Super Bowl 2012

Well here I am again talking about something that I know very little about even though my life has always been surrounded by super football fans.

I learned some things from family and friends but my first true understanding of the game was using my younger brother's handheld football video game. I think the picture I've posted is the one he had, there have been so many video games and upgrades over the years, it gets confusing. When trying to find this picture on line I was also surprised, and you might be too, but it was Mattel that made the game. Do you remember this game?

I liked playing that video game. Not because it was football! It was just the start of my video game obsession, probably for a lot of people. So many of us do that, get caught up in these games and just can't stop. You say one more game and then again, one more game, before you know it hours have passed and you've played one more game 50 times. But that football video game taught me the basics of football. Just the basics. Super Bowl parties taught me more. Our super bowl parties were held mostly at my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Richie's house and I usually was in another room watching all the great movies they put on for non-sports fans on Super Bowl Sunday. It is a super day for great movies! But I couldn't ignore all the cheering, it was loud and crazy. I remember one year my mom making up a song, "you gotta sack that quarterback whatever name" over and over. She got every one singing and I had to ask what does it mean. I learned something else and only because the song sounded fun, I wanted to join in on that, still not interested in the football game.

I also remember that the first two parties I won the pool and everyone was screaming from the party room up to whatever corner of the house I was watching a movie, moaning how unfair it was that I was winning and not even watching the game! Two years in a row!

I can't remember my first Super Bowl party, it was so many years ago. I think in my teens in the mid 70s, and for most of my family it was and is the biggest event of the year, as I know it is for so many people. I don't remember hearing about super bowl parties so much during that time. I asked my brother Joey and he told me it wasn't as big back then, that it's just become bigger and bigger every year and basically it's an American holiday now, a new tradition.

My mom loved Super Bowl Sunday. She loved family, football and parties and I really thing the super bowl was her favorite day of the year. Of course my crazy family started having Super Bowl Monday, carrying the party on one more day with their new tradition of going to lunch at Schaffer's Tavern on Victory Boulevard in Staten Island. Schaffer's Tavern is still a really popular place on Staten Island. If you like a big sandwich and good beer, this is the place for you. They have corned beef and pastrami, roast beef, bratwurst, German potato salad and though I am not a fan of a big sandwich or beer I have heard so many great reviews about Schaffer's. I have eaten there, but picky me, take apart my sandwich because it's too much for me. It's a waste of great food! If you live in the area though and enjoy a good beer, a homemade-like, big sandwich, this is the place for you.

Super Bowl is just in the air, even the local deli in my neighborhood has been decorated with Giant signs and streamers in Giant colors since the day they found out that the Giants were in the Super Bowl. And on Facebook I've seen so many comments and digs going back and forth between Giant fans and Patriot fans and excitement. Everyone is gearing up for Sunday!

I actually watched the super bowl game four years ago, the last time the Patriots and Giants played together. I was in the Keys in Florida. And at the hotel we were staying at, there happened to be quite a lot of people from New England. A few New Yorkers, but more from New England. During the game the New England fans were all cocky and cheering and I don't blame them, but when the game turned, really at the very last minute, the New England fans turned too. I just watched a video clip of the end of that game. I do remember it being so last second, but after watching it again this morning, it brought back those last 2 minutes of the game. Even the Giants' coach looked shocked because the Patriots almost made another touchdown, it really was a great game, even for me, a non sports fan. But the New England fans almost faded into the background at the end of that game, in shock and angry, disappointed, so so close.

So what will it be tomorrow? I'm rooting for the New York Giants, I'm a New Yorker, but I do have a young nephew up in New England who may get his heart broke if the Giants win again. So for me, as I said, I'm rooting for the Giants, but if the Patriots do by any chance win, there's a piece of my heart that will be happy for my nephew. Sorry Giant fans, I love my nephew more than football!