Superbowl XLIV - Indianpolis Colts (AFC) vs. New Orleans Saints (NFC) - Miami, FL - Preview

I've live-blogged the Superbowl in year's past several times, I suppose that I'll keep up tradition. Should you wish to peruse last year's "performance', simply click on the "Superbowl" tag off to the right there and you'll see a couple pages of posts I made during last year's game, which let's face it, will be pretty hard to top in terms of excitement and back and forth action. I've previously written a couple of other pieces on the big game, one is here back from 2001, in which I proclaim that the Ravens victory over the Giants was the worst game ever in the history of the big game. Not only did the game itself suck (34-7) but the National Anthem was done by the Backstreet Boys, and the half-time show had Aerosmith, Britney Spears & N'Sync. Can't think of too many other games that were more horrible.

At the moment it's just about 9 AM on the West Coast, meaning we have six and a half hours of pre-game to go. No, I'm not going to watch all of the festivities, I usually turn it on sometime after 2 pm, though I have been known to go whole hog in the past and watch the entire day, that was a long time ago, and I wasn't married with a child back then. Today I get to spend the hours leading up to kick off with "My Little Pony", "Care Bears" and "Tinkerbell" on the TV. You know, those shows might actually be more enjoyable to watch than the marathon pre-game over on CBS, or the insipid total access on ESPN. I don't know what's on over at the NFL Network, but I'm kind of intrigued, but I doubt I can pull my toddler away from the ponies at this juncture.

Preview

I suppose that I don't need to post statistics or expert commentary here, since it's all been done ad nauseum thus far. The betting line favors the Colts by 5 1/2 to win, from what I can tell listening to sports-talk radio and reading the nets, the Saints are the money bet. The over is 57 right now, which means that BOTH teams would have to score at least 4 TDs apiece to hit the over - as I heard earlier in the week, only 9 of the previous 43 games have hit the over, so that's a good bet too. I don't bother with propositions myself, though I would suppose that Reggie Bush will have a fumble and both QBs will throw a TD pass. Proposition bets are for suckers, and my momma didn't raise no sucka!

Truth be told, I don't usually bet a whole lot on the game myself, I know I have an addictive/compulsive personality, but combine with my inherent Jewishness means I HATE losing money. With a passion. I would rather go buy a pack of Baseball cards than bet on a game, at least with Baseball cards I have the chance of getting something good, and even though I'm out a couple bucks, I have the cards that I can trade or sell. I do bet over at

Centsports

which is a FREE sports betting site. They gift you with 10 cents to make your bets, and don't worry, if you lose all your money, they give you more. You NEVER have to pay a thing. You can't cash out until you make at least 20 bucks though, and their process for cashing out is a bit arcane (though I do notice they will allow you to donate your winnings to Haiti relief which is awesome).

I currently have $1.16 in my Centsports account - I've never had more than five bucks in there to be honest. I'm going to bet it all on a parlay of the Saints at +6 and the Under at 57.5. I stand to win a whopping $3.00 plus a 23% bonus if I win for viewing an ad. Should you wish to join Censtports, click the link above or here and you'll get a free account, plus every time you win I'll get a spiff. See what I did there?

Now SOME people only watch the big game for the commercials, me, I watch it for the GAME itself, because I love football. Honestly I think the Colts will pull out the victory, but it's going to be a lot closer than expected, and I'm really hoping for a great game.

See you in a little while.