Who do I still think I am??

This one's about the day after.

MOB-RELATED ACTIVITY:

What's up everyone? In the "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 's Blog Mob forum, we were instructed to write an introduction for ourselves, which I did (and it's rather tame..."My introduction..."  ). Regular readers of this thick slab of internet cheddar already have a pretty good idea of who I am, and if you've recently started following along, almost any entry I've written for any of my three blogs on WDC will catch you up pretty quick. I'm not gonna go on and on about that, because they speak for themselves (and I'm not great at speaking about me anyway...most of the time ).

So yesterday was the Super Bowl, which was a good game for about five minutes or so total. When I don't have a vested rooting interest in either team, no matter what game it is, all I'm really hoping for is a close contest...and yesterday's game was not that, right from the start. I had more fun on Twitter during the game actually...other than NHL Trade Deadline day, I don't think I've ever sent so many tweets on a given day. Not including retweets, I dropped almost 20. That's ridiculous. Nobody should tweet that much in a week, let alone a four hour period. A handful of them were kinda funny though. If you're remotely interested in that kinda thing and you're not already following me on "The Twitter", you can still read them here (I think): https://twitter.com/fivesixer.

Back around the beginning of the season, I took it upon myself to make some bold predictions regarding the 2013 NFL season ("This one's about your 2013 football preview." ). Now's a good time to see how I did. I'll do a little copy/paste thing, and then add my postseason analysis after each one, with some help from ESPN's Stats and Info (http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/category/_/name/nfl). Here we go.

Peyton Manning will throw for more touchdown passes in week 1 than the Oakland Raiders will rush for the entire season. (Ok, so I know this is cheating just a little bit because Denver played last night, but c'mon...the Raiders are gonna be historically bad this year. Wait...which idea was more obvious again?? ) Well, I'll admit that this might've been one of the dumbest brashest things I've ever committed to the internet. Oakland was pretty bad, but not as bad as I thought they'd be. In all, the Raiders had 16 rushing touchdowns...not a great total, but this run by Terrelle Pryor might be the best "bad team" highlight of the year: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntGrg_p0ns.

I wish we could go one year without people hearing stories in the local news about Bills fans getting caught in the act of making love on the bleachers during blowouts when half the crowd has already left to finish gettin' smashed in the parking lot beat the traffic. I think people sell squares and start office pools based on which game will be the first one this becomes newsworthy. Well, since I'm not a subscriber of The Buffalo News anymore, thankfully I'm unaware of anyone having gotten arrested for public fornication this season. Not saying it didn't happen; just saying I'm glad I didn't have to read about it online.

Adrian Peterson of the Vikings will go over 2,000 yards rushing again this year (if he stays healthy), because his quarterback will be playing for a roster spot as next year's third-stringer somewhere else. AP didn't come close to 2k in yardage (1,266...or what most would consider a great season) and he wasn't totally healthy all year. The Vikes totally mishandled their QB situation, although it's not unlikely Christian Ponder is done with the team and will be a third-stringer (if he's lucky) on another team next year.

When injuries start piling up, some NFL team is gonna sign Tim Tebow. But he won't play a down this year. At least not at QB. Totally got that one wrong. The only shot Tebow got was as an analyst on ESPN's College Football Gameday team. And while he's got an out in his contract just in case a team wants to sign him, his career as a player is done.

I wish the rash of injuries this preseason (especially with knees) we saw was just a fluke. But more teams are starting to err on the side of caution as well when it comes to noticing injured players (especially those who have suffered concussions), so expect numbers on weekly injury reports to rise...but that's not necessarily a true indication of an injury's severity anymore either). Let's face it: football's a violent sport. I don't know the actual numbers, but reports tend to say things like "it's not as bad as everyone thinks". Furthermore, I think the media overdramatizes certain injuries because of big names and the graphic nature of the really bad ones. Nobody wants anyone to suffer something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UkcsiY-19E, but when they're showing it over and over, you can't help but think someone's overdoing it somewhere in the press box or behind the scenes (and for the record, I could only watch the first 30 seconds of that clip before I'd had enough...it's that gruesome, and I don't feel good about myself sharing it any more than the FOX producers should for airing it repeatedly, although it happened at a critical juncture of the game).

AFC Division Champs: New England, Cincinnati, Houston, Denver. Wild Cards: Indianapolis and Baltimore. Nobody saw Houston being as terrible as they were all year, and I didn't anticipate Baltimore being so mediocre either. On the flip side of that coin, I knew KC would be better, but not that much better. Truth is, the AFC had a down year...the Wild Card "chase" was more like a struggle to see who didn't want it less.

NFC Division Champs: Washington, Green Bay, Atlanta, Seattle. Wild Cards: San Francisco and Detroit. I totally whiffed on Washington and Detroit...both were in divisions that felt like nobody wanted to win. I'm glad the championship came down to San Fran and Seattle, as they truly were the class of the conference and feature up-and-coming talent all over their rosters.

All four NFC divisions are gonna be tight races, and the four teams in each division are really gonna beat up each other. At least one fourth-place NFC finisher would be in contention for a wild card spot if they played in the AFC West. Again, I didn't think KC was gonna be unbeatable throughout the first half of the season, and San Diego taking a Wild Card spot was almost unthinkable. As for NFC fourth-place teams, I wonder what St. Louis would've done playing the same schedule KC or Denver had.

The NFL will have a serious push-back in at least one city from fans regarding its new policy regarding what kinds of bags can be brought into the stadium (ladies, this means no purses...and all bags must be see-through, without being bigger in size than roughly a gallon freezer bag). I read an excellent blog post from a woman's perspective about this a few weeks ago...http://thebroadsside.com/2013/06/26/491/. Another issue that seemingly became a non-event, at least not that I'm aware of. Wow...so far my predictions really sucked!

The New York Jets' starting QB in December of 2013 is not currently on their roster. Their head coach in September of 2014 is not currently employed by any of the league's 32 franchises. Another whiff. Somehow the Jets put together a halfway decent season, Rex Ryan kept his job, and Geno Smith in all probability will start the 2014 campaign as their starting QB.

I wish the NFL would drop their wet dream about having a franchise in a city that doesn't love it, Los Angeles, and announce during this season that it's fine with where all of the teams are located. Except Jacksonville. You might be a great city, but your support for an NFL franchise sucks. If the league ever wants to establish a minor league system, you'll be considered. But until then, please move your team to someplace else, where people actually want to see your team play, and preferably with an NFL-caliber quarterback in tow as well. And please, do something about your dreadful superhero wanna-be outfits uniforms. Serious, this design http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/fandom/post/_/id/21215/uni-watch-analysis-new-j... actually had competition and was selected because it was better than something else? You should be able to do better than that, Jacksonville, and the NFL knows it can too. Nope...the NFL still wants to play ball in Los Angeles. The Rams' owner just bought a chunk of prime stadium real estate (http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nfl/story/_/id/10380150/st-louis-rams-owner-stan-...), and that situation is worth keeping an eye on. And my apologies, Jacksonville...you weren't the worst team in the NFL this year (but your unis are still God-awful).

The Bills will finish the season with somewhere between four and seven wins, but they'll look a hell of a lot better than their stretch a few years back where they finished 7-9 three straight seasons. Finally, one prediction I got right. Buffalo went 6-10, but some of those six wins were gutty, and a couple of those losses were damn close. Things might actually be on the up-and-up for my team.

The 49ers will beat the Broncos in one of the top three lowest-scoring games in Super Bowl history, primarily because it will be played in New York during a snowstorm. More people will be watching to see how corporate greed reacts in inclement weather rather than just to see the commercials. At least at the beginning of the season I picked the Broncos to lose in the Super Bowl (although yesterday I thought they would win). Low-scoring and a snowstorm? Totally missed. At least the halftime show wasn't half bad.

Well, I think it's fair to say that I'm not very good at predicting things. Good thing I don't gamble, lest the actual Mob came after me to collect quite the huge debt I would've created for myself.

BCF PROMPT: "What do you think of competitive sport? I know some members of our circle are avid sports fans, but do you think the obsessive following of sport is overrated?"

Well, obviously I'm one of those members that happens to be an avid sports fan. If I wasn't, then what the hell have I been doing the last hour or so??

But truth be told, yes, I think obsessive behavior is a bit overrated. When your life revolves around your favorite team's activities (the Buffalonian in me is throwing up a little in my mouth as I'm typing this), maybe it's time to, you know, get married or find a hobby or something.

It's not really a bad thing when your team is winning (I actually paid real money in high school to have the Bills' logo shaved on my head as the they were going to four straight Super Bowls). But when they're not doing as well, some things are just pathetic. Wear a t-shirt or a hat on game day, but drawing attention to yourself in an overly-supportive manner for a terrible team just reeks of something veering toward loneliness and stupidity.

My best friend in high school once made a great point regarding football...look at the horrible teams one year, and in 2-3 years they'll be among the best. He was so very true...the Cowboys became dominant, and eventually so did Indianapolis. You know you're buying into the idea of a team being great when you purchase a winter jacket for a team that's located outside of your market. Of course, when that same team beats your hometown team twice in the world's biggest football game, you tend to look like an ass for wearing that same coat. However, later on in life that Cowboys Starter jacket served me plenty of times as a de facto chest protector in many street and ball hockey games when I was the goalie, because I didn't see the need to buy a real chest protector when that thing was so thick and padded. But that's not the point.

I say "Sing when you're winning", and hide when you're losing. I'm not a "bandwagon" fan by any means, but sometimes it helps to know when it's ok or right to step off the gas pedal, or lean on it appropriately.

MUSICAL BREAK!!

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I'm not crazy about tearing too deep into my soul, and this won't be easy to write, but hey, life's never easy either, so that kind of lessens the process involved with sharing this song as part of "The Soundtrack of Your Life" .

My love for The Get Up Kids is probably fodder for an entirely different entry, and it took me a long time after my brother DMFM encouraged me to check them out. I'd even bought a couple of their cds while we were roommates, but I never really got into them until a few years later. And when I did, I fell hard for them. I guess I should start going into some details...I've chosen "Stay Gold, Ponyboy" today (album: Four Minute Mile {link:http://www.amazon.com/Four-Minute-Mile-Reissue-Kids/dp/B0047YQ1BW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1391457683&sr=8-2&keywords=Get+Up+Kids+Four+Minute+Mile}; lyrics: http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/getupkids/staygoldponyboy.html).

I had a family member (not gonna name names or be very specific) that I was super close to for a long time...even though we weren't nearly the same age, we shared a lot of varied interests together and he became one of my best friends over the years. As days, weeks and months got on we'd lose sight of each other...we're not good people as far as keeping in touch goes. It was shocking to hear he was going to drug rehab; nobody had a clue. I made sure to let him know I was going to support him in any way I could, regardless of my own separate issues all over the place. My only contact with him for months was writing him letters and sending them through scrutinized mail...a far cry from this internet era. Eventually I got to spend Saturdays with him as part of his transition. I'd meet him at a local community college where we'd sit at his mandated AA meetings, and then I'd take him out for lunch afterwards...usually to Mighty Taco. Then I'd go back to my life and he'd go back to his, and we'd write letters back and forth.

I'd turned him on to a lot of different music over the years, but we bonded over The Get Up Kids in a way few people can. His definitions of punk were dictated by the radio, and mine were informed by other sources. TGUK was a great starting place toward middle ground.

I'd taken an extended lunch break from work so I could be with him as we learned of his circumstances, and somehow I'd had this cd in my car on the way back to work (which was a very short drive from where we met). Upon hearing the lyrics, I burst into tears during my realization that I wasn't keeping up my end of our relationship. I looked like a hot mess going back to work, but that's not the point.

This song stays with me. Even as families disintegrate over time like ours did, I can't help but remember everything...the good and the bad, all that went into that moment. I still get a little teary when I hear this song and think about the moments where I should've been the best person I could've been for him. And as he's grown and become a successful person in his own right, we've drifted apart again. I don't think he'll read this, and I'm not holding out hope for any kind of reconciliation moving forward anytime soon, given all of our lives' circumstances, but I love that kid with all of my heart and I always will. Even if I've been a bad example of what to be when you grow up or less than what I was expected to be.

"Old enough to know better...young enough to pretend."

THE DAILY BOX SCORE:

Ok, I'm finally at my breaking point regarding opinions voiced on message boards. "Your an idiot" must be the greatest response the internet ever created. It doesn't take a Grammar Nazi all that long to figure out how admirably ironic that sounds, nor does it stop one from discrediting the point the person initiating a conversation with those same words is trying to make while finding fault in another's opinion. It's taking all I can to keep myself from breaking the internetesticles any freaking time I see those three little misguided but well-intentioned words.

And with that, I've written enough for today. I'm so far behind on what I want to do that it's infringing on what I need to do. Better step to it, I think. Peace, I hope you find it, and GOODNIGHT NOW!!