Jan 11: Four Week Countdown

The Super Bowl countdown has begun. It started this past weekend with the wild card playoffs and some surprising results. New England gone already? And after playing so poorly against Baltimore? Wow. It's going to be an interesting playoff season for the next few weeks, leading right up to the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl here in South Florida. I'm not sure why exactly, but for some reason I've been more into football this year than any time since my childhood. Usually, I'm a baseball kinda guy. Baseball and other obscure sports most Americans know little about. Formula 1 auto racing anyone? World Cup ski racing? Ok, you see what I mean. I've done some auto racing in the recent past and some ski racing in high school so that's my explanation, I guess.

Anyway, I have definitely rediscovered football after an adulthood where I watched the Super Bowl and maybe some Thanksgiving Day games and that was about it. As I mentioned, I'm not absolutely sure of the reason for this. I think it has something to do with a greater appreciation for sports that require the full team to do its part on each play. Those other sports I mentioned, including baseball, really focus on individual effort.

Ahem. Sorry, but I couldn't help trying to offer some sensible thoughts on my sudden fascination with football - the most exclusively American of sports. Yes there's Canadian football but I'm not even sure how avid the following is up there, much less down here. NFL football, though, is seen all over the world, at least during the Super Bowl. Two years ago, I watched a great Super Bowl while sailing on a small luxury cruise ship toward the Solomon Islands in the Coral Sea. I caught the game with maybe another 75 Americans and some Brits and other nationalities mixed in. It's a special memory. And despite my previous indifference to football, I remember other wonderful Super Bowl parties and games too. So as Super Bowl XLIV makes its way to my South Florida backyard, I'm getting kind of excited. There's always a momentum to the event that you notice as a resident. You see fans with team flags flapping from their rental car windows and Super Bowl banners on light posts and then all the limos start to make their appearance. And you hear about all the pre-game activities, this year including a Pro Bowl practice in Fort Lauderdale that's open to the public. It's a good time to be in this part of the world if you're a football fan. Even if you're a relatively new football fan.