Sunday, February 3, 2013

The Har-Super-Baugh Bowl Pre Pre Pre Game Rant

The Super Bowl is on in.. a few hours or so. It's extra weird for me because my two favorite NFL teams are playing against each other. The San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. So you could say I'm a bit torn.
    I've been a 49er fan since I first started watching it with my Dad. I wasn't always a fan, I was just a geeky kid who wasn't good at sports. But I wanted to get closer to my Dad and learned to love Baseball and Football. Admittedly he became more of a NASCAR fan near the end of his life. We have all the memorabilia and die-cast cars he bought off of QVC to prove it. He got to see our SF Giants finally go to the World Series for he passed. I got to see my first game at AT&T park not long after that.
    My first and only (so far) Niner game I got to see was back when Joe Montana was still with the team. I was disappointed that he wasn't playing because of an injury and then back-up Steve Young was in as QB.
   Many years later when I was living in Baltimore with my ex gf we managed to get tickets to see the Ravens play at home (M&T Bank Stadium) vs. the much loathed Pittsburgh Steelers.
   *On a side-note I'm probably the few geeks that like sports as well as, well, geeky stuff. Star Trek, Batman, Star Wars, Comics, standing right next to NFL and MLB. I'm a coat of many colors...
   I became a bi-coastal spots fan. Then it was hard catching Niner games over there on a t.v. and retail schedule. I think Jeff Garcia was the QB then. The Ravens dumped Trent Dilfer then got Kyle Boller. My relationship crumbled, and then I moved back home...
   Now with the Harbaugh brothers having at it tomorrow I should be rooting for the home team right? Well I might be one of the few people who would rather have Alex Smith as QB rather than Colin Kaepernick. After Smith got better from his concussion he should have gotten his job back IMO. Coach Harbaugh went with "the hot hand" as he said. Yes I know that football is all about winning but still. Losing your job because you got conked on the head? Not good. And I really got into the story of Coach Harbaugh ...rehabilitating Alex Smith after having 4 offensive coaches in 5 or so years. He gave him a chance when everyone wanted to write him off as damaged goods. Everyone deserves to have someone give them a chance to shine.
   That resonated with me.
   You can't argue with results as they say. Even when it annoys me.
   And Ray Goddamn Lewis is retiring! One of the best to play his position. I really don't want to see him, or his crazy dancing, go off into the sunset. The man is and was a Beast. Do I want to see him go out with a loss? No. Do I want to see the Niners lose their first Super Bowl? No.
   Like I said, I'm Torn.
  But it's gonna be a hell of a game and someone's gotta win and someone's gotta lose. And hopefully I'll get to see most of it before work tomorrow.

Daniel