The Burrow

No, it's not another post exhorting you to take political action.  It's video that can be watched without sound (imagine the music as you will). It's the 84Lumber commercial from the Super Bowl; the one which crashed the website as gazillions of people tried to connect to see the second half. That second half, starting about 2.30, is  Deemed Too Controversial for TV by the graphic on the website. You decide. Spoiler Alert.  Don't read any further if you haven't seen the ad. ***** I have a quick rejoinder for those who will make this about illegal immigrants pouring across our borders, unchecked: It's a door, not a window.  It's solid, but there is light on the other side.   .

Jean Knows Cars links you to previews of the commercials car companies will be running during the game.  I recognize that adding that link at the beginning of this post may lose you all to teary, nearly-maudlin, smile-through-the-sighs, advertisements, but I'm willing to take the risk. The 6 minute, extended version of Toyota's tribute to good fathering is worth every second.  "All that love stuff"..... "What kind of father do you want to be?"  "THIS KIND" (as he pats his dad's shoulder).... not a puppy in sight, and I was still gob-smacked. ***** It's true that the commercials are usually the best part of the game.  By the time the hoopla has died down and the players have taken the field, the game itself is anti-climactic. I was in Chicago for the 1985 Bears, and in the Bay Area for the 49'er's reign, but since then there's been no real rooting interest firing in my breast. This year, I'm stuck between cheaters and ...

Do not think that I have forgotten my responsibility to those of you who rely upon The Burrow for sports-related-conversational-tidbits, handy to pull out when the talk turns to the Super Bowl tomorrow. ***** Poor Tom Brady.  He's sick of hearing about losing to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII.  He's sick of hearing about Eli Manning. He wants to play football.  He's won 2 Super Bowl MVP awards and he's married to a super model and he's pretty good looking in his own right and he's complaining?  About anything?  Off the top of my head I can come up with several dozen men who'd trade places with him in a heartbeat. It's only a game, son.  It's only a game.  ***** It's the first time in 15 years that the AFC has won the coin toss.  I read a statistic about the relationship between winning the coin toss and winning the game but even I, math challenged human that I am, even I know that that does not imply causation.  Still, TBG was impr...

This was a good football game. Usually the game piece of the Super Bowl experience is a snore-fest, but this was a good football game. If you don't care about the football piece, know that there was a 1-point difference at the end of the 3rd quarter, and the under-dog New Orleans Saints, who had never appeared in a Super Bowl before tonight, defeated Peyton Manning's Indianapolis Colts with surprising ease. (You can now skip down 5 paragraphs to the disquisition on the commercials -- the real reason most of us watched the game, anyway, as you'll see.)

Overheard while leaving the gym today: "I don't call him when his team loses." There are a lot of people who aren't receiving phone calls today. ** Events have proven me wrong and, much as it pains me to admit that I was in error, I have to say that Brett Favre probably was right to come out of re-retirement and play with the Vikings. He's 40 years and 100 days old when this is posted and he's 1 game away from the Super Bowl. Damn. ***** Daddooooo was a true Jets fan, ugly green cap and all. To be totally accurate, Daddooooo's hats all had mesh backs and plain fronts. The only logos he would wear were "Proud Grandpa" and the NY Jets. *** Whenever the Jets were playing one of our teams, Daddooooo always had "a nickel bet" with TBG. Sometimes the nickel actually changed hands; mostly it was a ruse for a phone call and a connection. Sure, the Colts and the Bengals may have handed the Jets their playoff berth, but I'm thinking t...