SUPER ….WASTE OF TIME

The Super Bowl has become a national holiday, morphing into a world-wide event. Good for the NFL, where players beat their families during their days off while recovering from head injuries that will make them drooling, limping morons at an age most men are tuning up their golf and tennis games. 

Here is the dirty legacy of the NFL: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive brain injury resulting from being battered in the head sixteen weeks a year plus practices.  The recent list of victims:  Chicago Bear Dave Duerson who killed himself in 2011; KC Chiefs Javon Belcher, who killed his girlfriend and then himself last year.  And Junior Seau, who killed himself, and was honored yesterday by election into the NFL Hall of shame Fame.  Seau's price for admission into the HOF: a decade plus of violent hits that destroyed his brain and drove him to suicide. But, he has a bronze statute to glorify all those hits. He just won't see the ages of 50, 60, 70, and even if he didn't kill himself, his brain was wrecked. 

Do you get the impression that we are (mostly) done with football? 

A good football game is a fun thing to watch. A good football team going on a run to the super bowl can create a life time of memories for fans.  But this madness has gone too far, and we've had enough. 

Sorry to rain on your parade on this nearly religious day of national pride and celebration. 

There's a 20 kilometer  moderate mountain bike route in Moab, Utah, that we will be riding today while the nation gathers to worship at the NFL's trough. There's more to life than eating chicken wings and  drinking beer and watching ignorant athletes bash each other senseless.  We prefer the memory of cresting the hill of a long bike climb, to a Seahawks pick six. But that's just us. 

For those of you watching the game:

There has been a safety in the last three games. We think the trend will end today, so we wouldn't take the 6-1 odds. Although it would serve the world right if the game ended 4-2. 

Tom Brady scoring (meaning running the ball in or catching a TD pass) the first touchdown at 35-1 is a nice play. 


The Seahawks are -1. Take them. 

The over/under is 48.5, although we got a point less in Vegas earlier this week. We took the over and then parlayed it with the Seahawks to win. We will post a picture of the winning ticket later. 

Over 3 1/2 FGs- take the over. 4fgs wins, 3 or less lose. 

We like the pick-6 prop bet as well. Fact: team with a pick six in a super bowl is 12-0. So if, as we hope, Richard Sherman takes one of cheater-Brady's deflated balls to the house for six, good-bye Patriots. 

In A Superbowl, we will always pick the team with the better Defense. Bears, Ravens, Steelers, Giants, etc. It's why the evil genius and his cheating QB are riding an unenviable two game losing streak in the big game.  

The Seahawks are a well rounded team. Great Defense, a beast of a running game, a QB who can go deep while in the pocket or scramble for a first down and more. These are the types of teams that win two super bowls in a row- Cowboys of the early 1990s, Broncos of the later 1990s, the 49'ers in the 80s and the Steelers in the 70s- twice. 

There will be a point during the game today when we will get off our bike and sit in majestic silence, surrounded by desert and red dusty sandstone on Slickrock trail, and we will eat a sandwich (gluten free bread these days)  and drink some coconut water, and pull out a well worn copy of King Lear, and just rest and eat and read: 

Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too,
Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out;
And take upon 's the mystery of things,

The last thing on our mind will be some senseless game. 

But we will want to know if our one, lock-solid bet paid off: 

Coin flip: Heads. 

See you in court when we come back.