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 Divisional Round

As much as I love the NFL, there is nothing worse than investing so much time and energy into watching as many games as possible over 17 weeks only to have a letdown in the playoffs--and that's beyond the Raiders getting handled by the Texans last week.  (Yup...still salty.)  With the Wild Card Weekend games being decided by an average of 19 points, last week was highly disappointing and hopes were high for better showings in the Divisional Round.  However, the first half of the weekend wasn't shaping up to be much better and it appeared the same thing might happen in the second half.  Nevertheless, by 11:30 p.m. Sunday night, avid football fans had been treated to two competitive contests this weekend, including what could be the best game of the playoffs depending on who ends up in Houston...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Wild Card Weekend

Although the NFL is the only one out of the four major North American sports through which you don't have to suffer through at least 82 games a season, die-hard fanatics like myself still look forward to this time of year.  While teams like the Browns, the Jaguars, the Rams, the 49ers and the Bears were long eliminated from the mix, the hard work of twelve teams  has the potential to pay off as they duke it out for a month in the ultimate "let's separate the men from the boys" tournament.  Unlike the NBA, the NHL or MLB, the beauty of the NFL Playoffs is you only get one shot to win or lose.  However, one of the biggest downsides to NFL Wild Card Weekend is the chance for at least one or two blowouts because unless we're talking the 2005 Steelers or the 2010 Packers, the higher-seeded teams usually handle their business.  Unfortunately, none of the games were competitive for longer than two-and-a-half quarters, but I'm still going to discuss them anyway...

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 2

I came into Week 2 of NFL regular season action on a high from a solid Saturday in NCAA football.  Although all three of my favorite teams won big--including Michigan storming back from being down 14 points in the first quarter at home to beat Colorado 45-28--my favorite game of the day was between two unranked teams, Maryland vs. Central Florida.  After UCF QB McKenzie Milton lost his third fumble of the game in the second overtime in a tie game at 24, Maryland freshman QB Tyrrell Pigrome had the daunting task of filling in for the injured Perry Hills.  However, there are few plays better in someone's first snap than to get a 24-yard TD run to win the game 30-24 in double OT and push your team under your first-year head coach DJ Durkin to 3-0.  Yeah...seeing another one of my favorite college football teams win in dramatic fashion definitely got me ready for football on Sunday.  So enough about the kids and let's talk about the grown man's game...