Since this is Super Bowl week, the annual week of megahype leading up to the National Football League’s championship game, Rayonsports.com will feature posts having to do with the big game. I’ve always felt that the game has become such a circus-like event, with the stands full of corporate sponsors and the over-the-top halftime shows, that the last REAL football games of every season were the conference title games. That could be just a biased opinion of a Buffalo Bills’ fan though. I have a tradition of staying up all night the Saturday night before the game and watching ESPN’s all-night marathon of Super Bowl highlight videos. Two years ago I only made it until around 3 AM, then fell asleep on the couch, with my last recollection of being awake and watching being Scott Norwood’s field goal in the Super Bowl XXV video sailing wide right. I dozed off with a slight tear in my eye, from being overtired I’m sure. Last year, my grandsons joined in on the tradition but I couldn’t find any ESPN channels carrying the highlights. Thankfully, I stumbled across Hulu.com and found a library of every game right up to the last one, and we were able to watch on a laptop. My oldest grandson only lasted until around midnight, but the younger one stayed up with me until after 1 AM. I’m looking forward to having them both over again this year.
The Super Bowl has become the premier sporting event in the U.S. , and that has spawned lots of books about it over the years. You can find a book chronicling just about every year’s winner and their journey to reach the pinnacle, etc., and there are some other interesting books about the game also. The Billion Dollar Game: Behind-The-Scenes of The Greatest Day In American Sport – Super Bowl Sunday by Allen St. John has a long title, and is pretty short on information about the actual sport of football. If you’re interested in reading about all the fanfare surrounding the game, the book has lots of interesting facts, from stories of partying celebrities to details of how the Playboy Super Bowl party is set up. There’s The Super Bowl: An Official Retrospective by Rare Air, Ltd., Ken Leiker and Craig Ellenport and Super Bowl Trivia: 75 Quizzes from A to Z by J.M. Colbert, which I haven’t read but is supposed to be fun to have for Super Bowl parties. One interesting book is a Kindle edition eBook, available for $.99, called 200+ Ultimate Football Super Bowl Recipes eBook Cookbook by eBook Ventures. I haven’t read it but it makes me hungry just thinking about it. If you’re a true football fan and you want to read about the history of the Super Bowl, from the beginning right up until Super Bowl 43, I recommend The Ultimate Super Bowl Book by Bob McGinn. It’s subtitle is A Complete Reference To The Stats, Stars and Stories Behind Football’s Biggest Game – And Why The Best Team Won, and that’s exactly what it is. It covers each and every game and has lots of fascinating back stories about the teams, coaches and players involved. I’m not an avid reader but this was a book I couldn’t put down, being a person who loves the history of the sport.
I love this year’s matchup between two of the NFL’s most storied franchises, Green Bay and Pittsburgh, and am really excited about the game. Both teams earned their way into the Super Bowl by winning tough games in cold weather, the first time I remember that happening in awhile. So, I’ll join in with the NFL’s hype machine and post things having to do with the Super Bowl this week. Hopefully it’s a great game!