Mediocre Bowl

As a 30-something guy I feel like I have outgrown the idea of lumping myself into groups, finding that the application of labels does more to restrict personal growth than they do to define. I am who I am, but who I am today may be different than who I am tomorrow. That said, the one constant in my life has been my appreciation of professional sports. Yes, I am one of "those guys" who has more than one fantasy team, and isn't afraid to discuss it (assuming appropriateness). So, in all fairness I guess I am a sports geek, stat head, fantasy freak, or whatever... the label fits, and I'll wear it.

Having followed and revered pro sports as I have, and having watched this NFL season this year I have to ask, "What's so super about this championship game?" Week-in-week-out I sat on the couch watching game after game after game, and now that the season is all but wrapped up I can declare that this NFL season bored me. No team was good enough to become king of the hill, and every team played mistake ridden football. All-in-all it was an ugly year, and this game coming up in two weeks does little to convince me it will end any better.

It doesn't take a whole lot of analysis to show this, all you have had to do is look around at the half asleep gazes on the couches across America on Sunday afternoons if you need proof. Parity has taken hold. Every team has a shot of winning every week because no team is all that good- there I said it.

Look around the league and it is clear. The Seahawks made it in the playoffs, getting home field advantage with a sub .500 record (they win no less). Teams like the Lions (should have beaten Chicago and beat Green Bay), Rams, and Buccaneers posted better than expected records to much cheerleading from the heads on the four-letter-word, but they didn't win because they were good. They won because the rest of the league isn't much better than bad.

Sitting down watching the games this past Sunday I had a lot of time to think. The games were boring, and sloppily played by all sides. Elite players were flat, and games were won on mistakes not dominance. As the supposed best week of football I had to ask myself that if this is the best the NFL has to offer why do I still care? None of the teams involved look super. This next two weeks will be a densely packed affair of nauseating hype, as the machine tries to rev the Super nature of this game to justify multi-million dollar ad rates, multi-thousand dollar tickets, multi-hundred dollar tickets to the parking lot, and the concept that this Sunday in February should be revered as a holiday. All of this for a matchup involving two mediocre teams from a mediocre league, and it could be the last professional football any of us see for a long time (thanks greed).