It’s amazing how little I care about football anymore.  The DVR has really become one of my best friends, but it served an opposite role last night for the Super Bowl.  I honestly fast forwarded through the entire game except the final three minutes, stopping only to watch the commercials.  Much like I put basketball out of my life completely 7 or 8 years ago, football is becoming close to being extinct in my world too and I don’t miss it one bit.  Since I’m still hardcore into two sports, hockey and baseball, I still spend too much time seeing those sports on TV, so me cutting out two sports can only be a healthy thing.

I think I’m in the minority outside of the New England area, but I was interested in the Patriots winning for two reasons.  One is that I simply cannot take the 1972 Dolphins, the NFL’s only team with an undefeated season, crowing about how they’re still the best.  Listening to them after the game just reaffirmed my conviction that these guys have nothing to live for except that record.  It’s a rather pathetic display of machismo dipped in Old Spice and slathered in Aqua Velva to see these guys each year pop open a bottle of champagne each time the last undefeated teams loses a game.  It reeks of Al Bundy, the character on 'Married With Children', who relived his 4-touchdown game in high school over and over again with anyone within earshot.

So when the Patriots went 16-0 for the regular season, these old fogies said “They’re still not undefeated for the season.”  OK, fine.  Then when they got to 18-0, one more win than the Dolphins Super Bowl season since there were less games back then, they still harped on the fact that it still wasn’t an undefeated season.  I guess technically the Patriots didn’t have a better season than them but we all know who won the most games in a single season, playoffs included, so far.

The second reason I was rooting for the Pats was the Anti-Manning factor.  I am simply not a fan of the Manning family.  Obviously I’m a bitter Bears fan from last year’s Super Bowl loss to a horse-faced automatron who never could win the Big Game at any point in his life until then.  As for Eli, I lost all respect for him and his loser dad when they orchestrated the trade that sent him to New York when he refused to play for San Diego.  His dad was behind that whole saga simply for the reason he didn’t want his son playing on a bad team his entire career just like he did.  But that’s what happens when you’re a top draft pick – you go to the worst team at the time.  It only adds to your reputation if you can be the person who helps turn around a team’s misfortunes.  Hey Archie, how about not living vicariously through your two sons and let them do their own thing?

On a totally unrelated note, the song by Kiss called 'God of Thunder' has been running in my head on a continuous loop for over a week now.  Since you have to have a beer while watching the Super Bowl, I figured that I would have one with a manly name in it.  Victory Brewing’s Baltic Thunder was a perfect choice for me, although the word “thunder” in it triggered more loops of the 'God of Thunder' song.

As for the beer ads run during the game, did you notice how Budweiser never mentioned the taste of their beer?  Yes, the commercials were amusing, but at this point it’s simply a smokescreen and simply is used for brand awareness (as it has been for the longest time).  Personally I think it’s wasted money since everyone knows about Budweiser but as I was sipping my extremely flavorful Baltic Thunder, I felt sorry for the masses who are swayed by extremely crafty advertising companies and are duped into thinking what they are drinking is good beer.  I’m always reminded of the Keystone beer ads from the 1990s which were highly entertaining but it never hid the fact that the beer itself is truly awful.