The Wandering Minstrel

We’re not going to post a lot here today - just a quick review of the Superbowl. We watched the game in its entirety, but took an after-dinner walk during the halftime show. We’re not into “The Who.”

The Better Half was a bit disappointed with the outcome. I remained pretty indifferent since I just wanted to watch the best two teams get to the Superbowl and I think they did. The final score was a bit lopsided but it was actually closer than that in the stats.

We rated the commercials this year as mostly either weird, boring or stupid with only a couple of exceptions. When Jack (the plastic-headed fast food clown) impaled his plastic pointed hat in the concrete river bed after a failed bungee jump off of a bridge above, we both had a good laugh over that one. Go Daddy outdid themselves for best commercial by a pack of morons this year.

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints for their victory. To the Colts, you have nothing to be ashamed of . . .

Now for the football withdrawals . . . We used to watch the Pro Bowl the week after and that would let us down easy, but the NFL screwed that up for us.

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to move the pro Bowl out of Hawaii and to a time slot a week before the Superbowl. Way to go genius. Now the players in the Pro Bowl will be without the best players in the NFL, namely the members of the two Superbowl teams. How can they call it a showcase of the best NFL players when nobody playing tonight will be going to the big show?

I will miss the casual Hawaiian spirit and the bright Aloha prints worn by the coaching staff. I will miss the post-season atmosphere wherein all the best players came to participate. Tell me what you think by voting in the poll. Thanks.

A long time ago, my Dad and I went to a Pro Bowl when they were playing it in the Los Angeles Colliseum. It was after the season as I recall. Dad and I really enjoyed going.

The Better Half and I watched all of the football games played this wild card weekend of playoffs. Until the late game today, the other three previous weekend games were sort of one-sided affairs, with one team or the other taking an early lead and the losing team never quite getting back into the game.

It initially looked like the Arizona Cardinals were going to make it four for four lopsided games when they led the Green Bay Packers 24-7 at halftime. Not so fast - the Pack came back in the second half and outscored the Cardinals by a score of 35-21 to tie the game at end of regulation. Arizona had a chance to win the game, but missed an otherwise easy 34 yard field goal with seconds left on the clock. The fourth quarter ended with the score tied at 45.

In overtime, Green Bay won the toss and elected to receive. After receiving the kickoff, they started off from the 20 yard line. After a couple of plays, Green Bay was assessed a penalty for holding which moved them back to about their 10 yard line.

This is where the bizarre ending comes. Aaron Rodgers, the GB quarterback, faded back for a pass, but Arizona had a blitz converging in the pocket. Rodgers released the ball forward, but it was immediately blocked by a defender. The blocked ball then fell to Rodgers’ right foot where he inadvertently kicked the ball to a defender, who took it into the end zone for a Cardinals touchdown.

As I said, a very bizarre - and sudden - ending to a very entertaining football game.

Next week’s playoff lineup . . .

The last Monday Night Football game for the regular NFL season is currently in progress. While watching football is a lot of fun for us, we recently discovered the pregame feature called “C’mon, Man.” Chris Berman and the guys run selected clips from the weekend games where punts are shanked, field goals are missed and a variety of other events that are worthy of exclaiming “C’mon, man” when you see the often funny on-and-off-field screw-ups.

The Better Half and I will watch the games (we watch the Red Zone HD channel) and try to guess which of the muffs or fumbles will get selected. Tonight’s selection by the ESPN crew included at least two of the candidates we thought they might select from yesterday’s games.

Even though this is the last MNF, ESPN’s Pro Bowl pregame show is supposed to feature the “C’mon, Man-of-the-year” The event is scheduled to take place in Dolphin Stadium on January 31, 2010 - the first time since 1980 that the game will NOT be played in Honolulu. C’MON, MAN!

I got nothin’ today. Still recovering from a great Christmas. Here - read this . . .

How would you like to watch all of the NFL games on Sunday? Without those lame commercials? And no need to flip through the channels to see what’s happening around the league? The NFL Sunday Ticket SuperFan Package has a feature called the Red Zone Channel that does all of that for us. The only drawback is the occasional bad jokes the Red Zone commentator makes. Most of the time, though, you’re hearing the audio from the broadcasts.

In the clickable image above, you can see the split screen feature that allows you to catch the action even if in two separate places. The RZ channel also plays highlights from games for events like turnovers and scoring. If not in real time, they get around to showing it all.

Hmmm. I think it must be time to pop a beer and park my butt in front of the TV.

The weather was funky again today, but we were going to stick around and watch the Army-Navy football game, the Montana-Appalachian State game and the Heisman Trophy presentation later this evening.

The Army-Navy affair is always entertaining; it’s about the tradition and pageantry as much as the rival football game. Although only three points were scored in the first half by Army, the second half belonged to Navy as they scored seventeen unanswered points. In the football guessing game I play in each week, Navy had to overcome a 14 point line in order for my Navy pick to count. Unfortunately, since the spread was exactly the actual game spread, the game won’t count in the pool. Not to worry, there are fifteen pro games to be played on Sunday and Monday to determine the best guesser.

I photographed the clickable image above just as the fireworks were fired after the Army-Navy game in Philadelphia.

We only got to see the second half of the Montana-Appalachian State game; the score as we started watching, found Ap-State up by 3 points, 10-7. Also, it started snowing in Missoula during the halftime. By the time the game was over, the field resembled a hockey rink. The game ending was exciting as well, with the outcome decided by an Ap-State loss when they failed to complete a pass at the goal line with no time left on the clock. The final score was 24-17, Montana.

We’re waiting for the Heisman winner to be announced as I type this . . .

. . . and the winner is - Mark Ingram!! Roll Tide!!

The weather here (and other places in the country) has been cooler than usual the last couple of days. I guess the weather makers didn’t get the fake data from the East Anglia Climate Research Unit, no thanks to the major media suppression of the fake data revelation.

Today was cloudy and chilly all day, so the Better Half and I decided to stay inside, crank up the dueling wide-screens and enjoy some football, augmented by some home-made southwestern Tex-Mex shredded beef tacos. Get a load of this plate of a soft taco, Tex-Mex rice and black beans. It was really good, and heart-healthy, too.

Collegiate football is still on as I type this, featuring Texas at Nebraska and Georgia Tech at Clemson. Both games still in the first half, so too early to tell if they will be entertaining.

Today’s games were enjoyable, although I wish Florida had been in their game with Alabama a little more than they were. I was also OK with the Arizona Wildcats defeating the Trojans, given our intent to relocate to the Grand Canyon State. I hope Arizona gets invited to the Holiday Bowl - that would be nice.

We’re looking forward to enjoying the NFL games tomorrow. For food, the menu will switch to Italian - we will be preparing Pasta e Fagioli, a rich bean stew with pasta noodles, veggies and pancetta (Italian bacon). It was awesome last time we made it.

OK - back to the games.