Super Bowl Blog: Better late than never!

Super Bowl Sunday proved to be a gastronomical Armageddon at the Samichlaus household, featuring my famous Italian breaded wings served with blue cheese and buffalo sauce, a baked brie en cruet , little pizza thingies, sausage and pepper sandwiches, potato chips, onion dip, tortilla chips, 2 kinds of salsa, cheese dip, fresh veggies with ranch dressing, Ritz crackers and Triscuits. I never did break out the pimento dip. This feast was enjoyed by the whole gang, which consisted of Karen, Holly and me.



Now, two days after the event, I’m still not feeling quite right. I’m a bit queasy, I feel run down, and frankly I haven’t taken that earth shattering poop that I’ve expected. However I must admit, the Super Bowl party was a smashing success and a good time was had by all.



The game was both entertaining and frustrating at he same time. Both teams seemed to bring their “b” game, and to make matters worse it didn’t play out exactly as I predicted. Close, but no proverbial cigar. I expected New England to open it up in the fourth quarter, but it never happened. I expected Philly to play well, but I didn’t expect them to keep it close. In retrospect, it’s not that Philly played so well but rather that New England played so poorly and despite that, won. I guess that’s indicative of how good they are. It was a game to be lost rather than won, Brady coming out slow overthrowing open receivers, McNabb throwing four picks (five if you count the one that was called back). Philly couldn’t run the ball. New England blew a pass coverage on one of McNabb’s TD passes. Absurd personal fouls.



And is it me or was the officiating a bit poor? The only people who didn’t see the pick Philly threw to spring T.O. were the referees.



Conspiracy theorists note: The fix was in. First, the kid who did the coin toss didn’t flip the coin. This gave the ball to Philly which is exactly what New England wanted (get the defense out first: that was Belichick’s mantra when he was defensive coordinator of the Giants). Second, Philly head coach Andy Reid has offered the following explanations for the abominable clock management at the end of the game:



“Well, you know, I'm trying to remember back on that. I put that away a little bit but we did try to get it going. I can't remember. I can't detail the circumstances why it didn't work as well as it should have."



"It was the way things worked out."



When asked about his equally awful clock management at the end of the first half, Reid replied “I don't remember that at all, to be honest with you."



When asked about his poor play calling, Reid said “I need to go back and kind of reevaluate what I was doing from the play-calling standpoint"



Yikes. This is the stuff that Roswell buffs live for.



Super Bowl Memories:



• During the last 5 minutes of the game, I casually remark that Philly seems to be taking “a rather leisurely approach considering they’re down by 10”. Karen is all over that. “So what??!!! Who are you rooting for? You haven’t switched sides on me, have you???” Karen is now my favorite football buddy.



• I was telling Holly about the blog and how it occurred to me whilst blogging that she should be rooting for Philly since she was from Pennsylvania. Holly looked at me sort of quizzically and said “I’m from Massachusetts”. Whoops.



• Karen is now totally enamored with Tivo. On several occasions she paused the live broadcast to (a) review a play, (b) re-watch a cool commercial, (c) point out Tom Arnold in the crowd and (d) provide me with ample time to put my laundry away.



• That 2 second shot of the center’s balls from what I’ve decided should be called the “Yam Cam”. This provided us with another opportunity to use the Tivo.



• The below standard commercials. Admit it, there were only a couple of good ones and there were several lousy ones. After the game I told Karen “I’m going to email Michael Powell and complain. I’m gonna tell him that the damn Super Bowl was lame and that next year I want commercials with farting horses”



• After hearing Paul McCartney sing “Drive my car”, Holly said “I wonder if he gets bored playing the same songs year after year?” I thought a minute and said, “Well, if he gets bored I’m sure he just opens his check book, looks at the balance, and then he doesn’t feel so bad”



• After setting the “buffet” table with my famous Italian breaded wings served with blue cheese and buffalo sauce, a baked brie en cruet, little pizza thingies, potato chips, onion dip, tortilla chips, 2 kinds of salsa, cheese dip, Ritz crackers and Triscuits, Karen incredulously observed “Don’t you have anything fresh?” Although I thought “those potato chips look mighty fresh” I quickly remembered the fresh veggies with ranch dressing.



• This years Super Bowl party was decidedly more low key, and enjoyable than past Super Bowl parties. In previous seasons we’ve run into fans that get a little too enthusiastic, sort of the way I did when the Packers lost to the Broncos in 1998. I’m getting too old for that stuff. Oh, and to all our readers who attended the “1998 Catastrophe in Carmel”, may I personally apologize and thank you once again for loaning me your TV.