Superbowl thread
If anyone wants to talk about the Superbowl, you can do so here.
I certainly don’t plan to. But see how open-minded I am, and how dedicated to serving your needs?
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
If anyone wants to talk about the Superbowl, you can do so here.
I certainly don’t plan to. But see how open-minded I am, and how dedicated to serving your needs?
LOL. You are a giver, Neo.
Umm, but no pics of cheerleaders?
Not a football fan. Will look forward to a game by game discussion on the 2011 world series. 🙂
Neo, you are a paragon. Go Packers.
“dedicated to serving your needs”…how bout some chips and salsa while you are up.
MikeLL and jon baker: boy, give you guys an inch, you take a mile.
I have my limits.
The last time I have watched more than a few minutes of pro football was when Jim Brown was breaking records for running yardage for Cleveland and I talk with others about pro football about as frequently. Therefore, I have no hypothesis about the answer to my questions:
Is there a liberal-conservative divide between watchers and non-watchers of pro football or is this something Americans are united about?
Is there a liberal-conservative divide between supporters of the Steelers and the Packers? (I checked Google to be sure who is playing.)
I apologize if I raise a political question in what may be a more existential matter, but as you see I need guidance if I am to root for one team or the other.
May the best team win, assuming there is a conservative one.
Jim
Jim,
Don’t know about football, but outside of NYC it seems 90% of liberals hate the Yankees. (Sloppy polling data by yours truly.)
I have no dog in this particular fight. (Lifetime Broncos fan.)
My primary interest is in the stock market indicator attached to the game. One of the most reliable predictors of the stock market has been the conference that the winner is from. If the winner is from the old NFL and from the NFC, meaning Green Bay, 83% of the time the next year is a good one for the stock market. However, this year both teams are from the old NFL. Green Bay started in 1913 and is the older franchise. The Steelers didn’t get started until 1919 and were assigned to the AFC when the conferences were formed.
So, if the Packers win, we’ll have a roaring bull. If the Steelers win it will be a moderate bull. (My prediction, which is worth noting but a few chuckles.)
In the meantime here are a few numbers that are of interest. “There’s 11.2 million and 1.25 billion–the pounds of potato chips and total number of chicken wings to be consumed.”
For more on the financial aspects of the game, you can go here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2283746/
I will be watching it for the first time ever. Very much not looking forward to the game, but very much looking forward to drinking lots of beers with the guys.
Simon: That is the game.
I saw a poll result t’other day, said Repubs favor Packers (73%), Dems prefer Steelers (~55%). Packers are community-owned, the only team that is. I favor GB for that reason, too. But find superbowl games usually disappoint, and I’m not a big NFL fan anyway.
Gosh *innocently blank look* Is this weekend Superbowl weekend?
Christina Aguilera messed up the words to the National Anthem!
Steelers are digging themselves a nice hole. Where’s the defense?
And does hitting people with beer cans actually sell beer? Hmmmm.
“That is the game.” Neo, I thought you didn’t know anything about football. Clearly I misread your opener.
For Jim Nicholas, I don’t know which team is more conservative. I suspect neither, if you believe there’s a correlation between unionism and left politics. There’s a strong unionist streak in football now, and the big discussion revolves around the recent discussion of whether or not there will be a lockout/new contract.
Sorry, meant to add that Krauthammer picked GB on Friday if that’s a subliminal indicator.
I’ve never been interested in football and never watched a superbowl.
Steeler owne Dan Rooney endorsed Obama in 2008 and was named ambassador to Ireland as a reward, though I doubt that alone explains the poll numbers referenced above.
Neo, you are correct. I am on my 6th beer here and having a fine old time. It seems people are only vaguely interested in the sport part of the evening.
My family in Pittsburgh will be needing grief therapy. Maybe we can get a group rate?
My Pittsburg sister says that if you aren’ a Steelers fan, it’s a “don’t ask, don’t tell issue”
The last football game I watched was the 1977 Superbowl. Vikings / Steelers. I was a Fran Tarkenton fan, if I remember right. Nothing against sports, my ADHD won’t let me sit in one place that long.
I either didn’t like or didn’t understand all the much ballyhooed Super Bowl commercials.
Usually there are a couple of interesting commercials…this year they were all dull.
I missed the Christina Aguilera screw up with the national anthem.
Why? because I wasn’t listening after the first few bars.
Why wasn’t I listening? Because I DETEST jazzy, country, or any other thematic singing of the national anthem. I like it sung “straight up”.
However, I did like when Whitney Houston sang it at the Super Bowl in 1991…maybe it was the background situation that got me. Or that it wasn’t TOO jazzy.
Check it out here:
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/whitney-houston-at-her-best/d81da7defa937e12ec99d81da7defa937e12ec99-390751912193?q=whitney%20houston%20national%20anthem%20super%20bowl
That was a terrific game. I was gnawing my fingernails, hoping “Rapistberger” would lose (though I’ve always liked Polamalu). Aaron Rodgers carries himself with good humor and class, crediting his teammates for the win.
I really cracked up when they ran the commercial of all the old geezers who kept mis-repeating what they’d heard (a nutty version of the Gossip game). But maybe you have to have a stubborn, deaf old man in your life (who refuses to wear his hearing aids) to get the joke!
If Christina Aguilera flubbed the words to the National Anthem at Super Bowl XLV, it was unprofessional but less important (in my rarely humble opinion), compared to what so many singers do to the Anthem, when they over-stylize it and insist on putting their personal stamp on it.
In particular, whatever Ms. Aguilera sang, it did not sound to me like the Star-Spangled Banner, but like something entirely ^else^, like maybe the Martian Planetary Anthem . . .
Here is an example of how the consummate professional singer sings the National Anthem — without overly personalizing it, which he could so easily have done, given that his style is so unique in popular music.
Roy Orbison sings the National Anthem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QoQzC6aPnM
Side note — this was two months to the day before his death in 1988. Additional side note — this performance was at the start of Wayne Gretzky’s first game as a member of the Los Angeles Kings.