Who Dat?!?!

Best NFL season of my young life and my team went 3-13. Yep, thats right, I'm a Bucs fan and thanks to Lane "famous for being famous" Kiffin, I had to find other ways to enjoy the football season this year. I went with conventional weapons and got into two Fantasy Leagues and thanks to Phillip Rivers, Dallas Clark, Ray Rice, and basically the Vikings Offense, I was in good shape.

But I still had a problem, the GF. We basically live together and getting >15hrs of sports coverage a week under her nose was not going to be easy. I'm a crafty SOB though and figured if I could get her emotionally invested in a team, ANY team, I'd make magic happen, and oh did it happen.

Being from Canada, the girl really digs on French stuff and by week 2 she showed signs of interest in the Saints logo. I knew they were easy front runners to go deep into the playoffs so I nurtured the shit of her kindling interest. By Christmas I had her in a custom Saints T-shirt with name/number and come the playoffs, all I needed was a little luck (i.e. Brett Favre late in the 4th quarter) and I could watch all the football I could handle.

She proved to be quite the student I might add and by Super Bowl Sunday, I had created a veritable monster that was telling her friends all about Archie Manning and the status of Dwight Freeney's ankle. In addition, I also managed to get some College hoops hooks in her by taking her to the Kentucky/Uconn game at MSG, which proved pivotal for bridging the weekly gap between MNF and College GameDay.

Anyway, by kickoff we had the Super Bowl Party in full swing with 5-6 friends chowing on veggies, nachos, and pizza, while watching the game on my "the picture is so good it'll make your dick hard" TV. For beverages the girl made Who Dat Mojitos.

At one point in the first quarter someone suggested that we do shots every time the Saints score and considering the fact that I had an unopened bottle of Wild Turkey collecting dust in the closet, I was quick to get some drinking momentum started. Plus I was a little nervous after NO's lackluster start, so I figured getting drunk was a good move. I also realized that I had never been shit-faced for the Super Bowl because I always had work on Monday. Eh, fuck it this time.

To my surprise, rather than let Peyton carve us up like a Thanksgiving Turkey, we actually made a game of it. Not converting on 4th and goal was a little disheartening (I don't know why they didn't give it to Kardashian) but thankfully Hartley's leg saved us some face and we were only down 4 going into half. I actually missed the onside kick on a food run but in retrospect I'm glad I did so. I can be a bit volatile at times and considering that this was the gutsiest play in Super Bowl history I may have gotten myself evicted had I been there. Thankfully, we were off to the races by the time I returned and before I knew it, we were up 13-10 off Pierre Thomas' 16-yd TD. BTW, did you guys see the 2 blocks on that play? Sick!

And with another TD, came another shot. This is when things start to get a little blurry, especially for the GF, but as our BAL's increased, so did the excitement, go figure. A TD from Addai and another 40+ yd field goal from Hartley and we were at 16-17 at the end of the 3rd quarter. At this point in time I remembered the squares pool I was in and that I had Saints 6/Colts 7. Dialed!!

The only thing we needed now was the lead and thankfully Brees and Shockey hooked us up for another shot of Bourbon. I actually managed to sucker a friend into a second shot after he jumped the gun before the 2-pt conversion. "If we win the challenge, you gotta do another" BOOM! I felt like I was back in college getting freshman wasted.

Next thing I know we are up 7 with about 5 min to go and Peyton's driving, shit! The 4th and 2 conversion was tough to watch but it set up the second most exciting Pick 6 I have ever seen, the first being Rhonde Barber's in the 2003 NFC title game. I about had a heart attack and despite shaking the foundation of the 7th floor, we managed to collect ourselves and kill the bottle of whiskey. Enter all the hoopla and post game interviews.

By the time the dust settled most folks had left and my beloved was passed out on the floor. I had been giving her a foot massage and she slid off the couch in comfort. As I gazed down at her beautiful face, decorated with eye black, I thought to myself, "this is one of the happiest moments of my life". It was tough to articulate this moment to her this morning but when I drew the mental picture of a tuckered out 3 year old holding up the pennant of his favorite/winning team while asleep on the couch after all the action, she got the picture.

In reflection of this NFL season, I must call it my favorite. I made the finals in both my fantasy leagues, going 1-1. I won the free league and lost the money league but still managed to get 1/2 the pot. My Bucs sucked but I was able to bring a new sports fan into the world. I think the victory meant more to me than it did to her, but she's now got a special place in her heart for Brees (who doesn't) and will hopefully be a Na'Lens fan for life. With the money from the pool I'm going to get her some "Saints are Champions" schwag and I also plan to make good on her, "Lets go down to Tampa for Saints/Bucs" request. She digs the pirate ship and canon at Raymond James....girls.

A Little Spittle

As for our beloved flatball, things looked like they could have gone better this weekend. I find it terribly ironic that the circumstances that helped birth TiV (rained out PresDay '05) have reared their ugly head in the most unexpected place, the desert. What the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Good luck getting another 70+ teams out next year when they can go somewhere a little more under 21 friendly.

Or not, I hear the Yale guys spent 6 hrs at a strip club. That sounds like expensive fun, something Ivy Leaguers love.

And I also couldn't help but comment on this thread on RSD. It looks like someone out there in cyber space is doing a little yelling at the rain. I've been there myself and despite all the data, little will be done. It will make Oregon a more focused team in the future, but in all honesty, the best strategy is to learn how suck it up and do it again.

just my thoughts

match diesel