Super Bowl LII uninterrupted by idle chatter was a great game

First of all, let me say I love the Super Bowl. Generally, I don’t care who is in it — or who wins — unless the Green Bay Packers are representing the NFC, then they better effin’ win. Super Bowl XXXII … just makes me sick thinking about it. The deed occurred right here in Sandy effin’ Eggo, at the former Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium now SDSU Stadium. That building is not long for this world, but that’s a completely different rant.

January 25, 1998, a day that will live in infamy. Yeah, okay, the Packers won the first two Super Bowls (when there was an NFL and AFL) and Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, but that January 1998 Sunday in Sandy effin’ Eggo — they shoulda won. They were picked to win. Brett Favre was the most dynamic QB in the league.

Patriots QB Tom Brady (Claudia Gestro)

There are traitors in our family who are now Denver Broncos fans. We eventually started speaking to one another, but if they mention that day 20 years ago, them’s … err … well, I’m too effin’ old and wobbly to be fightin’, but I’ll be thinking it!

Anyway, I love watching the Super Bowl. I couldn’t even begin to count the number of Super Bowl parties I’ve been to —at least 20 in the past 25 years. This year I’m sitting at home somewhat alone. My friend’s dog is here, but she’s sleeping soundly so far, unimpressed with the Philadelphia Eagles’ opening drive that resulted in a field goal.

This is good because I like to watch the Super Bowl.

Bella woke up but was unimpressed with the New England Patriot’s opening drive that ended in a field goal. Good girl. She didn’t come over to interrupt my viewing so she got a belly rub during the commercial break.

Which segues into my problem with Super Bowl parties: a lot of us football fans go to Super Bowl parties because we like to enjoy the game with friends. We may hoot and holler and argue about teams and players, but we’re there for the game and for many, the Super Bowl halftime show. Sure, we like the socializing and great food and drinks, but we’re there for the game first, everything else a distant second … well, some parties have such great food … it’s still second, but I’m just sayin’ some people have really great Super Bowl parties with food that’s beyond what would normally be a great spread. For those parties, the food is a closer second to watching the game.

But, at every Super Bowl party there are those people — you know who you are and we football folk know who you are — people that only go to Super Bowl parties to socialize. Okay, fine, there are usually back rooms, or basements, or someplace all you people can socialize. There’s no effin’ reason for these people to be sitting around the 85-inch 4K wonder TV where all the serious football enthusiasts are watching the game.

We’re watching the Eagles go into halftime with the lead, watching Tom Brady flub a pass reception on a trick play, we don’t want to hear about your kids and their college experiences, your grandkids and their grade school issues. To be honest, we don’t give a damn, not today when the Super Bowl is on.

They mean well when they ask about my health issues, but listen I’d be happy to go into great detail, including my pants falling down in the V.A. Medical Center — never mind any of that — on Monday, or maybe even late Sunday evening, but not now during the Super Bowl, not even the commercials because you’re going to want to hear the end of it all whether the game comes back on or not.

The point is we football folk are watching the game. Please don’t bother us with idle chatter or questions of why the ref did this or the quarterback did that; why did the kicker miss the extra point — “Why do they call it the extra point?” — we know you’re only asking because we football folk are paying attention to the game and not your soliloquy about your boss and his stupid idiosyncrasies. We don’t care, we’re watching the game, including the commercials and half time show.

YouTube

I’m sure your boss is entertaining; we can talk about him another time.

So, first half comments: If you’re a place kicker you can’t miss the extra point. Can you believe how New England missed the 29-yard field goal? The Tide commercial was pretty good and the commercial in which the guy asks, “What was in those brownies?”

Brady flubs the pass reception but Nick Foles completes his for a touchdown? This is turning out to be an epic Super Bowl and it’s only halftime.

Bella and I are going out for a walk before Justin Timberlake makes his debut. He puts on a pretty good show, with a marching band wearing tuxedos. No nipple reveal this year — where’s Janet Jackson when you need her? Who can forget the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show? Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake singing Timberlake’s “Rock Your Body” as he pulls the flap off her costume revealing her right breast with that big sun-styled nipple ring.

Tom Brady and the Patriots won that one too, 32-29 over the Carolina Panthers.

So Bella and I bailed on most of the third quarter so she could get out one more time today. When we get back the score is a 29-26, Eagles. Then Philadelphia kicked a field goal to start the final 15 minutes making it a six-point spread.

Interesting, New England was picked to win by 4.5 points, but with the over/under on the point total blown (48-48.5), clearly this is going to be a close game. Odds are the Pats win it and beat the spread, but the Eagles defense shows no signs of slowing down or getting tired. Nor does their offense for that matter.

Unfortunately for Eagles fans the offense led by Tom Brady is not getting tired. If the Patriots win wide receiver Danny Amendola ought to be the game MVP. Brady just led his team to their first lead of the game — one point. Still four points to go for them to beat the spread.

Now the Philly fans are thinking about the missed point after and the missed two-point play. If that’s the difference in the game, Philly kicker Jake Elliott will be the goat. But Eagles fans should look at the defense and ask how they let New England score so many points, from the beginning of the game to the end.

Of course we’re talking about the best quarterback in the history of the game with an offense that has so many reliable receivers, beginning with the great Gronk — Rob Gronkowski — and Danny Amendola, the Patriots can withstand any defense, even the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LII.

If the Eagles win this thing receiver Nelson Agholor should be considered for game MVP honors — or QB Nick Foles. Over 350 yards passing.

With 2.5 minutes left in the game there has been about 1,100 yards of total offense. No one expected that.

Eagles QB Nick Foles and Head Coach Doug Pederson (YouTube)

The Philadelphia Eagles did what no one expected — they beat the New England Patriots, 41-33. No one expected 74 points to be scored in this game. Nick Foles — St. Nick in Philadelphia — played the game of his life. The guy who considered retirement after his tenure with the Los Angeles Rams.

Tom Brady had 505 yards passing and the winning QB had 373 yards. Both threw three TD passes. Foles had an interception and still won the game. From back up to Carson Wentz to Super Bowl LII MVP. A well-deserved title.

The greatest play of the game: When Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham knocked the ball out of Tom Brady’s hand as he got the only sack of the game and then Derek Barnett recovered the fumble for Philadelphia. That ended New England’s chances for another thrilling comeback.

The Eagles were underdogs throughout the playoffs. They blew out the Minnesota Vikings two weeks ago, 38-7.

Congratulations Eagles fans, your team has its first Vince Lombardi trophy. The coach who was a backup QB for Green Bay behind Brett Favre, won his first Super Bowl as a head coach with his backup QB.

This Super Bowl will be historic for those reasons, but it would have been more so if the the Patriots had won, with head coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady collecting their sixth Super Bowl rings. But the making of history can be very unpredictable at times so this year the Eagles will go down in history as being the 18th team to win the Super Bowl.

It was nice to watch the game uninterrupted by other people. The only things to get in the way were my bowels, but we don’t need to get into the details of that. The one person who called wanted to talk about the game and it was an exciting and great Super Bowl.