Apathy

I want to care about the Super Bowl. As an admitted sports fanatic I am obligated to care about the Super Bowl. But damn it, I just don't care about this fucking Super Bowl.

What has happened to me? Am I such a sore loser that my team's elimination means I can no longer take pleasure in one of the premier sporting events of the year? Do I really need a vested personal interest in the outcome of the game in order to have a passing interest?

Of course I want the Colts to lose, badly. But on that same token I don't want the Bears to win. I think they are a mediocre team, at best, with a terrible quarterback and an overrated defense that sailed through the softest division in football and won an NFC Championship in a year where that title is comparable to being the best of the worst. How tough it is to win 13 games when you have four to six guaranteed victories in your division at the outset?

This lack of a perferential option has led me to what would have previously been an inconceivable apathy. I'm rooting for the Bears in theory, although I'm not sure they can win, but in practice the game is almost meaningless to me. A win for the Colts does not elevate them into the same class as the Patriots of recent years, nor does a victory for Peyton Manning put him on the same level as Tom Brady. A loss sets them back of course, but Manning's statistical dominance will always lend the uneducated and the uninclined to exhault his greatness regardless of his ultimate failures. The advertising can't get any worse, and I can't hope that it will lessen even with a loss.

So what's actually at stake here? Sure the media will be horrendously obnoxious in their praise of Manning should the Colts prevail, but will that really be much of a change? Mainstream sports media always degenerates into hyperbole immediately following champtionships, as they extol the victors as the greatest team in memory, forgetting that memory is extremely recent and ultimately fleeting. And if the Bears win they will join the annals of lousy teams who got lucky with circumstance, scheduling, and perhaps one miracle game.

Neither of these teams are worthy, and that vacuum has robbed me of a passion for this event that has almost always been ample in years past.

For the NFL however this is the dream, their highest profile player against one of their largest and most passionate markets. This game will get huge ratings, as everyone in the Chicago area will obviously tune in, while the rest of the country (save a few intelligent New Englanders) will watch to see if everyone's favorite nice guy can finally earn his birthright (pardon me while I throw up a little bit in my mouth). Regardless of the outcome it's a win for the league.

On that same note, I heard an interesting theory on WEEI this morning. Mustard and Johnson fielded a caller who made a statement to the effect that the NFL is absolutely thrilled with this Super Bowl matchup, and that with a victory Peyton Manning will vault over Tom Brady as the most respected quarterback in the game. After predictably and correctly lambasting the caller's final point their response was to say that a victory for the Colts is actually another dream for the league as well because it will set up the best rivalry between two quarterbacks that the NFL has ever seen. They made the obvious comparisons to Bird v. Magic, and the Red Sox and Yankees. Oddly I think I would agree.

Should the Colts win tomorrow Manning will obviously have a huge monkey off his back, and that perceived vindication will put him closer to equal footiing with Brady. Without the obvious caveat of, "Well, where's Peyton's ring?" dominating the debate any longer the league would have a rare circumstance on its hands where two premier quarterbacks both in their primes, both with Super Bowl championships will be squared off consistently in a meaningful and wildly entertaining rivalry. It's a ratings and publicity bonanza which would invoke memories of the glory days of the NBA when Magic and Bird combined for eight championships in their historic duels.

Believe me I hope it doesn't play out that way, but for everyone other than Patriots fans it would set up a yearly drama the likes of which football has not seen in years.

To be honest, sports wouldn't be what they are without rivalries. I hate the Yankees, but Red Sox season would be just a bit duller if both teams weren't competitive every year and didn't play each other 19 times and often in the post season. In the same regard I hate the Colts, but I can't ever remember being more excited about a game, and more engaged in the actual contest than I was two Sundays ago. To consider your team the good guys there has to be a villain. To really love one team, you need someone to hate with equal passion. Why do you think that the most passionate sports fans also have the most venom? Do you see many foaming at the mouth maniac Brewers fans? Of course not, but who would they hate, the Rockies? Sports rivalries transcend the games themselves, enrapturing cities, colleges, and neighborhoods the way no physical competition ever could on its own.

So while I hate the Colts and wish them nothing but failure, on some level I'm glad that they're around because rooting for is not nearly as fun as rooting both for and against.

As for this Super Bowl itself I'm not actually invested enough to make any analysis beyond the following. It's going to rain and that gives the Bears a chance. The blueprint on how to beat Manning is there, hit him in the mouth and hope he starts crying. Shorten the game with the run and whatever you do don't fall behind. Also, don't let Rexy kill you and try to win the field posiition game. If the Bears have one advantage it is that they have far less to lose than the Colts. There is no pressure on them, they're not supposed to win, but the exact opposite is true for Indy.

Can you tell I'm searching for ways the Bears can win?

Well they can.

But they won't. Colts: 24-13.