The headline in the sport section of Saturday’s WALL STREET JOURNAL read: MY HEAD SAYS RAMS, BUT MY HEART SAYS BENGALS. That’s pretty much the way I feel. The Rams are favored by 4 points, but many of the ESPN “experts” are predicting a Rams romp over the Bengals. I like Joe Burrow, but Aaron Donald will be chasing him all game long. I would love to see the Bengals pull the upset, but I’m going with the Rams: 27-24. Who do you think will win the Super Bowl?
I have no clue as to who will win but people in my area are mostly rooting for the Rams since Matt Stafford previously played for the Detroit Lions and was popular here.
Steve, I’ve always admired Matt Stafford…especially during his wife’s medical problems. The Buffalo Bills’ Wide Receiver Coach is Stafford’s wife’s brother.
That headline summed things up perfectly: in our home, we love “Joe Burreaux,” who led LSU to a championship in the 2019 season, but there’s no doubt the Bengal’s O-line will leave Joe vulnerable; meanwhile, the Rams have a defense that can, at times, be utterly impenetrable. We’ll be cheering for the Bengals today as we chow down on dozens of chicken wings (currently marinating in a buttermilk/hot-sauce mixture in preparation for the air fryer), but I won’t be surprised if the Rams win. My only hope is that Joe doesn’t become like Dan Marino: made it to the Super Bowl at a young age—lost that game—and never made it back.
Deb, from what I’ve seen of Joe Burrow, he’s the Real Deal. He’ll be around the NFL Playoffs for years. Yet, your Dan Marino Cautionary Tale is worth pondering. Diane plans to prepare some “munchies” during the Super Bowl game…but no chicken wings!
I saw very little of the Bengals this season until the playoffs and a lot of the Rams. I loved watching Burrow when he played for LSU, but Stafford was an excellent quarterback for Georgia. Then he became the first player picked in the draft and wound up with the dreadful Lions. I was very happy to see him rescued from Detroit by the Rams and I hope to see him win today. I’ll pick the Rams by a score of 30-26.
Michael, you might be right about the Rams with Stafford at the helm. But, Burrow shows up in Big Games…
Being a native and current resident of Ohio, I am legally required and contractually obligated to root for the Bengals.
This will be the first Superbowl I have ever seen.
Dan, I hope you enjoy the Super Bowl experience!
I am notorious for picking the wrong team in these games, but I am going to go with Super Joe doing a Namath (rather than a Dan Marino, Deb). The Bengals have never won a Super Bowl and I’d like to see them do so. But no, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Rams win. As long as it isn’t a snorefest like last year, it’s good.
Jeff, same here: I hope the game is close and the action holds the interest of the Nation. And, I’ll be watching the Super Bowl commercials closely, too! Colin Jost, husband of Scarlett Johansson, stars in an AMAZON commercial with his wife.
As for Super Bowl viewing: I can still remember Super Bowl I (though it wasn’t called that then). I was working at an office in Midtown and became good friends with a co-worker (who introduced me to Billboard magazine, which I subscribed to for years). On the day of the Super Bowl, I took the subway all the way up to his place in The Bronx, where he and I and a couple of his friends watched the first half, then went out to one of the nearby parks during halftime to throw the ball around, before returning to see the Packers pull away in the second half.
Now it’s turned into one big gambling fest. Mark my words, the league’s getting into bed with these online gambling sites will come back to bite it in the end.
Preach, brother! I’m already suspicious of odd/unexpected/inexplicable calls and plays, but when you add in the gambling element, it just becomes even more likely that someone somewhere has been coerced. I’m not talking about a mafia boss holding a big name player hostage in exchange for them tanking a game, I’m referring to the far more likely possibility of a lower-level player or official being “prevailed upon” (through threats and/or money) to make sure a team doesn’t beat the spread or that a particular play doesn’t go a certain way. I mean, online gambling allows you to bet on everything from the opening coin flip to how many yards a particular play will be. And I can’t tell you how disheartening I find it that the Manning family, along with a slew of non-sports celebrities, are shilling for these sports book companies. The entire sports universe is being corrupted and I doubt we’ll ever be able to put the genie back in the bottle. Heavy sigh.
Yes, I am disgusted that the Mannings did that ad. The Daily News today had a list of some of the endless number of bets you can make today, from who will win the coin flip, if they will kick or receive, etc. Clearly, the league doesn’t give the slightest crap how many people lose their life savings, but they will care a LOT – and we can already guess at the self-righteous hand wringing to follow – when a scenario like Deb laid out inevitably happens. There have been shady umpires in MLB, and the people officiating NFL games are not exactly well paid, so who knows?
Jeff, the commercials Fanduel and Draft Kings run here always end with an 800-number for help with gambling addiction. As if that makes it All Right…
Deb, gambling always accelerates corruption. Just look at horse racing. I hate to think of the millions of men who lost money on the Super Bowl today…and look for someone or something to take their frustrations out on!
Jeff, our morning newspaper, THE BUFFALO NEWS, is wrapped in Super Bowl betting apps ads! We’re going to become a country of gambling addicts!
I”m hoping the Rams win, the make it well known they are the ONLY LA team (boo chargers). I won’t be upset if the Bengals win, rooting for underdogs.
Maggie, like you, I’ll be happy if either teams wins.
Don’t care. This will be the first super bowl I haven’t watched. There are 6 hours of pre-game yapping, 4 hours of commercials with breaks for football plays interrupted by officials flags, a rap-hip hop show in the middle. Bah to it all, nothing but a buncha hype and malarkey. I’ll be in the den with a ham sandwich and a book.
Rick, I’ll have book in my lap during the Super Bowl.
Since I have no dog in the hunt, I decided to focus on game-day food. Chocolate chip waffles for breakfast, jalapeño poppers for a snack, then BBQ’ed ribs and brisket for dinner. Some friends sent us some KC BBQ. I may be sick tomorrow! Tom is rooting for Joe Burrow.
Angela, just about everybody is rooting for Joe Burrow. But, I expect Burrow, Mahomes, Herbert, and Josh Allen to be around for years! The NFL has some great young QB talent to look forward to!
Chiefs beat 49ers 12-10 in overtime with a Safety! greatest Supr Bowl ever. Sorry I missed it.
I flipped by the local Telemundo station (NBC’s Latinx cousin) after whatever I was watching at the appropriate hour went to commercial, and saw that you apparently got the spread right, at very least, George! Was amused NBC was intending to go from SB directly to more Olympics coverage…and wondered how much world hunger and disease could be alleviated by how much Cabletown paid for sports this year.
One of the Telemundo reporters/anchors was very cute. End of my engagement with the game, hope some of the players took a knee during the anthem.
Though I currently have heartburn as if I’d downed Buffalo wings. (I didn’t, but perhaps it was the chutney from the samosas. Wegman’s samosas have tasty-enough chutneys, but the filling is not recommended here, by neither Alice nor myself.)
Todd, hope your heartburn gets better. I thought the Super Bowl final score would be close…and it was!
Well, the Bengals kept it interesting, but it seems fitting that the game ended with a sack because Joe Burrow was the first QB to take his team to the Super Bowl in the same season he led the league in getting sacked. If the Bengals have a hope of returning to the Super Bowl, they need to beef up their O-line! Anyway, you can’t help but feel happy for Matthew Stafford who toiled away for years with the Lions and now, toward the end of his career, gets a second-chance and a Super Bowl ring with the Rams.
Deb, I feel the same way! The Bengals need to invest in their Offensive Line to protect Joe Burrow. I always liked Matthew Stafford and now, after years of futility, he finally gets a well-deserved Super Bowl ring!