Jan 25 2008
Don’t Believe the Hype
You may have noticed that I haven’t talked much about Super Bowl XLII this week.
There’s a simple and obvious reason for that — there’s nothing to talk about. The big game isn’t until a week from Sunday, and until then, we’ve got nothing but hype and bluster and journalists desperately looking for stories (and lots and lots of fluff) so they can look like they’re actually earning their money. There’s no real reason for the NFL to make us wait two weeks, but they do it anyway, so that we all get a chance to meet to the real Ahmad Bradshaw and have big giant parties in the desert and such.
Simply put, this is the week that made me glad that I learned to appreciate other forms of football. There are a hundred stories in England alone right now — Tottenham Hotspur finally beating Arsenal (and starting a Gooner dust-up), another American moving to Fulham, Havant & Waterlooville getting ready for their FA Cup match against Liverpool, whose new American owners pissing off fans, and transfers, transfers galore. The universe wants you to know who Havant & Waterlooville are — look here and here — and that’s a beautiful thing.
If that’s not enough for you, Six Nations rugby starts in two weeks, as does Super 14 rugby down in the Southern Hemisphere. The Australian Football League preseason starts in 3 weeks, and there’s already controversy about new NAB Cup test rules, not to mention a strong desire to dump the NAB Cup for good. Plus, they’re already playing Gaelic Football in Ireland this month.
And what are we doing in America? Going a whole week without football and yammering on about Tom Brady’s bogus walking boot and Jessica Simpson getting dumped by Tony Romo.
Y’know, I’d take Havant & Waterlooville over that pretty much any day of the week. At least they’re actually going to play this weekend.
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[...] Dave wrote a fantastic post today on “Don’t Believe the Hype”Here’s ONLY a quick extractSimply put, this is the week that made me glad that I learned to appreciate other forms of football. There are a hundred stories in England alone right now — Tottenham Hotspur finally beating Arsenal (and starting a Gooner dust-up), … [...]
With all the goings-on at Liverpool, the Havant and Waterlooville match has taken a very symbolic, theatrical nature.
If I had a camera (and accreditation), I’d shoot a documentary.
Well Dave here in Australia the AFL Pre Season competition is certainly turning into more of a joke than it has before.
The powerhouse clubs like Collingwood and Essendon are furious at the AFL for one rule in particular (the interchange rule) where they can only have 16 interchanges per quarter.
Meaning that they can’t really control how many minutes their star players or players returning from injury play. As a result many will be happy to lose their first game and be out. On the up side at least we may see some of the youngsters a bit earlier.
Now, hold on a second here, Dave. I’m not sure whether you realize this, but Eli Manning is Petyon Manning’s brother.
Also, apparently there’s some sort of historical rivalry between Boston and New York?
If you stopped all the Super Bowl hype, how would I find out about fantastic angles like these? Tom Brady is dating some sort of supermodel! Did you know that?
Canadian fan here. I’m really looking forward to the 6-Nations and the start of the AFL Football season. I ordered my Essendon Jumper last month in anticipation.