Scribbler's Rave & Favorite Five: Super Bowl Edition

Although I'll give the nod to the Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday season being the most wonderful time of the year, Super Bowl Week has to be in the conversation for the most entertaining second fiddle.  I mean, what other major North American sporting event draws as much fanfare and drama as the Super Bowl before the 6:18-ish Sunday kickoff?  Maybe NBA All-Star Weekend in its heyday, but it still ain't the Super Bowl.  While it's rare for me to ever tell my readers to overlook any of my posts, please treat my earlier post about Super Bowl duds like a quarterback who threw an interception on his last drive.  Let's get to five Big Game Sunday Studs, i.e., my top five Super Bowls of all time...

1350 Okie Doke Street: The Super Bowl Brick Quintet

When someone or something doesn't live up to the hype, it goes without saying how disappointing it can be--especially when it involves who or what you love at least 85 percent more than anyone or anything else in  the world.  As an avid football who has been alive for 38 of the 50 Super Bowls, I have seen some memorable games which either met or exceeded expectations--which I'll get into in our last post of the day.  However, because the Super Bowl has become one of several American pastimes as well as the premier sporting event, the scuttlebutt and endless discussions leading up to the big game has also meant a few duds have occurred.  So in true "1350 Okie Doke Street" fashion--and because I haven't done one of these since November--one of the best ways to celebrate Super Bowl Week with New Problem Tuesdays is to share five of the most disappointing Super Bowls I've ever seen.  Let's relive some of that trash talk which fell flat, bets which didn't work in your favor, pizza and beer from 2002 you're still trying to work off and those four hours of your life you wish you could get back--or more if you watched every pregame special like the bonafide fanatic you are...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 6

One of the things which has helped me to overcome an emotionally trying period of my life outside of music has been football.  It's like the home team knew I was going through it and needed to get excited for my favorite sport in the whole wide world because after starting off terribly at 0-2, they've ripped off four straight wins and at least look like contenders in the NFC East race.  Granted, seeing the Capitals and Nationals flake out in early rounds amidst Stanley Cup and World Series talk, respectively, doesn't give me much hope for their playoff aspirations, but the turnaround is good nonetheless.  I'm frankly happy the NFC East is not the "NFC Least" as it had been for the past several years as no team is under .500, making every win absolutely critical.  I'm so pumped about the NFC East's comeback that, although I was cheering for the Packers to beat the Cowboys, it's hard to knock two rookies as impressive as Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott; heck, I marveled at many of the throws Carson Wentz made and he was making them against the home team!  While many of the overall matchups throughout the league aren't always alluring from week to week, it's still not an all-out blah fest and Week 6 continued that trend...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Regular Season, Week 1

I nearly got roped into two things known to drive up my blood pressure over the past eight years: 1) another season of fantasy football and 2) buying a copy of Madden NFL 17.  However, there are three simple reasons why I won't drink the Kool-Aid with either: 1) both bled me dry financially last year, especially FanDuel, and a brother needs to save his duckets; 2) I don't have the time to invest in FanDuel or Madden because I have too many creative endeavors; and most important, 3) I want to be able to enjoy the game of football without worrying about how a dropped TD pass, a fumble or an aberration of a performance will drop my from a cool $500 to zilch in a matter of seconds.  Therefore, in an effort to accomplish what I failed to do last NFL season, I unveil a new weekly series dedicated to my favorite sport: "Views from the Nosebleeds."  So during a week featuring six fourth-quarter come-from-behind wins and four one-point victories--the latter being an NFL record for an opening weekend--let's go over some of my "views"...

Note to Randy Moss: "We Don't Believe You, You Need More People!"

So the blog title is the first of two quotes by my favorite rapper of all time, Jay-Z.  We’ll get to the other one later.  Anyways, I’m sure that most football fans by now have heard about those interesting comments from San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Randy Moss during Media Day for Super Bowl XLVII.  Just in case you’ve chosen to tune out the world for a few days, here’s an excerpt: