Delaware Rising

This is it.  The day America has been waiting for.  This is the day when all of our New Year’s Resolutions are officially broken, forgotten and buried until next year.  Today is the day we start drinking too much again, eating all the wrong things again, and watching too much TV again.  There is no turning back.  It’s Super Bowl Sunday, the day when we celebrate someone else’s athletic achievements while simultaneously celebrating our own gluttony and slovenly behavior.  Don’t bogart those Doritos.

My personal super bowl (lower case, otherwise I owe Roger Goddell a nickel) will be filled with buffalo wing bites and bleu cheese dressing for dipping, and I’ll wash it down with some cold amber ales.  During half time, I’ll visit another super bowl but that’s probably too much information for this forum.  Suffice to say, I am a typical American on this day of days.  God have mercy on my colon. 

I will let the experience of Super Bowl Sunday wash over me in a private celebration down in my man cave.  I don’t like Super Bowl parties, and not because I don’t like people, which is what my kids think.  My problem is that I want to WATCH the Super Bowl and I want to WATCH the commercials that have been so carefully crafted for my viewing pleasure.  People distract me from the main event.  Super Bowl Sunday is a day not to get together but to remain apart.  Isn’t that what 2013 America is all about - rugged individualism?

I attended one Super Bowl and if you have the means I highly recommend it.  I was at Super Bowl XXXIV (can we switch to regular numbers yet?) courtesy of my connected brother and watched the Tennessee Titans fall 3 yards short of the tying touchdown that would have sent the game against the Rams into overtime.  I doubt I will ever see another one in person but that’s OK since the advent of high definition and affordable 50” screens.  Football is tailor-made for watching from home so I will honor the game by staying home today. 

The game itself should hopefully be the crown jewel on the Year of the Fightin’ Blue Hens.  Delaware grad Biden wins a 2^nd term as Vice President.  My senior class President Chris Christie is a likely front runner for the 2016 GOP nomination.  Today we might anoint former UD QB Joe Flacco as a Super Bowl champion and game MVP.  That’s 3 University of Delaware graduates at the top of their games.  I couldn’t be prouder of my school, except for Christie…and Christine O’Donnell.  Flacco’s success today could help erase the sting of that other Delaware alum’s trip to the big game, Rick Gannon.  

So it’s time for 8 hours of pre-game analysis of the life and times of Ray Lewis on Court TV.  If that gets too violent, I’ll switch to the Oprah channel for a retrospective of the Harbaugh boys growing up together in Bedford Falls and overcoming the loss of poor Harry Harbaugh when he broke through the ice at age 9.  No wait, that didn’t really happen.  Harry saved the lives of all those men on that transport.  When that nostalgia fills me up, I’ll switch over to some football.

Game prediction:  Ravens 27 Niners 22 – for entertainment purposes only, not for any actual wagering.  Stay thirsty, my friends.  It’s Super Bowl Sunday.