Super Bowl LVII

Maybe it’s just me, but it feels like there hasn’t been an NFL game on TV for months. The calendar assures me it has only been two weeks; can we really trust calendars, though?

Yes – yes we can.

The Super Bowl is here! This one is for all the marbles. The whole kit and caboodle. All the idioms!

I don’t really have a preview for you – there’s nothing I can say that hasn’t already been said 50 times over the past two weeks.

So, I’ll keep it brief and close with one of my favourite Super Bowl memories.

I think we’re in for a doozy of a game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles. I know the Super Bowl is never the best game of the year, but I have high hopes for this one.

The Chiefs offence versus the Eagles defence is going to be fun.

Get ready for the slow motion replays of defensive linemen landing on Patrick Mahomes and laying on his injured right ankle a bit longer than necessary. They are coming.

I don’t think the Chiefs are going to have the luxury of a running game to get them into the flow of the game. It’s going to be on Mahomes from the start. I’m expecting about 45+ passing attempts from him.

I’m curious to see how Jalen Hurts performs on the big stage. An advantage he has is his ability to run the ball. He doesn’t have to force throws early on. He can take off and run with it and make an impact on the game, even if he’s nervous.

How are all the rookies on the Chiefs defence going to respond to the bright lights? The secondary is going to have to be ready because I don’t think Hurts is going to hold on to the ball long enough for Chris Jones and the defensive line to get to him. He’s going to roll out or make a quick pass.

No matter how the game goes, I’m expecting a frantic finish in the fourth quarter. This game isn’t going to be a blowout. It’s going to come down to the very end.

I hope the kickers sleep well tonight and calm their nerves because it could come down to them.

Fun-ish fact: Both kickers were born in 1995. That means, their earliest memories are probably from 1999, so can we really consider them 90s kids? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Overall, I just want a good game.

I am a Chiefs fan, so I am hoping they win, but if they lose I won’t be devastated. If Eagles win, I’d be happy for them and their fans.

Being from Canada, it’s hard for me to have the same level of emotional attachment for a team as those who grew up with an NFL team in their city. I’m sure other Canadians live and die by their NFL team of choice, but it’s not like that for me.

I need a geographical connection in order to feel like someone’s punched me in the stomach when we lose an important game.

I do want to see Mahomes make a run at Tom Brady’s seven Super Bowl rings, so getting his second ring tomorrow would help in that respect.

My prediction is incredibly biased, but here it is.

Prediction: Chiefs Win, 27-24

Extra Prediction: The halftime show begins with Rihanna rising up from beneath the stage in a silver dress that shines bright like a diamond, as she sings, “Shine bright like a diamond.” You heard it here first.

Quick story!

In 2011 – so, university days – we had a Super Bowl viewing party in the lounge at the end of our hall. We were a tight-knit group that year, so there were probably about 30 people that came in and out.

This was Super Bowl XLV, where the Packers defeated the Steelers.

The planning started that morning. I decided I was going to buy pizza for everyone with some extra money I had on my meal plan. We could use our meal card at some off-campus restaurants, so that was great.

I ordered 15 pizzas (might have been 18, but let’s go with 15 for this story) and I believe there were also a couple of boxes of cinnamon sticks.

Why so many pizzas? Because 12 of us wanted our own individual pizza. That’s what we had been doing all school year whenever we ordered pizza, so it made sense to us.

Plus, the pizza place had a deal where if you bought two large three-topping pizzas, they were both cheaper. So, we did that deal…six times.

As for the other three pizzas, those were communal pizzas for anyone who was showing up but didn’t want a whole pizza for themselves.

Getting everyone’s order and writing it out, was the smoothest group project I’d ever been apart of. We called in the order early in the afternoon – around 1:30PM – went through all 15 orders one by one, and gave them a time we wanted them to arrive.

It all worked out perfectly. There is a photo somewhere of 15 pizza boxes stacked up on a table and it’s beautiful.

As for the room set up – the dinky fat back TV provided by the school wasn’t going to cut it for the Super Bowl. Someone had a large flat screen TV in their room and offered to bring it to the lounge, so that’s what we did.

We put the TV on the little table the other TV had been on and…it was too low to the ground.

So, we put the little table on top of a bigger table. I swear, we were building a pyramid just to make sure the TV was high enough so people could see it from the back of the room.

As for seating – we had the typical residence couches – benches, if you will. Three seats per bench. Normally, they were around the perimeter of the room, but we remodelled and created two aisles of about six rows.

It was snug. It was perfect. It was fun. There wasn’t a bad seat in the house.

I’ll never forget it.

Enjoy the Super Bowl!

What are some of your Super Bowl memories?

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