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...

RANDOM THOUGHT ALERTS (Vol. 2, No. 2)

As a participant in nine total spelling bees, "obsessive" is an understatement.  Whether it's at work or on social media, it takes a lot out of me when people butcher words--especially when they have the correct spelling right in front of them and they still spell it wrong.  Heck, right before typing this intro, I was quoting a Kingpen Slim freestyle where he referenced Topanga from Boy Meets World and I verified it via Wikipedia before commenting instead of settling for an incorrect spelling.  Enter the person guilty of the spelling faux pas above.  Either they snuck this street sign past me recently or I have lived in this area for over three years now, passed this intersection hundreds of times and never noticed they added an extra "n" in "Briggs Chaney Road" until several months ago.  Yeah...I was so bothered by the mistake and pressed that I took a picture of it, but that's not the point.  While it's the only sign along a stretch of 5.7 miles spelled erroneously, they still made the mistake of not misspelling it closer to Cloverly where I didn't have to see it everyday.  Hence, I only have four words for you, dear sir or madam: you had one job.  Now on with the other nonsense...

Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan, Part 3

Unless you've been living under a rock or you've been more focused on Agent Orange becoming POTUS, you know Raiders majority owner Mark Davis officially filed relocation papers to move the storied franchise from Oakland to Las Vegas by 2020.  Although they have been my AFC team for most of my life, neither am I from the state of California nor have I ever been there; thus, I shouldn't be affected by this move, right?  Not exactly.  Even when the Raiders moved to Los Angeles for thirteen seasons between 1982 and 1994, they were still in Cali--a state which has its own mystique up and down its picturesque coast.  Moving the team to a place like Vegas might seem like the sexy pick, but as I contend in this third and final part of "Dirk Scribbler's Guide to Being a 97 Percent Raiders Fan", the appeal only stretches but so far--even for a Raiders fan from the D.C. area...

Views from the Nosebleeds: 2016 NFL Conference Championships

Sans the second half of Divisional Round Weekend, the 2016-17 NFL Playoffs haven't been competitive.  However, in case you're like me and have been disappointed with many of these weak showings, perhaps the beginning of this edition of "Views from the Nosebleeds" will cheer you up as one guy has been the playoffs' saving grace.  For back-to-back weekends, saxophonist Mike Phillips performed his National "Saxthem" version of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Georgia Dome, which I'm convinced gave the Falcons even more motivation to beat both visiting teams handily.  Not only were both renditions the best instrumental versions of the National Anthem performed at sporting events I've ever heard, but let me tell it, Phillips has turned two of the most memorable versions since the late, great Whitney Houston's stirring performance before Super Bowl XXV.  Granted, nobody compares to The Voice--I got goosebumps listening to it as I was typing this--but he showed up and showed off like few have done since '91.  Alas, since this isn't a music post, I guess we can talk about these beatdowns now...