Briefly (let’s focus on football, shall we?)… but first
Punxsutawney Phil has “predicted” a long winter. DYK our furry friend has been wrong 15 times since 1988? Typical weather forecaster.
I was scheduled for jury duty on Wednesday. It was cancelled the night before. I was disappointed. And DYK, trial by jury was brought to the New World by the Pilgrims in 1620. Massachusetts was also the first state in the nation to bestow the right and obligation of jury service on African-American citizens in 1860 and later was the first to adopt the One Day or One Trial system in all of its jury courts. One Day or One Trial is now the standard in our nation.
So the St. Louis Cardinals will forfeit its second-round (#56) and compensation round B (#75) draft picks to the Houston Astros and pay Houston $2M for hacking the Astros information systems. Hmmmm. Something tells me that the fallout won’t come close to the fallout from Deflategate. Heck, they even have tangible evidence on this one!
“Go Chargers Go!” – to LA?
Trivia: Since 2003, only one quarterback has represented the AFC in the Super Bowl other than Brady, Roethlisberger and Manning. Name him. (not the most difficult question, but quite a fact)
Why is there an interpreter for the national anthem? Either you know the words or you don’t. If you don’t, get out!
Tom Brady refers to Chris Berman as Swami. That’s funny.
A gas station convenience store in Hall County (outside of Atlanta) has halted its sales of Boston’s Sam Adams beer. The ban will extend through the Feb. 5 game, played in Houston. The move was made after a Boston Globe column that made light of Atlanta sports fans and tradition. “What inspired this was Dan Shaughnessy’s article that was belittling Atlanta as a town and its fan base,” said Viral Chhadua, manager of the Exxon station. The beer company has responded. “Won’t be their only loss,” Samuel Adams Beer said in a Twitter post.
Headline of the week #1: “Super Bowl 51 to draw billions in illegal bets” – Nooooooooooo! Really?
Headline of the week #2: “Alice Cooper used to babysit for Keanu Reeves” – picture that!
The Patriots have never lost a game when Dion Lewis is on the active roster.
No surprise here that Gronk has the most Twitter followers amongst SB LI players (1.97M)
The average ticket price is $5,216 though for $2250 you can sit in the top section, end zone
The most social shares of a Super Bowl ad is 5.3M (2011 Volkswagen)
A 30-second ad during Super Bowl LI costs $5M, up 110% in the past decade. World Series ads have gone up 25% during that span.
There are 84K hotels rooms in the Houston area, up 91% from the last SB there in 2004.
Anheuser-Busch has spent $128.5M on SB ads since 2010. I’ll drink to that!
Malcolm butler will be playing in his 8th playoff game. Think about that.
22 Patriots have Super Bowl experience. Atlanta has 4 such players.
Matt Ryan does have a nice curl on his brim.
Can you say “Get over it!”? Maine Governor Paul LePage is boycotting yet another Patriots Super Bowl. LePage says he continues to “have a real hard time getting over what Bob Kraft did to the State of Connecticut.” You’ll remember Kraft terminated a deal to move the team there in 1999. The governor also says the Patriots were wrong to have selected convicted murderer Aaron Hernandez when they knew “he was a bad guy from the get-go.” Hey, what do you expect, the guy’s a Giants fan!
I plagiarize, steal, paraphrase, whatever. Who cares? This post is for entertainment.
Having said that, I don’t give credit by I will here by only referring to my source as “Stat Guy” (because he is on the distribution). From Stat Guy:
Interesting tidbit (and theory) on the Vegas line being only 3 points. The number two futures bet at the start of the season was for the 150-to-1 Falcons. They win and Vegas loses big, big, BIG! They’re making the betting line for the game as Pats-friendly as possible to try and offset that big potential Falcons payout. AND…
The Patriots are already 6.5/1 favorites to win next year’s Super Bowl. Followed by Dallas, Green Bay and Atlanta at 12/1.
Sign of the apocalypse #1: A Fox news poll showed that 15% of those surveyed would skip being present at the birth of their child to see their team live in the Super Bowl.
Sign of the apocalypse #2: 19% would skip the funeral of a loved one.
Two weeks ago I went 1-1. DYK, it was only the 2nd time in NFL history that both conference championship games were decided by 19+ points (1978)
For Sunday?
Patriots – 37
Falcons – 26
The Patriots won the last Super Bowl played in Houston, 32-29 over Carolina. I only mentioned this because if you have 2-9 in a pool, don’t despair. Speaking of which, I have 7-6. See prediction above.
Speaking of 7-6, the Pats and the Falcons have met 13 times. Pats 7, Atlanta 6.
Trivia answer: Joe Flacco (2013)
“They say our love won’t pay the rent
Before it’s earned, our money’s all been spent
I guess that’s so, we don’t have a plot
But at least I’m sure of all the things we’ve got
Babe
I’ve got you babe
I’ve got you babe”
If anyone can tell me the significance of that song to this post, I’ll buy you two beers the next time I see you.
“Do your job.”
Ed's Head On Friday 