Not Watching the Super Bowl
.For the first time since moving to California, I missed the Super Bowl. Apparently I picked a pretty bad Super Bowl to miss, with the Patriots finally unable to mount a last-moment game-winning drive (maybe because the Giants, unlike the Rams and Panthers, didn’t leave the Patriots too much time on the clock at the end?).
I didn’t watch it because, essentially, I decided that I’d prefer to spend the time working on my own projects rather than watching the game. My interest in sports has been waning, although I’ve been following a fair amount of sports news online.
Ironically, another reason I didn’t feel too enthusiastic about watching it was that I really didn’t want to see the Patriots win, seal an unbeaten season, etc. I loathe them, so a victory for them would have been pretty depressing. I didn’t count the Giants out, and thought it would be a reasonably close game, but didn’t anticipate the insane final drive that Eli Manning managed, and I didn’t expect the Giants’ defense to be quite so stifling.
The victory seems reminiscent of the Giants’ win in 1991, another time when they held a high-powered offense to a fairly low points total, although this time they didn’t let their opponents get close enough to miss a reasonable field goal.
I was actually kind of rooting for the Bills in 1991, partly because I liked their offense and partly because I was annoyed with the Giants for knocking out the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game, eliminating the 49ers’ chance for a third consecutive Super Bowl title. I don’t remember that game too well, because I remember Montana being knocked out of the game by Marshall as the critical point, whereas in fact Roger Craig’s fumble near the end was what really did the 49ers in.
This time, however, I’m very happy to see the Giants win, and to prevent the Patriots from getting another title and from a perfect 19-0 record. I don’t pretend that my sports likes/dislikes are particularly rational, and with the Patriots my loathing for them really comes down to their name, and the Tuck Rule game, and the fact that I thought that they were gifted a number of their Super Bowl victories (although, really, I was probably more irked by the fact that they beat teams I liked). Mainly it’s the name, and splash damage from their proximity to the Red Sox…
No regrets on missing it, though, as I made rather a lot of progress on the tournament runner/data entry tool for sfmagic.org instead.