There isn’t one topic which has drawn my interest, so I’m going to talk about a few things, which is another way of talking about nothing. First, let’s review the Championship games. There are a few things that can be taken away from this weekend. First and foremost, playoff football in freezing temperatures is great. It’s rare because there are only 4 or 5 venues that can get cold enough for TV viewers to feel how miserable the players are. Two of those places are Boston and Green Bay. The combination of the intensity of the playoffs and the partially frozen players make for a plethora of bone jarring hits, especially in the Green Bay game. (Note: plethora is a SAT word. It means a lot. I like to use it because it was featured in The Three Amigos: “You wouldn’t say I had a plethora of piñatas if you didn’t know what a plethora means, would you?”)
Which leads us to point #2…I guess. Although the games were better than expected the outcomes were not. Along with the rest of America, every step the Patriots take toward a perfect season makes me die a little inside. Once I got over the Cowboys loss (I say get over, but you never really get over a tragedy like that, you just learn to get by), I was ready for a great QB showdown with Favre and Brady. EHHH! Wrong again. Looks like we have a second straight Super Bowl with a Manning boy. The Giants did earn the right to play in this game. They won three playoff games on the road, including the two top seeds in the NFC. But that doesn’t mean I’m excited about a Giants-Patriots matchup. Their regular season finale was good, so maybe I’ll be surprised like I was this weekend. I’m just not as hyped for the Super bowl as I was for the last month. My hearts been broken too many times…
So it’s on to college basketball. I love conference play, because every single game is a rivalry for at least one of the schools. Duke probably doesn’t care about Clemson too much, but Clemson loves to beat Duke. The crowd atmosphere is something that can never be duplicated in the NBA, and that intensity spills on to the court. Sometimes I think the talent level in the NBA is too high, and a lot of things you see in college go away. There are no presses, no sick Syracuse 3-2 zone. There isn’t enough second help, or swinging the ball around the perimeter for the open three. I like NBA basketball, but it’s hard to be entrenched in a game from start to finish. The last six minutes are about equal to the first half of a good college game. A NBA playoff game is probably as good as a regular season college game, but nothing can touch tournament play. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, because I’m sure some drunken thesis will emerge in early march, but NCAA basketball rocks.
You know what else rocks? Bar-b-queue. Bar-b-queue is in men’s blood. The molasses helps us bleed less. One of my goals in life is to go on a bar-b-queue tour and test the four distinct types of American bar-b-queue: Carolina, Memphis, Kansas City, and, I think, Texas. I don’t know what made me think of that. It needs to get hot again so I can grill.
So, in summation: Boo Giants-Patriots. Yay College basketball. Bar-b-queue kicks ass. Go bacon. Bacon wasn’t mentioned here, but the condiment of meats deserves recognition at all times, regardless of relevance. In fact, let’s talk about bacon for a minute. Bacon makes things better. It an awesomeness enhancer. It makes an ordinary sandwich twice as good. Wrap a steak with bacon and you get bacon flavored steak AND steak flavored bacon. I’ve even learned of candied bacon. This is wonderful because desert was the last course I needed bacon in. Some people use potpourri or scented candles in their house. I cook bacon, and the house is filled with a pleasing aroma for the rest of the day. I don’t know if the Super Bowl is going to be good or not, but I’m gonna throw some bacon, cheese and toast together, perhaps fried, and it’s going to be a good Sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment