Give It A Rest

It is way too early to start talking about the Super Bowl. And it has been too early to start talking about it since it was determined last Sunday who would be playing the game a week from this Sunday. It takes two weeks to get there and for two weeks there are no games, but the talk is everywhere.

This bothers my internal clock. Since early September, the NFL has conditioned us for a steady stream of football delivered in regular, weekly doses. They come on Sunday. Oh, there's the odd Thursday game to accommodate a network and there's the Monday night game. But they only serve to prove the point. Those games feel different and odd and out of kilter because they are. They aren't on Sunday. Some playoff games are on Saturday, but that's OK because it's the playoffs and you expect the schedule to be different for the playoffs.

But now the flow is interrupted. There will be no NFL football on this coming Sunday prior to the Super Bowl. But you are thinking about the Pro Bowl Game and saying to yourself, "There is a game, the Pro Bowl." Yes, well, the Pro Bowl, the all-star game for football, is just not the same. I asked a friend today, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic football fan I know, if he watched the Pro Bowl. I assumed I would hear a resounding yes. Instead, he made a face. "Ray Lewis can't sack the quarterback!" he said as he shook his head. To keep players from getting hurt, they change the rules a bit and it turns the game into something other than a real contest of football. It's more an exhibition. He doesn't watch. So, like I said, there is no football this weekend.