A Super Bowl novice

February 4,  2008

Over 97.5 million viewers watched the most watched Super Bowl ever in broadcast history.

I was one of them. However, you’ll soon learn that I am a football novice. Actually I rank below a novice. I know little about the semantics of football. Because I had heard a lot of pre-game discussion, I decided I would tune in on Sunday night

I phoned my son and told him I was going to eat my nacho cheese Doritos, and watch the game. I told him I knew the Patriots were going to play and that they were undefeated in preseason play.

I then asked him who the Patriots were playing in the Super Bowl. He told me the Patriots were competing against the New York Giants who were not favored to win. I told him I thought I needed to root for one team or the other. I decided to watch about 1o or 15 minutes of the game before I picked the team I wanted to win.

About 15 minutes later I phoned my son and said that I had decided to root for the New York Giants because I liked the looks of the quarterback.

“Yeah,” he said, “that’s Manning. His brother won the Super Bowl last year.”

“You’re kidding,” I said. “That must be his brother that’s up there in that booth in the shadows away from the crowd.”

I went on to tell my son that I had mixed emotions. I hated to see an undefeated team lose this game, yet I wanted the underdogs to win too. One of the players was 36 years old and that’s old for the grind of football.

I settled down to watch the rest of the game. I don’t know a lot about first downs, and all that, but I know that getting a first down is very important to the players and the coaches. And that it takes the whole team to win a game, not just the quarterback and the receivers. I didn’t know the names of any of the players so I had to familiarize myself with team members as the game progressed.

The game became extremely exciting as I watched play by play. I couldn’t believe all the outstanding throws that the quarterbacks made and the almost impossible catches.

Near the latter part of the game I was astounded to see Manning fight his way out of a tangle of Patriots who were bent on bringing him down. As Manning escaped, the Patriots were pulling and janking on his shirt tail. He broke free, then threw an amazing football to his receiver, number 85, who jumped into the air, did a backward limbo, and caught the ball. He held on despite having to fight off a Patriot who was just as bent to steal the ball away. To me, that was fabulous.

After that, I was hooked on the game. The last 15 minutes of the game I was biting my nails and standing in front of the t.v. set. The game, I knew, could still go either way. It seemed the Patriots were being outfoxed on the field.

I was thrilled when Manning made the touchdown throw and it was caught by his receiver, number 17. That play clinched the Super Bowl win for the Giants.

No, I didn’t learn a lot about the game of football. All I know is that it was an exciting game that I’m glad I didn’t miss. It sure beat watching a Hallmark rerun.

It also proves that a novice can enjoy the game.  Oh, yes, the final score was 17-14. I guess that’s important to mention.