uncovering chicanery -- brady style

With the continuing hoo-hah over the blown call in the NFC championship game -- the one that likely cost the Saints the game -- I recall a certain sequence in The Brady Bunch.

I remember seeing this as a kid, and thinking it was crazy -- no proof that the photo wasn't staged after the fact.

The fact is, the NFL today is just a cheap imitation of The Brady Bunch.

But at least there was no lawsuit.

super bowl thoughts

A few thoughts about the Stupor Bowl.

• Some shmigeggy is suing the NFL over the pass-interference non-call that probably changed the outcome of the NFC championship game. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it's stupid. I understand the frustration of Saints fans. And of any football (or other sports for that matter) fans who don't like to see bad officiating have such an obvious and immediate effect on the outcome of a championship game. But that's the way the ball bounces. There's a system for officiating, and it's not perfect. Too frickin' bad. Unless there's evidence that there was purposeful chicanery, there's no chance of this lawsuit having any effect beyond being a nuisance.
  
• A ten-year old in Kentucky devoted his school science project to the question of whether Tom Brady cheated in 2015 (Hint: remember deflategate?). It's kind of a cool human interest story. The kid hates Tom Brady (who doesn't, these days?) and wants him to get caught. The problem is that, despite the reporting, the science project doesn't actually prove that Tom Brady cheated. At most he proved that under-inflated footballs can be thrown farther. From what I recall about deflategate, that was never in question. But he didn't prove that Tom Brady was throwing underinflated balls (I don't recall what the outcome of the investigation was, and I'm too lazy to look it up). And he certainly didn't prove that Tom Brady knew that any balls were underinflated. Did Brady cheat? I dunno. But the kid didn't prove it. In all fairness, he's ten years old, so it's not like you can expect his science project to be up to Technion standards. Still, enough with adults saying that he proved what he didn't. Oh, hell, I'm being a poopyhead. The kid's right. Burn Tom Brady!
  
• When the Pats were playing against Atlanta two years ago, and Philadelphia last year, I was rooting for them. They lost in the Superbowl to the Giants. Twice. I kind of liked the idea of Brady having lots of wins, and having his only losses be against the Giants. I cherished the image of a geriatric Brady in an old age home, cursing at his inability to beat Eli Manning in the big game. Now that the Eagles beat Brady last year, the magic is gone. Still, I'm rooting for Brady in father-in-law's memory.
  
• A guy I know at work roots for Brady. He says there's something beautiful about someone who's the best at his job being the best. I can't really argue with that.

some thoughts from a non-fan on superbowl li

I wasn't planning on blogging about Super Bowl LI (every time I see that, I think it's short for Long Island) since I'm not particularly knowledgeable about football and I'm not a big fan. But it was exciting, so WTH.

I went into this rooting for New England, for reasons that I'm not entirely sure of. The fact is, as a Giants and Jets fan (to the extent that I'm any kind of football fan), I should be anti-Patriots. But I also think that the NFL treated Tom Brady unfairly during that whole deflate-gate scandal, and I like the idea of this being a little "fuck you" to the league, Also, and maybe this is awful, but the Falcons just don't seem like a team that should be in the Super Bowl. I don't mean the specific players on the Falcons, or the combination of them. I have no idea about any of them. I'm talking about the franchise. I mean, Atlanta Falcons and Superbowl? They don't exactly go together like franks and beans. In the end, I would tell people -- half-jokingly -- that the more success Brady has in the Super Bowl, the more it will annoy him that he couldn't beat Eli Manning (and he had two tries).

I was pretty bored during the first half -- even fell asleep a time or two, and like everyone else, I was giving up on the Patriots. During the third quarter, Blair was reading me the snarky tweets about how Lady Gaga got more yardage in the air than the Patriots, or "Hey, Belichick, time to make your move." My favorite, was about how the Falcons turned in Atlanta's best first half performance since the Civil War. At the time I noted that that wouldn't be appropriate unless New England comes back for the win. And she laughed. If only I'd known.

From my layman's perspective, it appeared to me that Brady simply underwent a transformation in the fourth quarter. For most of the game he just kept missing on his passes. He would overthrow or underthrow, or throw behind the receiver. But in the fourth quarter there were stretches when he was brilliant. Like he couldn't miss. And he came through when he needed to. But it will still stick in his craw that he couldn;t beat Manning in the big game.

I was streaming the game on Fox Sports, which generally worked well, although there was a stretch near the end that I lost the stream, and had a hard time getting it back. That was during the fourth quarter -- just after the field goal that brought the score to 28-12. I was tempted to say to hell with it, since the game was a blowout. It kept trying to reload, and kept cursing impotently as it failed. But I kept going, thinking about how I'd feel if somehow the Pats came back and I missed it. I missed one touchdown (and two-point conversion), but got it back soon after that.

Blair tells me that she's been reading about some big names like Mark Wahlberg who left early because it was a blowout. All I can say to them is that you never leave a sporting event early. Well, that and:

I noticed that they started the balloting for Super Bowl MVP while the Falcons were still up by a buttload. I think they should come up with some other way of doing things. THe decision should be made after the game is over, or you run the risk of having a completely inappropriate winner.

Other than the exciting comeback? BORING. Lady GaGa is obviously talented, and her show was elaborately choreographed. But I'm just not into her stuff. I do have three questions, though:

1. Who the hell crouches on a piano bench?
2. Why were there dancers with Klingon Bat'leths?
3. Is it my imagination or did she initially look like Miley Cyrus?

The ads weren't particularly entertaining either, though the usually-annoying George Takei was actually pretty good in the Domino's spot. I do have to say I'm surprised to see working for Domino's given that it's Tom Monahan's chain?

One last thought. Who designed that awful logo? The one with the Roman numeral LI with the trophy? The placement made it look like it was an LII logo, which would be 52.