Super Bowl XL

One of the only things that can get me to stay up watching TV till after 1am these days (honest) is my ongoing love affair with American Football. I still don't fully understand a lot of the technical plays and tactics, but maintain that the Super Bowl is one of the greatest sporting spectacles in the world - it is just an amazing event! Always an electric atmosphere and so much at stake, even though most of the pundits have already decided who will win. I am a die-hard Jets fan, so I understand the appeal of the underdog - Super Bowl XL will go down in history as another win for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but for me it was all about the Seattle Seahawks, who sort of became my second team this year after New York's injury list caused them to have pretty much a non-season. Before the final showdown I was raving about them - about Matt Hasselbeck, about Shaun Alexander, about their grit and team spirit, and about how, at the odds, I thought they had an outstanding chance of turning the favourites over. Dangerous. These days I try to keep my own gambling tendencies under wraps, but that didn't stop me advising my brother to go for his biggest ever bet at 6/4 for what was basically a fifty fifty coin toss! And so it shall be that this super bowl will always be remembered as the one that nearly was, but the one that cost my kin over £3000... As a game you rarely get a true run affair at the Super Bowl, there is just too much at stake, too much caution and they tend to be low scoring games - as such I knew it was vital for the Seahawks to make a good early start and put a 10 point lead on the board in the first quarter. That didn't happen (it was 3-0) and from there on in it was always nearlys and what ifs, as Pittsburgh powered to the lead and kept it, with a little more luck on their side on the night. If it was all to be done again I wouldn't change my mind though - Seattle did little wrong, it just wasn't their night! By the time I realised they weren't going to do it, late in the fourth quarter, I was almost through my third bottle of wine for the evening and just collapsed into a world of pain (big guilt and a hangover that ended up lasting a week!). A cautionary tale, then, of the pitfalls of booze and gambling - a lifestyle I occasionally dip my toe into and always come away from stung by a big jellyfish. Next season I think I'll keep it academic and purely for the sport of it - let's just hope the Jets don't make the next final or I will barely be able to control my little demons... Kx