idle curiosity.
But for those of you who do care – good luck. Hope your team wins!
Can’t say that I care at all, although for some reason my wife does. Which just means that she can go over to a friend’s house to watch it, while I stay home and, say, build lego structures with our daughter. Which is way more fun than watching a football game.
Colin F @23:
Actually, the mayor of Boston is planning a victory parade for the Pats on Super Tuesday. Because voter turnout is too high in this country, apparently.
For the original question, I sort of care because of the classical hubris-based narrative being set up. But even then not too much.
Tell me more about this superb owl of yours.
I like the whole Super Bowl thing. I like the parties, I like the ads, I even like football. This year, the game will be a total win-win situation. Either Tom Brady and the Patriots will finish off their perfect season (take *that* 1972 Dolphins!), or the Giants will spoil that, with Eli Manning being able to say, “See, I am as good as my brother after all! Nyah!” In between, there will be ads that companies spent millions of dollars to create (and more millions to actually show), and much food and drink and camaraderie will go on.
Super Bowls are good excuses for parties. The game itself is a bonus, if you happen to like football. I’ve been to Super Bowl parties where we forgot to turn on the TV. :-)
Don’t care. Never have, never will.
They have a super bowl now?
I may not like the Pats. Being a Cleveland boy originally, I don’t like Belichick for what he did to Bernie Kosar.
But it’s the first perfect season since 1972. And there are more games than in 72. It’s history. Fluff history, but history.
That said, yeah, I won’t give a damn after Sunday.
No, I don’t care about American football, except wondering what on earth possessed you guys to take a game where you spend a lot of time running around with an oblong ball in your *hands*, as opposed to kicking it with your *foot*, and then call it *foot*ball. Bad at anatomy or something?
My boyfriend does like to watch it, which is the only reason I know what it even looks like and that the 15 minutes clock spends more time being stopped than running, so we’re talking about a lot more than 15 minutes.
I don’t get it.
Keep in mind that I don’t care about any sports at all and have absolutely no respect for professional sports anymore and I don’t mind you having this game, or my boyfriend liking it (though the time difference means that if he wants to watch it live, he will have to stay up until 4 am) – I just don’t get why you insist on calling it *foot*ball, that’s all.
Rant over. Feel free to go “boo!” and call me a Bad Person(tm) if you feel like it ;-P
Think about it and let me know.
What’s to think about? Heck, no, I don’t care. Why does anyone care?
Not interested in any super bowls here. I prefer to eat reasonable portions, in rather ordinary-sized bowls…
Among the many things that are done in the World instead of sport, gridiron football is among the more interesting (as a rugby fan I can see just enough similarity for my attention to be engaged, and just enough skill to be mildly impressed by some of the action). Having said which, so little of the TV presentation seems to consist of actual ‘play’ that the whole thing is pretty much unwatchable, except in bewildered fascination – no wonder people throw parties etc. to give themselves something else to do while it’s on.
Man, I can’t even get excited about the ads this year. Last time I got excited about one was when the Bucs, free from the curse of the Orange Jerseys, who lost their way through my childhood, wallop the Raiders. While I was in Costa Rica. And yes, I had money riding on that game. And then they drafted Chris Simms. As a Texas Ex, I knew where that one was going.
I’ll be excited about the game if, due to a loophole in the rules or possibly a very odd wormhole, the 48ers are suddenly playing in the game. Otherwise, it’s two east coast teams neither of which I give a darn about.
Yeah, the Patriots are good. However, they’ve had their time in the limelite, and dynasties are bad unless it happens to be a 49ers dynasty. (ah, those were the days…) So, I’ll probably be rooting for the Giants, especially since the friends I have coming over for the game used to live in Boston and therefore are Patriots fans.
I’m a Giants fan through and through. So, yes.
Plus I hate the Pats. Kinda like how everyone hated the Bulls when Jordan played, or how everyone hated the Cowboys won 3 in 4 years (I forget exactly how many). It’s time for them to fall : )
… I hope.
Grown men, beating the crap out of each other over a piece of leather/plastic/pigskin/what-have-you?
Meh.
And as for the ads, I used to care, when I worked in advertising. Now, not so much. Ever since I got rid of my cable service, my tolerance for intrusive marketing has plummetted. This is a good, good thing.
The what?
Not really, but it would be interesting to witness the Patriots have a perfect season.
I have to join the majority of people here. I don’t give a rat’s posterior about (a) football (b) who is playing, or (c) who wins.
That goes for ALL organized sports. Sports are for playing, not for watching.
Yes, I do care. I actually had a conversation at another blog yesterday commiserating over the reactions by some folks at Arisia to the idea that genre fans can also be sports fans. It’s another form of fandom, and there is overlap.
Which isn’t a slam at the theme of this post, as there are a zillion reasons to not care about the Super Bowl, not least of which being that the Jets aren’t in it. And that baseball starts in a few weeks.
At the risk of confirming what most people probably think of me, I have NEVER, not even once, watched the Super Bowl. I know. Un-American.
SO, who’s playing? Patriots and who? Giants?
Last Superbowl I *really* cared about? 1986.
I still have my Black and Blues Brothers poster…
Of course, when the Bears managed to return to the big game? My son broke his toe about 30 seconds after kickoff— and we didn’t return from hospital until the cooler got dumped on Dungy.
I do care, only through hatred. I’m a Redskins fan, so I hate the Giants. I also want the 1973 Dolphins to STFU about being the only undefeated team, although I’m leery about 40 years of Patriots trash talking about being the only 16 game era undefeated team.
Otherwise, it’s an excuse to eat ribs, wings, chips and a block of cheese the size of cow’s lung. Every other weekend when I do that my excuses are much more feeble.
Being Canadian, the only sports i care about happen on ice. I don’t think i have ever “cared” about a super bowl game…But Stanley Cup Playoffs? Now that is another game entirely. (literally)
Do I care what happens … not really. I’m a Browns fan, too. But I will watch it and hope to find it entertaining. Either outcome brings its share of drama, if one is interested in such things. I do hope that Tom Petty keeps his clothes on during the half-time show.
The pregame will feature a Pepsi commercial done purely in American Sign Language produced by Pepsi employees with disabilities. I’m looking forward to that, too.
The only superbowl I ever paid any attention to was the one with the Apple Mac commercial featuring HAL 9000. That was in 1999 or 2000. I turned it off as soon as I’d seen the commercial.
Yes, I really am that much of a geek.
I don’t care.
I only watch it for the commercials and the inappropriate content.
Well, the Broncos are rebuilding this year (revisionism rules!) and if we suck next year, we will decide around week 10 that we are rebuilding then too, so I don’t have a horse in the race.
That being said, watching my five year old root for the ‘GoGiants’ will be fun, although he really does like the American flag, so he may switch to the Patriots. He likes to be on the winning side, after all, and doesn’t understand about the ’72 Fins, who are asses.
Typical comment from a member of the ’72 team:
“The Dolphins are not embarrassing me (with regard to the Dolphins almost record breaking terrible season this year), because our record’s at the top of the heap,” Mercury Morris said. “That’s not my team. People say, `Your team is doing bad.’ I say, `My team all has AARP cards.”
That’s loyalty for you.
Giants fan since I was 4, so yes. Plus, I’ve lived in Boston for 13 years, so the Patriots are my #2 team. So, like a poster above, I can’t lose. Either my Giants win, or the Pats are a historic 19-0.
And yes Clay, it would be nice to hear the end of the ’72 Dolphins. And I hope the Pats have class enough that we don’t see Heath Evans on ESPN in 30 years still talking about it.
Actually, I do. I’ve been a Pats (New England Patriots for those of you who don’t follow football) fan since I was a teenager (back then we called them the patsies, on account of how bad they sucked). I’m glad to see they’ve really turned themselves around in the last decade or so.
So, go Pats!!!!
I’m a nerd. If it was the D&D Superbowl, I might; but it’s not, so I don’t.
I do. I enjoy football. The chess game. The ballet. The brutality.
I care. I like watching a good football game. (hopefully it will be good).
I can do without all the ex-football players yanking about it on TV before the game/halftime/after the game.
For me, I like watching a sport that I’ve played before. So I really only care about football and motorcycle racing. In the US that means I get lots of the first and not enough of the second.
I could care less.
I like playing sports, not watching them.
Being from MA, I’ve been a Patriots fan since I was little. So I would like them to win. But I’m a lazy fan, and won’t really be upset if they lose.
Grew up and still live just north of Boston, so I pretty much have no option but to live and die by the fate of the Red Sox, Patriots and, at least this year, the Celtics. (Nobody I know can really be bothered to pay attention to the NHL anymore.)
Okay, I exaggerate slightly, but yes, I will be watching and enjoying the game, in the company of friends who are all Packers and Bills fans, and also masochists.
I live in Boston and originally come from NYC, but I’m pretty apathetic about sports. The day after the Super Bowl, I’ll check the news to see if the Pats continued their winning streak, just for kicks.
I could not, in fact, possibly care any less than I do about the Superbowl. I can think of a hundred things I’d rather be doing with my Sunday afternoon than watching people throw a pigskin around amidst a hyper-commercialized spectacle.
And yet one of my professors is requiring us to watch it for class. On top of normal reading. There are days I loathe the social sciences.
Like Frogg @ #51, I was born and raised a Giants fan. As an adult, I moved to MA the same year Bill Parcells was hired as the Pats head coach. He brought all the Giants players he could up to NE that first year so it was kind of like watching the Giants – North version.
I’d love for the Giants to win the Superbowl and I think they have a pretty good chance. It would be so cool to see them be the ones to kill the Pat’s winning streak. However, being a Giants fan as long as I have, I know we’re in for a long game (the game at GB was TYPICAL Giants). But if the Pats won I won’t be too sad. Either way it’s a cool entry in the NFL record books.
36 years of absolutely no care about what happens in 99% of pro sports, and no sign of changing.
I always root for the team that is from the farthest west. Unfortunately, I can’t do that this year. I’m at a complete loss on who to cheer for. So, no, I don’t really care. I’ll watch and if it’s a good game then I’ll be happy.
i live in new jersey where people are pretty much INSANE about the giants. know what? i could care less. i don’t get football. i think it’s boring and lame. i can watch baseball, i actually enjoy it on occasion, but i hate football. and apparently i’m the only person in jersey who feels this way.
No.
Being from Wisconsin and seeing as the Packers lost out on going… Nope, not a bit. (I do think that the Patriots are going to stomp the Giants, though.)
I like going to Superbowl parties, but since the kids were born, we seem to have dropped off of most of those guest lists. I guess some people are uncomfortable screaming profanity-laced invective at the TV in the presence of small children.
I do enjoy the commercials, to the extent that I will hunt down the ones I missed on the net the next day. I don’t give a rat’s ass about the game, although I faked it last year since the Bears were playing, and the Mrs. and the kids were excited.
Well, my ex-boss at work is a Giants fan and a heckuva nice guy, so I’d like to see them win for his sake. So much so, apparently, that earlier this week I dreamed that they won (30-27, tie-breaking field goal in the last seconds – you heard it here first).
Also the ads. But please, God, no wardrobe malfunction for Tom Petty at half time.
Nikkita,
I don’t get it.
That is understandable. It is a testosterone thing. If I had to list the moments in my life when I felt the most alive and fulfilled it was while playing football.
Watching the game is a pale shadow of that.
My only real football thrill left would be watching the MN Vikings finally win the Superbowl, so no, I don’t really care about this Superbowl.
Ever since someone pointed out that football fans are heavily into Cosplay I’ve been somewhat intrigued. But, I didn’t know who was playing and if I watch it will only be because House is coming on after and I’ll want to be sure I don’t miss the beginning.
I don’t have a rooting interest in the game, but I’m a great appreciator of human excellence, in any form. That’s what’s on display in any top tier professional championship game/series. Want to watch for that reason alone.
Really does the game even seem real with all the bloated commercials and extended half time? I believe it is taking the place of Christmas—the real reason for it is to get together with your friends, buy, eat and drink copious amounts of food and alcohol. Another happy Commerce day! Ugh.
Like others here, I’m a born-and-bred New Englander. Thanks to my mom, the Most Insane Patriots Fan on Earth(tm), I’ve been a Patriots fan for as long as I can remember. I’ve suffered through some truly awful times, had my heart stomped at the tender age of 11 by the weight of shattered hopes in Super Bowl XX (I will never, ever, EVER forget the deer-in-the-headlights look on Tony Eason’s face for as long as I live), was a huge Drew Bledsoe fan, even after the ascension of Tom Brady. A part of me still can’t believe that my bumbling Pats are one of the best footbal teams in history, and have this decade put together a run on par with the Steelers of the 70s, 49ers of the 80s or Cowboys of the 90s.
So, yes, I can safely say I care.
That being said, I always watch the Super Bowl. I am an avid (American) football nut, and even when I don’t have a rooting interest in the outcome, I still love to watch the game. Much to my wife’s chagrin.
Go Pats!
Sort of. It’s a fun tradition in our household, and I have lived in both northern New Jersey and metro Boston, so I have lingering affection for both teams. Plus, it’s an occasion for us to deliberately eat unhealthy foods and pretend it’s traditional. (Since we’re vegetarians, it’s weird vegetarian food. We always get some Gardenburger BBQ Riblets, among other things. It’s tough to eat when the food is so danged funny.)
Most years, I’ll have forgotten the result by March; if the Patriots win, I suspect this year will be an exception. History ‘n’all that.
Am I alone in looking forward more to the game than the ads?
I care…I would love to see the Giants win becuase they beat the Packers.
Signed
Vikings Fan from Minnesota
I am sad. I’m from NYC…GO GIANTS! Just moved to Cleveland this Monday, no one here gives a rats ass one way or the other. My team finally makes it after so many yrs and I can’t share the moment with other fellow New Yorkers. So like I said…I am sad. Input sad face :(
I don’t even know, or care, who is playing. In all my 60+ years I have never watched any football or basketball game on TV. (I watched parts of a few baseball games due to misguided teachers in junior high who thought it was a great treat for us.) I will not be watching. I will not be attending the superbowl party I was invited to. This impacts my life as much as the hugo awards impact the lives of the wild tribes of the Amazon.
When my son was in high school, someone asked him who he thought would win the superbowl. He said, “Sorry, I don’t follow baseball.” He was never asked again.
S&S #74 – You’re not the only one. The ads used to be the frosting on the cake, but I’ve found the ads lacking in recent years. Last year my SIL (who runs into the room at commercial breaks to watch) couldn’t think of one ad that stood out.
No, but thank you for asking.
Yes. I’m a Lions guy myself, and I’m a Peyton Manning fan, so, uh, I guess I want the Giants to win because of their NFC connection to the Lions and I want the Giants to win to beat Tom Brady.
Ah, the annual tradition of unveiling new and supposedly exciting or interesting advertising while men hammer each other senseless for the viewers’ pleasure. Has anything really changed since the Roman Coliseum?
Seriously, though, if I’m not at work, I’ll use the game as an excuse to bring home hot BBQ and cold, cold beer, then consume both, thereby completely destroying the rest of the day.
Let’s see…football…is that the one with the round white ball with the stitches on it, or the funny-shaped brown ball?
Don’t care. Didn’t even realize it was happening this weekend until I found out our Mothers of Multiples group was meeting on Sunday at noon this month and the president pointed out that it was OK because “the game” didn’t start until the afternoon. Oh, right, thanks.
Is that coming up soon?
I have better thing to do with my life than track the movements of athletic mercenaries.
However, I will watch the comercials on the internet later.
Just cus’ I’m a miserly odd suspot I’d say that I hope the New England Patriots take a dirt nap. That truly, in my mind at least, would fall under the category of an epic fail. And no…I’m not an internet troll.
While I am not a football fan, I do feel the need to note that if I’m hoping about who wins the Super Bowl, it’ll be the Giants. Because the Patriots don’t deserve it.
While chess is my preferred non-video game competitive activity of choice, I do read the news, and I personally believe that the 2007 season of the New England Patriots should have ended on September 13th, 2007, when the NFL levied punishment on them for videotaping the play signals of the opposing team during their game on September 9th against the New York Jets.
Having been the mark used for cheating in an academic setting on more than one occasion, I am particularly harsh against it. While the coach was fined half a million dollars, the team a quarter million, and their first round draft pick was taken away for the 2008 draft, I think they should’ve been harsher. Their season should’ve been canceled, or at very least, they should’ve been deprived of all draft picks for this year as well as being ineligible for the 2007 playoffs.
I’m a college student. If I got caught cheating on a test,(Since my moral standards are comfortably above this mark, this will never happen) the best I can expect is for the professor to take my test, throw it away, and give me a zero on the test. If I get caught plagiarizing a paper or essay, I get an automatic F for the class. If I get caught plagiarizing AGAIN, I face expulsion. It should also be noted that cheating would almost certainly invalidate any scholarships I am currently recieving.
Getting a 0 on a test could be compared to having a game automatically assigned as a loss. Getting an automatic F for the class can be compared to having your season ended or not being allowed to enter the playoffs(no matter how hard you work after, the F is guaranteed). And scholarships, which are free money for education based on fulfilling certain conditions, can be compared to draft picks, which are free players(they have to be paid, but not actively recruited from other teams and they get no say in who picks them).
While 750K in fines and a first round draft pick being denied isn’t getting away with completely it in my understanding, it’s still significantly short of sending the message that cheating while in full knowledge of the fact that what you are doing is against the rules of your organization will absolutely not be tolerated.
Never cared, hailing from the UK I’m more bothered about the England Vs Wales Rugby match tomorrow. And being Welsh, I’m depressed and not entirely hopeful.
But then that wasn’t what you asked. So I’ll shut up now.
don’t care but one of my friends offered to make homemade wings at my home so we’re hosting a party
To Sam@76:
Congratulations on moving to Cleveland. Browns fans only care about the game to the extent that a) they want Bellichick to fail because they hate him or b) they want Bellichick to win to prove how bad the Browns organization sucked when they let him go.
That being said … you’ve moved to a city with a long, sometimes tragic, football history. The fans are loyal beyond compare (usually second only to GB for their devotion). If you’re able to change loyalty to your new city, you’ll be repaid with heartbreaking, exhilarating, battery throwing, howling fun. As hard as it is sometimes, I still recommend embracing the horror.
Actually no.
The last time I was worked up for a Superbowl was when the 49ers won the fitth one.
I could not care less. If the weather is nice I am going for a hike on Sunday. If not maybe I will clean out my closet. I do like hearing about the ads but not enough to watch the game. But Hey – on Saturday there is a signing for the new Wild Cards book here in Albuquerque and most of the authors will be there – I’m excited about that.
-Patricia
As my Irish mother frequently says, during any sporting event I watch, “Aahh, tisn’t it a pity they both can’t lose.”
I will probably go rock shopping during the Super Bowl. I haven’t given a shit since the 90’s, and I stopped watching even the commercials uh…late 90’s.
Yes I care about the superbowl BECAUSE:
1. George rr Martin loves the NY Giants and I am a fan of Martin ergo I root for the Giants in the superbowl.
2. The first football team I ever loved was the 1972 Miami Dolphins. When other little girls had pictures of David Cassidy on their walls, I had Bob Griese. So I have to root against the Patriots and their perfect season.
3. I live in Minnesota. We gave New England Big Papi (Red Sox) and we gave them Kevin Garnett (Celtics) and now they have Randy Moss (Patriots). It’s too unfair: Patriots must lose.
Don’t talk to me about Johan Santana, man. I’ll rupture something.
My husband will be grumpy if the Pats choke, so yeah, I do care. And it would be nice to hear the ’72 Dolphins STFU for five minutes about how awesome they were.
I’m going to make chili and look out for the good commercials. Hooray for digital video, which makes the unwatchable fairly tolerable!
Yes, but I’m from Nebraska and we’re taught from infancy that absolutely nothing is more important than football. People from other states think that’s silly, but in our defense there isn’t anything more important in Nebraska.
I’ll tune in, more for the commercials & the Heartbreakers at halftime. I have no rooting interest in either team & I will not tune in for the19 hours of pre-game stupidity.
Also, the Discovery Channel is running a “Mythbusters” marathon on Sunday, so I’m planning on spending some quality time with Kari Byron.
Yes, I am shallow, but I’ve learned to live with it.
Superbowl… nooo, I don’t follow the volleyball.
(More seriously, I like the *sounds* of a football game. Something from childhood. But I couldn’t care less who wins.)
*yawns*
How entertaining could it possibly be to watch a one sided game?
Also, I’m not a big football fan and hockey rules in Canada.
Apathy is lethal.*
see comment #2
*I don’t care. ;-)
My husband works for Anheuser-Busch, and thank goodness, they send the link to the employees where you can watch the ads prior to the game. So we don’t have to suffer through watching such a boring competition just to catch the A-B ads. They’ve been pretty lame the last few years anyway.
So that would be a “no”.
I agree with #4…except that curling is awesome. Especially women’s curling. How many other sports involve women yelling “hard hard hard!” over and over?
American football… A game so dull, people look forward to commercials for excitement.
That would be a *no*, John.
Heh… Didn’t see #100 when I posted.
That’s almost uncanny…
Are you friggin’ nuts? No. No way do I care. There are more important things going on in our world like,
Will Bret Michaels find love this time?
football? cripes.
The super bowl would be better if it were the Stanley Cup championship but even that has been boring the last few years. Here’s the fundamental problem with the super bowl, it is always in a warm weather or indoor stadium, add on the lame half time shows, crummy commentary, billions of TV commercials and it equals very boring. Put it outside, if the game was at Lambo during a freak blizzard it would be a great sight to behold. Yeah, a team like Green Bay might have a slight advantage in that climate to a team from say,,,,Florida, but who cares? As many of us I’m sure can relate, I can barely remember any of what happened in the last few superbowl games but I remember Janet Jacksons boobie and several Pepsi, Bud, and Coca Cola commercials. (sigh) ):
I want to see the Patriots win, because I want to see them have a perfect season. but I don’t think I’ll be watching the game. I think I might even be scheduled to work at that time.
I would like to see both teams run full force at each other and expolode on impact.
Even when we watched the Super Bowl (25 years ago), the pregame and halftime spectacles were painful. Now, we’re thoroughly indifferent. Some of the ads are good, but not worth waiting around for. Of course, nothing could top the Outpost.com ads.
I love football, so, yeah, I’m gonna watch. And I have five bucks in the office pool…so I care.
I would pay to NOT watch football. If the TV is on in our house on Sunday (and it’s a good bet it won’t be) it will not be on the channel with the super bowl.
Super Bowl? No. Puppy Bowl? Hell, yes.
I have nothing but indifference for American football.
I will be watching the super bowl this year, however, because one of the starters on the Giants is a kid from my high school graduating class that I grew up with.
I don’t really care who wins, so long as it’s not the Giants or the Patriots. Hate ’em both.
I’m watching this year because a.) new HDTV as of last Sunday, b.) commercials, and c.) cameraderie.
Now if the Vikings were in it, it’d be a whole different story.
I care very much about the Super Bowl, but I can’t for the life of me figure out why. I think I’m the result of some kind of young male programming experiment.
Oh my, aren’t we all such intellectual snobs!
Heaven forbid that one who loves literature, music, science fiction, fantasy, science and technology might also love sports.
Is the Superbowl ridiculous hype? Of course.
I grew up in Boston and spent much of my adult life in New York. So, hell yeah, I’m going to watch it, root for the Pats, and be sorry if they lose. If one cares at all about human achievements, the Patriots might accomplish a feat that will rank with any.
If you don’t care about sports at all, then go to your quiet place and be happy. But, keep your snobbery under control. As is the case with all forms of snobbery, It’s unseemly and often wrong.
Adam @ 111. – Yeah, Puppy Bowl! With Kitty Half-Time – much better than any sport!
Adam @ 111, Tammy @116: The Kitty Half Time is going to be SO much better than Tom Petty, any day.
Once again, I was not organized enough to throw a Puppy Bowl party. Oh well. PUPPIES! NOM NOM NOM NOM…
I want it over as soon as possible so I can see the new episode of House after.
Mr. Scalzi, the NFL would like a word with you regarding your unapproved use of their trademarked term “Super Bowl.” Please bend over.
Giants. Two reasons.
Meadowlands stadium supposedly has Jimmy Hoffa built into one of the support columns (maybe that’s why they vibrated so much when Boston played there – the band, not a team) and any team making such a stadium their home deserves a little respect, if you catch my drift (finger laid across nose, if you catch my drift).
And
What city are the Patriots from? I can’t seem to find a city named ‘New England’ anywhere on the map. Obviously no one wants them. If Boston, or Portland or Hartford or Providence are too ashamed to put their name on that team, they shouldn’t even be playing, let alone going for a title.
I experimented with Superbowls back in my early twenties; ’85 and ’86, “daa Bearrss”, the parties! The chilli! It was my only way to be a rebel and still fly under the radar. Insurgency against hockey and the NHL, I mean cup games in June c’mon.
Pitchers and catchers in a couple of weeks! Football?!
Go Cubs! (sigh).
I just don’t care.
I don’t like football. I know, on an intellectual level, that there are a great many tactical decisions, skills, and other neat things involved in the game. But to me, it just looks like a lot of guys banging into each other and falling down.
Beefcake in Lycra uniforms. (ok, that could apply to cycling too, but they’re so gaunt!)
Plus, great commercials, great snacks, and oh yeah, an actual game… not bad.
But I, too, am sad that my Seahawks are perennial almost-but-not-quite guys. Someday I’d like for my husband to be able to watch the Superbowl in person.
Mr. York @ 115,
I’ve checked Sunday’s TV listings and my intellectual snobbery will lead me to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and America’s Funniest Home Videos.
Yes, I do go for the highbrow and look down my nose at lesser beings.
Two words.
Puppy. Bowl.
Aaaawwwwwesommmmmme.
(Ok, that was three words. WHATEVER.)
Short post just to prove that I can.
Born in New York City (better, and literally true: “I was born on Broadway”). The Giants are in New Jersey. When dinosaurs walked the Earth, THE game in America was Baseball. This dates me: I was a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. Used to sneak into the bar at the Bossert Hotel where the Dodgers liked to hang out boozing, until someone’d say “hey, who let that kid in?”
But my Dad graduated Harvard, cum laude. I did grad school at UMass. My brother Andy was married in Cambridge. Stephen King is in New England, and a Red Sox fan, and they’re World Champions. And the Celtics kick ass. So somehow Boston has become the center of galaxy.
Used to watch the Patriots practice in summer at the Umass/Amherst athletic field.
I have a really big theatre-quality screen and a digital projector and a satellite dish. My friends will bring snax and bheer.
19 is a prime number.
Destiny.
PUPPY BOWL on Animal Planet!! Hell, yeah! The Labs and the Boxers are gonna kick some tail this year. Whooooooo!
The most inspired innovation in the communication of sports in our time? The Water-Dish-Cam. Duh.
101 – how about that Japanese womens Olympic curling team? Droool.
As a Viking fan I’m glad the Packers didn’t make it.
Also, sometimes it is fun to watch a really good game when you are not vested in a team. Your heart doesn’t get ripped out and stomped on…
Favorite commercial?…can’t remember the product but it was the cowboys herding cats. So cute!
I’m not about to read all the comments…did anybody correct the spelling of “stupor bowl” yet?
#115: No, it doesn’t take intellectual snobbery to not care about something. I just don’t like sports. It isn’t because I think I am better or smarter than those who do. It started back in 6th grade, when I was attending a rural elementary school. We had a baseball team which played 6th grade teams from 2 (maybe 3) other schools. One day I heard cheering about “We’re the best! We’re number 1!” etc. I wondered why this school should be better than the others, just because it was the closest to me? That made no sense. I had never seen the other schools, and knew nothing about them. Why should I insist that mine was better?
I also don’t like beer, tea, fruitcake, romance novels, or horseradish. What I don’t like has nothing to do with intellectual snobbery, only with what I don’t like. Most likely the others who expressed a dislike of sports could say the same or something similar.
Closely related questions including: “Who, in the post-Revolution depression, opened a hardware and home goods store, by 1788 also opened an iron and brass foundry in Boston’s North End, recognized a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival (Second Great Awakening) that followed the war and became one of the best-known metal casters of that instrument, working with sons and Joseph Warren to cast the first bell made in Boston and produced over 900 in total?” and discussion thereunto may be found at:
Traditional Beverages
Category: Food
Posted on: February 1, 2008 9:18 AM, by Chad Orzel,
The Super Bowl is Sunday, and a look in the fridge shows that I’m low on beer. What sort of beer should I buy to drink with the game?
Off-line, Tim Poston [Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Warwick (UK), 1972,
Dissertation:”Fuzzy Geometry”,
Mathematics Subject Classification: 22: Topological groups, Lie groups;
Advisor 1: E. Christopher Zeeman
Advisor 2: Roger Penrose]
* Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Professor, Mathematical Modelling Unit ,
National Institute of Advanced Studies, Indian Institute of Science
Campus, Bangalore 560012, India
etcetera, emailed me:
“Why stick with lesser anæsthetics like alcohol, when complete game-immunity is so widely available?”
to which I replied:
“If atheism is a religion, then not playing football is a sport;
and not playing Chess is a board game,
albeit slightly lower complexity than not playing Go.”
I have a preference for the first time in my life. My cousin is on a team, although he hasn’t played all year and is on the injured list, but he’d still get one of those shiny rings, so go Giants. Lucky me, I get to combine curling and football in one day!
The crazy, let me show you it:
Here in Phoenix, Super Bowl hype has reached the point where the CLASSICAL radio station is having Super Bowl themed programming.
I’ll be watching the game and cheering for the Patriots. But if I have to pee during the first two quarters, I’ll be doing it during the game, not during the commercials.
When I got married twelve years ago, I had zero interest in football and only marginal interest in baseball. My husband, who grew up around Boston, corrupted me, though I still don’t watch most regular-season games. (Made easy with baseball by the fact that Minnesota TV stations rarely carry Red Sox games.)
I was all confused and then I realized, “oh, you mean /American/ Football”. That is, not the real sort of football, you know, where you play with your foot.
And, yes, I have been spending a lot of time in Europe and parts of West Africa recently. Why do you ask?
Best deconstruction of fandom yet: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33426
All Hail the New York Giants.
NEW YORK GIANTS!!!!!!