Super Bowl Predictions?

[mtfbuckeye]

Just for fun, what do you think will happen in the Super Bowl this Sunday?

I say: Saints 34, Colts 31

MVP: Drew Brees

What do you think?

[Sandy]

Superbowl...

Isn't that what they put between those cute commercials?

I'll be playing hostess during the game and will sit and watch the commercials.

I'll go with the Saints being ahead by two runs in the front nine...

I always hated sports when I was growing up and now I can be a proper ditz about it and people think it's cute.

-Sandy(though any game with tight ends can't be all bad!)

[Stella Blue]

I want Peyton to win so then maybe Eli can win again next year!! 

[IndigeoAliquis]

Hugs to you Saints voters.

I never was into sports, I blame 2 years of requiiiired phys ed in an all-female class during high school.
I just started passively watching some Saints and LSU games last fall (I'm now my mum's good luck charm), and one member of the Saints is from my hometown, so.. Saints. They better win, it's 'our' first time at this.

Sadly, even though Brees came in #1 in that online voting thing, he didn't win MVP or VIP or something with three letters and either a V and/or a P in it. Whatever it was. : (

EDIT:

My mum figured out how to text,.... finally. "What do Colts stand for? Count On Losing The Superbowl"

[Suzy]

I predict I will eat more pizza than Sandy.

Kristi

[tekla]

I watched the last playoff game at a very yuppie bar (it used to be a dive, I hate change) called Mad Dog in the Fog (which is a great name) and I bet the crowd in there was about 55-60% male and 40-45% female, many together and watching the game (Vikes/'Aints) as kinds of girls day out.^*  So I'm not all that sold on any of this being such a 'guy' thing anymore.  I blame NCAA Division I schools and Title IX.

You kinda like almost have to pull for the poor 'Aints.  If nothing else, its like one week until Marti Gras and that would make for one hell of a pre-party New Orleans style.  But you'd also have to be slightly crazy to bet money against Payton Manning.  He can play you for 2 1/2 to 3 quarters, and know the defense so well by that point that he just proceeds in the last part of the game to completely dismantle it.

If history is any guide the Saints will choke it.  In order for the Saints to win they need an MVP performance out of Reggie Bush, he is the real X Factor in the game.




* - We had a table full of girls next to us and in the course of the game I asked how they all got to be such big football fans, the replies ranged from 'being cheerleaders in HS/college," "having boyfriends who played," "being raised in an all male house" and, my favorite, the girl who said that her two sisters hated it, and as a young kid she started watching with her dad as a way to have some time with just him without the other two being around.

[Catherine]

At least you don't call it the World Championship. Like in Baseball, a sport that no one else in the world plays... 

[Janet_Girl]

Colts by 10

[tekla]

Well we do let the Canadians play, and half the major leagues in baseball is from Central America and the Caribbean.^*  And the Japanese are gaga for baseball.

* - The most common last names in professional level baseball are, in order, Rodriguez, Martinez, Gonzalez, Perez, Garcia, Hernandez, and Ramirez.  Not exactly WASP city there.

[Catherine]

Well we do let the Canadians play, and half the major leagues in baseball is from Central America and the Caribbean.^*  And the Japanese are gaga for baseball.

* - The most common last names in professional level baseball are, in order, Rodriguez, Martinez, Gonzalez, Perez, Garcia, Hernandez, and Ramirez.  Not exactly WASP city there.

I know, I was joking. But at least the rest of the world plays games together quite happily..

[V M]

It will end with a tie causing a huge brawl that turns into a full scale riot 

Marshal law will be declared and the national guard brought in to keep the peace and restore order

[IndigeoAliquis]

It will end with a tie causing a huge brawl that turns into a full scale riot 

Marshal law will be declared and the national guard brought in to keep the peace and restore order

Ha! I love it. Absolutely love it.

And then some insane post-game review gives the Saints some kind of point conversion and they win??? and everyone just goes and gets drunk in the French Quarter, increasing tourist revenues.
The brawl leaves the city with no casualties. Hooray.

[Sarah Louise]

Who's playing?  When is the game? 

I prefer tennis, bowling.

Sarah L.

[mtfbuckeye]

I got into a pretty heated verbal throw down with a fellow prof at my school yesterday over football/NFL/the Super Bowl... I think it's perfectly dandy if you don't like football, but she was full-on "how could anyone invest that much energy and passion into following such a meaningless spectacle..." blah blah blah...

She knows I'm a flaming lib-rul academic like her, so she was clearly taken aback by my defense of the NFL and the vast majority of its fans. I was taken back by her knee-jerk negativity and closed-mindedness. She fell back into very unscientific anecdotal arguments until I finally got her to admit that she just didn't like football... Once again, that's fine, but her original position was filled with arrogance and smug condescension.

I was tempted to tell her I was trans, and that I was more attached to the NFL than my own testicles, but decided to hold that info inside.

[tekla]

It will end with a tie causing a huge brawl that turns into a full scale riot 
Marshal law will be declared and the national guard brought in to keep the peace and restore order

That's soccer, the 'other football.'

[V M]

I actually like both teams for different reasons this year so it is a difficult one for me to call 

[mtfbuckeye]

I can't forgive the Colts for throwing away their chance at 19-0 and immortality... Plus, as a Seahawks fan, I have to pull for the underdog team that has never won before.

[tekla]

Yeah everyone was all butthurt about that, but if I had to make that choice I would have made the same one, I'm not going to let my star players get hurt in a meaningless game.  The goal of an NFL season (not like the Seahawks know - or the 9ers lately for that matter) is to win the Super Bowl, not to go undefeated. Had that done that and got Payton, or Dwight Freeney injured how mad would people have been?  Livid.  Pitchforks and fire mad.

Last time some team - them bums from NE - were in that position they lost the one game that mattered.  I'm sure they would have traded that loss for just about any other game in the regular season.  I think all that 'undefeated' stuff in the Super Bowl week would just be a freaking huge meaningless distraction.

So, do you think that the 'Aints have two offensive game plans?  One with Dwight Freeney in the game, and another with him gone?

[mtfbuckeye]

Tekla,
With all due respect I think that point of view is far too risk-averse. NFL coaches (except for Belichick) are PETRIFIED of taking risks, and that was what was at play in this situation. I might understand it better if the Colts were still trying to win their first Super Bowl, but they climbed that mountain already. This was their chance to become, without question, the greatest team of all time, and they were complete fraidy-cats about an injury. Guess what? They happen and you can't predict or control them.

Plus, if they really believed that this was the principled stance to take, why did Manning play at all during that game? Or in the finale at Buffalo? The Colts approach was completely inconsistent. By their rationale, all of their starters should have sat the entire final three weeks of the season... But they didn't.

And the 2007 Pats? If David Tyree doesn't make the most rediculous catch in NFL history, they go 19-0. Tyree's play had NOTHING to do with the Patriots going all-out for the undefeated season weeks before. Yeah I don't like New England either, but at least they were willing to put it all on the line.

Even if the Colts win on Sunday, I think this Championship will be haunted by the question: Why didn't you play for history?

[tekla]

I would think the reason they didn't play for history is that they play for money.  As you said about injuries: They happen and you can't predict or control them.
  I'd agree, but you sure can cut down on them, particularly late in the season, by not playing the people all the time, and there is a factor that given the opportunity to get some of the second string guys some playing time might be a prudent deal.  Had Texas not played Colt every game, all the game, might his replacement done a bit better when Colt went out on the first series of downs?

Still, really, had Payton or Freeney or some other key player been hurt, and they lost a playoff game, how would you have justified that?

And the most ridiculous catch in NFL history is this, still referred to as The Immaculate Reception:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xMDIcsUMmA&feature=related#