The Super Bowl this year is not an easy one to pick. As one of my friends likes to say, I don’t have a dog in this fight. Tom Brady said he could care less, and won’t watch the game.
I, on the other hand, will watch and enjoy it because I love pro football and missed a lot of it while I was overseas. The two best teams this season are in it, and as a football aficionado I want to see them tee off.
My decision to root for the Seattle Seahawks instead of the Denver Broncos was not that difficult. Here are a list of reasons I chose the team that shares a city with my favorite American coffee:
1) I cannot cheer for a quarterback who played for my an arch-enemy–the Indianapolis Colts. I grew up a Baltimore Colt fan, and have despised them ever since they fled my hometown in the middle of the night. Baltimore Sun reporter Peter Schmuck wrote an article noting that it would be tough for Baltimoreans to choose a team this year, but some will root against the Broncos because Manning is their QB.
“That might seem a little petty after all this time, but some wounds never heal.” wrote Schmuck last week. Petty or not, Manning’s participating is one factor in my plan to pull for Seattle.
2) Denver basically stole John Elway from the Baltimore Colts. Elway refused to play for Baltimore. Most of my life I thought the West Coast surfer boy balked because he didn’t want to move to a gritty, blue collar place like Balmer. ESPN did a special involving the story of Elway’s drafting by Denver and noted that the main reason he did not want to play for Baltimore was he did not like the head coach. At the time, the Colts were coached by Frank Kush, kind of a 1980s Tom Coughlin, but worse. Even so, I have hated John Elway and to a lesser degree his team ever since.
3) I don’t want to see Bronco’s cornerback Champ Bailey get a ring. After the Colts left Baltimore I switched my allegiance to the Washington Redskins. Bailey was their star defender, but in typical inept fashion they traded him to Denver for running back Clinton Portis. The latter had some good years, but was hurt a lot. Bailey will end up in the Hall of Fame. If Denver wins, it will justify that trade. I don’t want that to happen.
4) While not high up on my list of reasons, I am cheering for the Seahawks because their coach Pete Carroll led the University of Southern California to a national title. Pete and I are homies because we both lived in LA.
5) I want a fifth reason, so I will go with the Seattle Starbucks connection to justify my choice of the Seahawks. I am a coffee addict and S-bucks brand is my favorite American java. It’s as good a reason to root for the Hawks as any.
So as Sunday becomes Monday, I hope Richard Sherman is trash talking on late night television, having added to his fame when he clobbered a Broncos receiver to win the Vince Lombardi Trophy a few hours earlier. And I trust that Mr. Manning will not go gentle into that good night.
Slow News Day 