Ode to Super Bowl Sunday - Crystal Football

To my brethren who struggle to get through the six days a week that wearing a jersey is deemed socially unacceptable, this is your holiday…

To everyone who believes that the holiest place to be on a Sunday is a sports bar with NFL Sunday Ticket and multiple flat screens TVs, this is your holiday…

To my coworkers who preemptively called in sick the following Monday anticipating a hangover and a lack of sleep, this is your holiday…

To the genuine lovers of the game who cringe when they hear someone say, “I’m really just watching it for the commercials,” this is your holiday…

To the gambling men who spent their last five dollars on the hope that the randomly assigned numbers in their square will match the final score, this is your holiday…

To the early birds who consider sitting in a giant cold parking lot and drinking beer with men they hardly know an ideal way to start a Sunday morning, this is your holiday…

To the impatient fans who think two weeks is way too long to wait for the greatest game of the year, this is your holiday…

To the savvy shoppers who plan on trying to return their new HDTV at full price after only one use, this is your holiday…

To the overconfident couch potatoes who could do a better job coaching their team than the “bum” who currently gets paid millions to, this is your holiday…

To the loyal viewers who think four and a half hours of pregame just isn’t quite enough coverage, this is your holiday…

To the hungry men who have changed their diets for their ladies, but promise today there will be no fruits or vegetables! This is your holiday!

Raise your glasses sports fans. Today young men will become great men and great men will become legendary. This is Super Bowl Sunday, and this is our holiday!

Sports Addict Prediction: Packers 27, Steelers 23

Although I was originally going with Black and Yellow and have been considering them my favorite to win the Super Bowl for most of the season, the more I evaluate this game, the more I think the Packers have the slight edge. I do think both of these defenses will play very well, but I think the game will still be fairly high scoring due to a few turnovers, and a few big plays on offense.

Crystal Football

I’m seeing two touchdowns coming from defense and special teams. The Steelers will have more success running the ball than the Packers, but will struggle to move the ball in the air. When you’re dealing with the likes of Clay Matthews and B.J. Raji up front and Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams in the secondary, you don’t want to have to worry about the beat up offensive line the Steelers will be playing with. Big Ben will have his moments, most likely including one long TD pass to Mike Wallace, but I don’t see them developing a consistent passing game.

If the Packers’ don’t have the best defense in the league, than the Steelers definitely do. Regardless, it seems like Aaron Rodgers can tear up any D right now, especially when he’s playing indoors. The running game will be spotty, but I think they can get it rolling just enough to keep the Steelers’ defense honest. When it all boils down to it, the Pack have a better chance at putting together that big game winning drive late in the fourth quarter, and that’s how I see this game being won.

Players to watch

Everyone knows about Ben Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu as well as Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews, but those guys do what they do pretty much every game. Here are a few of the other guys whose performance could decide who gets the new jewelry.

Steelers

Hines Ward

I mentioned before that I expect at least one big play from Mike Wallace, but much of that will depend on Hines Ward doing the little gritty things he does best; grabbing terrifying passes over the middle in front of James Harrison and Troy Polamalu and sticking the Steelers with a few of those big statement blocks that he’s become known for. Word is on the street that this could be Ward’s final NFL game. If that’s the case, he’ll want to go out with a bang… BANG! Just making sure you’re still with me.

Ike Taylor and Brian McFadden

The Steelers have quite possibly the best safety tandem in the NFL with Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark, but if there’s any weakness in their defense, it’s their cornerbacks allowing big pass plays. When you’re playing against Aaron Rodgers and company that can be a big problem. James Harrison and the rest of the Steelers front seven will be able to get pressure on Rodgers from time to time, but to really neutralize the Packers’ air attack, Taylor and McFadden will have to play like their counter parts: Charles Woodson and Tramon Williams.

Packers

James Starks

The Packers running game was nonexistent most of the year after an ankle injury knocked primary ball carrier Ryan Grant out of commission. Late in the season, undrafted rookie James Starks got off and running just enough to open things up for Aaron Rodgers and the passing game to pick apart opposing defenses. Starks has been their go-to back throughout the playoffs. If he can handle the biggest stage in American sports and give Green Bay a legitimate ground game against a defense that take pride in shutting down even the very best running backs, the Packers offense will be nearly impossible to stop.

B.J. Raji

Raji isn’t exactly under the radar after displaying his agility in the NFC Championship game with an interception return for a touchdown, capped off a celebratory dance that will never be forgotten. But I guess when you’re 340 pounds, you show up on pretty much every radar. With Steelers Pro-Bowl center Maurkice Pouncey out of the game with an ankle injury, the Packer’s are relying on their baby-faced big man winning the battle in the middle and slowing down the Steelers running game led by the red hot Rashard Mendenhall. B.J. got his respect from Packers fans after his massive performance against the Bears, but another Raji-sized game would cement him in Packers history... Better bring the whole truck; we’re going to need a lot of cement for this one.

Under the Radar - Everything but Football

While everyone’s busy are overanalyzing every tweet and hangnail that comes out of a Green Bay Packer and Pittsburgh Steeler, I’ve decided to cover some of the less talked about sporting events around the country and even down under.

Cut it Out

Despite their flawless records coming into Saturday night’s fight, Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander were by no means popular boxers (although the phrase “popular boxer” is somewhat of an oxymoron these days). That’s probably why it wasn’t on pay-per view. It’s also probably why it was at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, which apparently still exists and puts on reasonably large sporting events. Good for them!

To say Alexander vs. Bradley didn’t fill the void of a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao mega-fight would be a bigger understatement than saying the Pontiac Silverdome isn’t a very good stadium. While the punches were almost dead even through ten rounds and there were a few fairly exciting sequences that mainly consisted of Bradley unloading on the large cut over Alexander’s right eye, the end was very anticlimactic.

When the doctor examined the eye after an incidental head butt (one of many) in the tenth round, Alexander screamed in pain and claimed he couldn’t open it, causing a booing sound to generate from the crowd. Jim Lampley pointed out that the head butt didn’t affect Alexander’s prior cut and it didn’t seem like the type of injury that would take a boxer out of a championship fight. Nevertheless, Alexander stuck with his story that his eyes burned too much to open and the fight was stopped, which means the result was decided by the judges’ scorecards until that point. Bradley did win the fight by unanimous decision, so justice was served, but the ending epitomized what’s wrong with boxing.

Alexander may have thought he had a better chance of beating Bradley on the scorecards than fighting out the last few rounds, but even if he had won, his entertainment value took a major hit that will probably never be repaired.

Fredette About It!

Jimmer Fredette has been the best and most exciting player in college basketball this year. Last Wednesday, his Bringham Young Cougars hosted San Diego State in a game that featured the only two small conference teams in the top ten, and lets just say the Aztecs got Jimmered. The Scorin’ Mormon dropped 43 points on San Diego State, crossing over with both hands and finishing with a jumper that could make Ray Allen jealous.

That very night in the NBA, Kevin Durant had a career game in Minnesota, putting up 47 points and 18 rebounds in a 118-117 overtime victory. But the Durantula was more impressed by Jimmer’s performance than his own, giving Fredette props on his twitter page as soon as he saw the box score: Jimmer Fredette is the best scorer in the World! Coming from the NBA’s leading scorer, it has to be hard not to let that get to your head.

The BYU final four bandwagon busted a wheel on Saturday, when Fredette’s 32 points weren’t enough to hold off a New Mexico upset at the Pit. While this one loss shouldn’t make Cougar fans panic, it raises concern about the lack of help Jimmer will have against deeper major conference teams in games played at neutral locations. San Diego State is the only ranked team the Cougars have played this year and their only other quality win came against Arizona at home. The Cougars aren’t exactly sharpening their teeth for the tournament.

Their only hope lies on Jimmer Fredette dropping 35 plus in every game, and even then, they can be beat. He’s good enough to do it, but there’s nothing harder than doing it game after game when everyone’s gunning for you.

Ain’t no Djok

Novak Djokovic has always been overshadowed by the amazing rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. But after improving his serve and leading Serbia to a surprising Davis Cup Championship, Djokovic seemed ready for a run at the Australian Open, the only Grand Slam tournament he’s won.

Djokavic was playing his best tennis heading into a semifinal match against Federer and Nadal had already suffered and upset loss to David Ferrer. Reminiscent of the 2008 finals, Djokavic dominated Federer, making the best player in the world look like… well like Andy Murray… You can only imagine what he made Andy Murray look like in the finals.

Djokavic has won two Australian Open Championships in four years. There’s something about those hard courts in Melbourne that brings out the best in him. Still, if he wants to put himself in the discussion with the true greats in tennis, he has to win a different Grand Slam, and I’m not talking about breakfast at Denny’s (hey now!).

Roo the Day

Caroline Wozniacki, the top seed in the women’s draw, made quite the stir when she went out of her way to tell the Australian media that the wound on her leg was caused by a kangaroo attack at a park outside of the city. She made an even bigger stir when she explained in a second presser, just hours later, that she suffered the wound walking into a treadmill. She claimed that she felt silly about the treadmill incident, so she made up the kangaroo story. Wozniacki wisely proceeded write off the entire ordeal as a “blonde moment”. I’m smelling a Gunny!

Can we really blame Caroline Wozniacki? She just did what we all do when we’re embarrassed about an incident and want to draw attention away from it: blame it on a kangaroo attack.

White Out

“To be honest, I need redemption.” That’s what Shaun White said after his Elimination round run that put him in first place in Snowboard Superpipe, the main event at Winter X Games. It was good enough for first place, but not good enough for Shaun White (at least he didn’t smash his face on the edge of the pipe this time). Sal Masekela put it best when he said “his mistakes are other people’s greatness.”

After the first round of the finals White truly did need redemption, trailing Scotty Lago who was threatening to prevent White from taking home his fourth straight gold medal in the Super Bowl of Snowboarding. Lago also has White one-upped in tough comebacks, competing with his jaw wired shut after a January 11 crash landing that drove his knee into his mouth.

Through the second round, no one came close to touching Lago’s score until The Flying Tomato stepped up to the plate dressed in tight black leather and his signature Wild West bank robber-style bandana over the mouth. White laid down one of the sickest runs in Winter X history, getting over 20 feet out of the pipe, dominating all other boarders in altitude and once again taking home what belongs to him: X Games Gold. If you ride like that, you can dress like a rock star… or dress like a diva in this case.

Horgasm

Torstein Horgmo may have out swaggered Shaun White in Winter X Games when Horgmo won gold in Snowboard Big Air with an incredible flawless triple cork. In the post-jump interview, Horgmo tested the reporter dropping smooth sexual innuendos about his board he calls “Nicole”.

Don’t Worry…

For those of you who couldn’t be less interested in boxing, tennis, BYU basketball, or the Winter X Games and still made it to the end of this post, don’t worry. I'll be giving my version of expert Super Bowl analysis soon enough. Oh yea, the Pro Bowl was on Sunday… I forget who won… it was lame…