NFL - PLAYOFFS - SUPER BOWL full of Jelly

The Game Room
1

It’s been a fun season, but the last game of this year is here, and I’m hoping it will be a doozy. Both the Chiefs and the Niners looked dominant in their conference championship games, so there is hope it will be a great game to watch. So grab your adult beverages, get your chicken wings, do your squares, and let’s play the Super Bowl.

Your game:

Sunday, February 2, 2020.
Miami Florida. Kickoff at 5:30 p.m. CST

Kansas City Chiefs v. San Francisco 49ers.

Damn, I’m excited for this game. Two teams I can root for, that are very good teams, and they matchup up very well against the other. The classic “high powered offense v. stingy defense”. Here’s hoping it lives up to the hype.

But, since this is the Super Bowl, there are so many things outside of the actual game of football that grab attention. Some thoughts on those:

Ads: I just don’t get it. I didn’t get it in 1984 with the Apple ad. I don’t get the Budweiser frogs. And I won’t get whatever gets deemed the “most iconic ad” of this years’ Super Bowl. I’ll likely chuckle at some of the more amusing ones, but I honestly don’t understand watching football just to have companies try to sell you stuff. And now I’m seeing companies “premiering” their ads on morning shows (thanks waiting rooms!), so you don’t even have to watch them live. And while I’m at it, get offa my lawn.

Halftime Show: This, at least, I understand. A free show by a “major artist” with a lot of bright, flashy things. The fam and I enjoyed the over-the-topness of Katy Perry, the energy of the U2 show, and the amazingness of child-rapist Michael Jackson. I have no interest in J.Lo or Shakira this year, but my kids will watch and be entertained.

Puppy Bowl: Stupid, but cute and fun for a couple minutes.

Off field happenings: My evil side shows up as a I hope for another holier than thou player getting busted with a hooker. I am a bad person.

Prop Bets: These are very interesting to me. Who gets the first TD (Damien Williams)? Who scores more, James Hardin -7.5 or the total points in the first half (Hardin)? Which will be higher, the number of tweets by Trump on the day or the number of points the Niners score (Niners)? You can find almost anything to bet. From a gambling perspective, they’re dumb bets, but they’re fun.

Finally, onto the football game. I think the game will go as expected, with the Niners running the ball, playing defense, and trying to keep the ball out of the Chiefs hands. And I expect Andy Reid to find interesting ways to move the ball against that defense. I do think Reid is the more inventive than Shannahan, but the game usually comes down to execution, so we will see. Should be fun.

Anyone going to watch the game for football? What do you think of the ads? Who is going to win the Puppy Bowl. Let’s hear from you!

2

There will a Hyundai commercial starring Chris Evans, John Krasinski, and Rachel Dracht, all Boston area natives, but speaking with terrible Boston accents. Hyundai is currently running radio commercials here in Boston requesting we vote for it as the best ad of the Super Bowl, with the promise that “Every time you vote, a New Yorker misses the subway!” Appealing as that promise is, I haven’t voted yet.
ETA: I really hope Hyundai planned the ad back when the Patriots were 8-0 and odds on favorites to win the Super Bowl.

3

Hopefully, a close game; that’s what makes it interesting. However, if its Cheifs 42-0, I will still be happy. The commercials are for me to use the bathroom.

4

Here’s one: will there be more kickoffs in the game, or total goals scored in the two Beanpot tournament college ice hockey games (Harvard-Northeastern, and BC-BU) on Monday?

Also, you can get 30-1 if you specify the team, or 14.5-1 for both teams, that the final scoring play of the game will be a safety. IIRC, this happened the last time the 49ers were in the Super Bowl; the Ravens ran out the clock and ran the ball out of their own end zone on the last play of the game.

5

As a gay male, I dread the arrival of the same tired social media posts from everyone who thinks they’re clever.

‘I heard there was a sports ball game today!’
‘Did they hit a home run?’
‘Why are they playing football before the Shakira concert?’
And, of course, those Sound of Music memes with, ‘This is me, not caring about the Super Bowl’

And of course, from my straight and/or older friends the usual bitching about the halftime show and how it should be Guns and Roses or some ‘real music’

Could care less about the ads except to find it amusing that people who brag about never seeing ads because they’re too cool to watch broadcast TV now care about Super Bowl ads.

My mom will be sure to tell me how she’s watching the puppy bowl and doesn’t care about the super bowl and how slow the restaurants are that don’t have TVs.

For me, I’m glad we’re not seeing the Patriots and we’re seeing two teams that aren’t exactly super bowl perennials, although the Niners made it a few years ago during the Blackout Bowl. Somehow I bet the name of Colin Kaepernick isn’t mentioned during the broadcast.

I’ll be at my usual bar which will be crowded for the first time since NYE. It’s amazing how brutal January is for bars in Chicago with the lousy weather, Dry January, and people cutting back on spending. Of course, the Bears didn’t make the playoffs and the Blackhawks aren’t lighting the NHL on fire.

6

As long as this one is more entertaining than last year’s “Which QB will suck more?” contest.

I’ll probably pop in on it now and then out of curiosity unless something grabs me. Like the Philly/Pats game a couple years back I couldn’t care less about until Foles inexplicably turned into Popeye eating spinach and trounced New England. Suddenly it was fun watching something nobody could expect. Philly Special!

7

For the first time in fifty years, my team, the Chiefs, are in the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I’ll be watching it for the football.

8

Since the cat-herders all other Super Bowl commercials have been a waste of time to me.

I expect either a pretty epic game or a blow-out. If both teams bring it, it could come down to the Zebras, replay, and one bad mistake by someone in the closing minutes.

9

Previewing a Super Bowl ad is perhaps one of the dumbest, most counterproductive ideas I’ve ever heard. It’s exactly what I’d expect from PR/Advertising. Earned media…sure, whatever, idiots.

I’ll be watching from my parents house…not ideal, but my living room will still be under construction. I’m only 6 weeks behind schedule!

10

I don’t like watching commercials . If I want to watch the SB ads I am sure they will all be online after the game, probably on youtube

11

This is the first time in a long time that I don’t hate or like at least one of the teams. It’s also the first time in a long time that I will have to go to work and then be at work for half of the game. So basically I’m rooting for my pool numbers.

12

The only two rooting interests I have going into the game are 1) I like defense, so I wouldn’t mind seeing the 49ers shut down the high flying Chiefs, and 2) I’d like the Chiefs’ fanbase to celebrate their first Superbowl win in 50 years. Neither interest is very strong, though, so I’ll end up rooting for whichever team wins me over with their play during the game.

13

Puppy Bowl is brilliant. It’s probably the most attention and viewers that Animal Planet gets all year, it must be cheap to produce, and it promotes rescuing animals that need homes. It is perfect counter-programming to the Super Bowl.

Except for the kittens in their halftime show. With all the glitter and streamers, it’s clear that the kittens are over-stimulated, rather than playful.

14

I know that Mahomes is brilliant and KC’s offense present all kinds of challenges for any defense, but based on the games I’ve seen, the eye test tells me the 49ers are better. The way they can run the ball at will is something that will remind 80-year-old Chiefs fans of the Packers in Super Bowl I.

But I admit, I haven’t been following the NFL much this year and I could be way off on this one. I hope it’s a good game.

15

I agree that the only way to beat the Chiefs is to keep Mahomes off the field with a good, sustained running game, but I don’t think they can run against K.C. the way they did against the Packers.

16

If you want to know the extent of this stupid virus panic, there’s rooms available in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. According to my friend, who’s there all the time, the Strip was dead last night.

17

Those fears are completely warranted. This new plague is almost as dangerous as influenza.

18

I cannot agree. The flu kills 12-60,0000 Americans every year, and sickens 5-20 million people. A year.

19

It’s the sheer prevalence of flu that makes it dangerous, but coronaviruses often have a higher fatality rate. This particular virus is also troubling because it’s stealthier than flu - there are carriers who don’t come down with symptoms. Moreover, the virus itself can inflict damage to the lungs and cause sudden acute respiratory failure.

When you get flu, it’s the body’s immune response that typically attacks your respiratory system, which is dangerous but the symptoms can often be detected early enough to intervene and give them emergency treatment. Flu typically kills in two ways: the immune response is so severe that it literally ‘drowns’ victims, or more commonly, bacteria builds up and increases the odds of bacterial illness that can become a full-on septic event.

20

For several years, I did not get them. At all. There was always a package wild feed that I could point the dish at where the ads were completely absent. One year, the feed I found had the play calling in Spanish, and then, when the feed broadcast was off the air locally, the announcers started bantering with each other in English.