6th February 2006
Hi all,
I've just awoken after another night of Super Bowl watching. For the first time ever Lorraine and I expanded it to a party, and to our pleasant surprise our neighbours and friends Stuart and Gillian turned up to watch the game with us.
For years and years I enjoyed watching sports events by myself. However since I met Lorraine I've realised it is a lot more fun to actually share these things with other people, even if you end up embarrassing yourself in front of them (ask Lorraine and Neil Taylor for examples - they've seen plenty). With one thing and another we ended up having a really enjoyable night.
1) The Pre-Game Entertainment.
Live from Detroit, it's Stevie Wonder. "He's performing because he used to play for Detroit," suggests Stuart to his not-so-gullible wife. I chip in by saying, "He used to have problems finding his receivers," before realising that no-one else in the room plays the Madden series of NFL games, let alone knows what the cone-vision feature from the 2006 version that I'm thinking of. Not my finest joke to say the least. Stuart's always entertaining, so I've got to step up to match his standard.
2) The Anthem.
A tradition of any American sporting event. I decided to follow Channel 5's World Series tradition of scoring anthems in terms of quality. For me Aretha Franklin, Aaron Neville and Dr Hook combined to total a score of two out of ten. Everyone in the room said it was dreadful, and more than one of us thought the players on the sidelines were giving the group funny looks.
"Somewhere at the moment," I said, "Carl Lewis is a happy man." Even when I heard a trumpet player get nearly drowned in a heavy downpour in Miami fifteen years ago the anthem wasn't this much of a wash-out.
3) The Coin-Flip.
Out for the coin-flip come Seattle's team of captains and Pittsburgh's team of captains. "Why they have they got so many captains?" is the question from the ladies corner. I'm about to go into the details of offense, defence and special teams, but Stuart gets in before me to point out, "They've got five captains. Three will call 'heads' and two will call 'tails', so the call will be 'heads'."
Stuart's joking aside, one Seattle captain calls "Tails," and Seattle win the toss. I think of my friend Cris in Cleethorpes, who had money on Seattle calling "Heads" (and no, I'm not joking).
4) The game begins.
Play finally begins and Lorraine's excellent buffet begins to be devoured. Tortilla chips, salsa, breadsticks. Furthermore Stuart and Gillian were kind enough to bring Mountain Dew and Root Beer with them. Needless to say I'm now tempted to ask Stuart and Gillian round to watch television every night of the week for the next year.
Strangely Root Beer moved me onto the subject of Champagne, as I compare the smell of both drinks. However unlike Champagne I actually like the taste of Root Beer. Incidentally Lorraine asked me if Root Beer had alcohol in it, but asked me not to tell anyone, so you never heard that from me. On second thought she did accuse me of talking far too much at this point, so perhaps she was trying to get me to laugh to give my larynx a rest.
5) The Half-Time Show.
Now minus Gillian (who returned home to bed) we arrived at half-time with
Pittsburgh leading 7-3 in what was so far a pretty awful game. What we needed now was a young, happening group to help us stay awake. Instead we got The
Rolling Stones.
At this point I descended to waffling again, informing Stuart of the arguments about why the half-time show wasn't in any way Detroit/Motown related. Of course that might not have been as funny as the Stones turned out to be, as Stuart poked fun at their seemingly bored drummer, suggesting what he might be thinking. "Did I leave the oven on? What time is our flight home?" Why shouldn't I join in? "I'll tell you what he's really thinking," I said, "I wonder if my winter fuel payments are in my bank account yet?" (Nothing like making a joke about The Rolling Stones that is age related, is there?)
6) The second half.
Play begins in the third quarter, and quickly Pittsburgh extend their lead to 14-3. My wife is beginning to look tired at this point, which is understandable given that she was up feeding Chloe at 6am the morning before. It actually makes her "How many quarters are there?" question understandable. At about this time Lorraine calls it a night.
As Pittsburgh look to extend their lead Seattle turn the momentum back in their favour with an interception followed by a touchdown to reduce the score to 14-10. I turn to Stuart to discuss the play, but he's briefly fallen asleep. No wonder when he's going into work the following morning. He starts each day at 8am. Ouch.
7) The Gadget Play.
2.27am. Pittsburgh have reclaimed the momentum. From the safety of midfield they call a trick play, ending up with receiver Antwaan Randle-El throwing a touchdown pass to Hines Ward. 21-10 to Pittsburgh. Again I think of Cris in Cleethorpes. He had money on there being less than 2.5 players throwing a forward pass in the game and Randle-El just became the third player to do just that. Worst of all I had warned Cris that Pittsburgh liked running trick plays and might try this. I felt bad for him, but at the same time the play was great to watch.
8) The Final Score.
Just after 3am time runs out, confirming Pittsburgh's 21-10 win. Stuart headed home and I felt glad that I wasn't following out of the street to work in the morning.
Here I would say I was thinking of Cris for the last time, as he had picked Seattle to win with a four point headstart. However I also knew of Cris having $20 on the Burger King not to score a touchdown in a commercial during the game, so I ended up on the Google News site trying to find out if another one had gone against him. On this occasion luck was on his side.
Average game, good excuse for a late night with great company. Now if you'll excuse me I need some caffeine.
Have a good week!
Tony
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