"Super" Bowl???

After I managed to disassociate myself from all this "hype" for the past two weeks, I do admit to watching it (off and on)...it was self-serving curiosity mostly. And while although the FIRST FIVE minutes got my eyes opened a bit wider, the overall game was a quasi-yawn-fest.

Yeah, it was nice to see Dungy and Manning get their rings finally. But that was about it. The halftime show packed more punch. See, I remember football when it WAS football. Take Super Bowl V for instance. The last time the COLTS won. Hell, for that matter, take most ANY Super Bowl before the 'modern era" (and that's around the early-mid 80s). The contrasts between teams THEN and NOW are remarkedly pronounced. Maybe you fans today are impressed a lot easier than WE used to be back then. I really don't know.

Teams in decades past used to play in ANY weather (screw covered stadiums), wore a lot less protection (it was all low-tech back then), and gave us (the fans) a helluva lot more action on the field (unlike TODAY'S players that seem to excel in "off-the-field" shenanigans). You used to be able to count how many players had been arrested back THEN on ONE hand (with 4 fingers missing). Today, well, it IS a whole other ballgame. Yesterday, they even let one player attend (and play) "under watchful eyes", as he was involved in some "thing" with a lot of guns and ammo.

The quarterbacks on BOTH teams yesterday lacked any real "creativity" on the field, and there were VERY FEW opportunities to step into the pocket and look for a receiver. Time was you'd "think" (since it was 3rd down and short yardage) the QB would keep the ball and get the yardage HIMSELF. None of that these days! I was predicting what was going to happen on any given down regularly...and I never could do that in the "old days". Just when you "thought" the QB would run the ball, he would lateral to a halfback, and THAT guy would toss it 40 yards to a tight end! THAT was a football game! Anyone recall the (now infamous..or famous) "Heidi Bowl" (Raiders vs.Jets) from Nov. 1968 for the AFC Championship? Best 50 seconds of football we *never* saw!

Fran Tarkenton...best damned scrambler ever on the planet...Roger Staubach, a damn close second. Joe Namath had some of the worst knees in the game, and he STILL would run the ball. Johnny Unitas...one of the best play-action passers ever. Earl Morrell...not only a good (and old) QB, but a damn fine KICKER as well. And what about the Daryl Lamonicas, the Len Dawsons, the Y.A. Tittles, the Eddie LeBarons, Don Merediths, the Bob Grieses, and the Bart Starrs? There are SO many notable players from eras gone by that can never be bested byanyone today. We might have someone that can beat their records, but we can never have men like this that had such a passion for the game, that while playing for peanuts (by today's hugely overinflated standards), they brought their souls to the stadium every Sunday with the rest of theri equipment....
And we watched...and marvelled.


Must been a pretty "snug" fit in those uniforms
then...carrying such a burden...and passion.