Probably the least dated of my posts that I am recycling this week. Really the only thing that has changed about this post is that I am not currently on a flight to Seattle. Oh, and I won’t be doing a running commentary of the Super Bowl. Though I didn’t end up doing one the year I wrote this either, so I guess I could just lie and say, yes, I will write one.

Nichole Ritchie is still unattractive, Brett Favre threw an interception to lose the NFC title and you can look forward to a muy grande THH next week. We sure haven’t come very far in the last two years.

And yes, for the record, the THH will be for this year’s Super Bowl.

Super Bowl…Sunday?

Welcome to Super Bowl week! If I were sitting on a plane to Arizona (or even Vegas) right now, this might be one of the more exciting weeks of the year. Unfortunately, I am sitting on a plane to Seattle for my ‘other job’ (you know the one that actually pays the bills) looking at a long week of work, rather than a long week of parties with NFL stars and the beautiful people (or people that are inexplicably considered beautiful despite their looks <cough> Nichole Ritchie <cough>). So despite the coming game being the culmination of my first football season as a public football commentator, my excitement is muted.

Before jumping into today’s random thoughts, let’s go over the plan for the week so you know when to stop what you are doing because I’m about to ruin the image and style that you are used to. Later this week, we are going to have an extra large, special edition of the Hierarchy of Hate, where we break down the game from every possible angle to determine who to root for. Then Sunday night, because I had so much fun last weekend I will be revising my running commentary of the game (this time with beer!).

I know I never got around to reviewing the NFC title game (that pesky work thing again) but there is no point in re-hashing it now as I think everything that needs to be said, has been. I am as surprised as you are at the impact the weather had on the Packers. This is a team that played a game 7 days before in near white-out snow and temps maybe 20 degrees higher yet the whole team seemed incapable of dealing with the bitter cold.

Instead of pointing out that Brett Favre played like the old man he is, I want to dive into one of the greatest mysteries of Super Bowl Sunday, namely why is it Super Bowl Sunday? I don’t want to focus on the ‘Super Bowl’ part but rather the ‘Sunday’ part.

Why is this game played on Sunday?

I will take a guess as to the reasons for this.

• I know it may be surprising but I am guessing it might have something to do with money. With tens of thousands of fans (and corporate big-wigs) descending on the host town, a Sunday game gives each fan an extra day to spend their money on overpriced ‘officially licensed’ Super Bowl gear and attending ‘official’ Super Bowl events.
• Traditionally when there was only a week between the conference championships and the big game, the NFL wouldn’t want teams to come in on a short week. However we are now up to two weeks, so this point is moot.
• The only other reason I can come up with is that the NFL plays their regular season games on Sunday and therefore the Super Bowl should be played on the same. I truly hope that isn’t the reason. If the NFL thinks their fans can’t quite comprehend an NFL game moving up a day then that is a sad statement on their opinion of their fans. Look, we aren’t all NASCAR fans. We can handle the day of the week of a game changing (most of us found the first Patriots – Giants match-up on TV and that game was on a Saturday).

Think about it, the Super Bowl should be the biggest party of the year – topping even New Year’s Eve (because the interesting part lasts longer than 10 seconds and occurs before midnight) yet for some reason the game is played less than 12 hours before 85% of Americans have to go back to start an entire new week of work.  Why is this?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be Super Bowl Saturday? The party would begin when the factory whistle blows at 5 pm on Friday and wouldn’t stop until a few hours after some quarterback announces his Orlando-based vacation plans to the world. Then unlike the current situation, we could sleep off all of that partying on Sunday while the hometown greets the returning victors, rather than showing up bleary-eyed and fuzzy-headed to work the next morning.

OK I admit I may be more sensitive to the ridiculousness of Super Bowl Sunday than most. My typical Sunday night consists of cleaning the house, washing clothes, taking out trash and recycling and packing my bags before an alarm goes off somewhere around 4:30 am Monday morning. Clearly, I do not get to enjoy the game as I should. But I can’t be the only one who can’t fully enjoy (or even watch) the big game because of the next morning’s obligations.

Come on NFL – for once think of your fans before your pocketbooks. Make Super Bowl Saturday a reality!

Maybe if we march on NFL headquarters, we can make Goodell see the light. Now that is a protest I can get behind.

I’ll bring the posterboard and markers, who’s with me?