Happy Super Bowl Sunday! My improbable playoff pickin' run continued two weeks ago, as I'm an unconscious 8-2 against the spread (and 9-1 straight-up). Joe, meanwhile, remains one HELL of a writer. You can find his work on Tumblr and -- in 140-character form -- on Twitter. Like me, he went 2-0 in last week's games, but in the standings, we're still sending our love down the well (ALL THE WAY DOWN) to him.
Joe: I'm just going to say it: I loved the h*ck out of
Deflate-gate. It was wonderful. Two weeks of Boston sports fans being put
through the wringer, having to figure out ways to be defensive about the
scandal without appearing to take it too seriously. Because those were the twin
secret weapons of Deflategate: hilarity and stupidity. Nobody actually
thought that deflating the balls (which they probably did) was the actual reason
the Patriots beat the Colts two Sundays ago. It would've been way less fun if
there were actual victims here. Instead, we had a victimless crime that made
the perpetrators look small and petty and foolish and squirrelly. All terrible
things! All now applicable to the New England Patriots and, by extension, their
fans! Sure 70% of the op-eds were self-serious drivel, and the other 30% were
self-righteous bashing of the ones who were taking it seriously. But I didn't
tell you to watch SportsCenter every night. That's on you. I just got to sit
back and snipe on Twitter and imagine Bill Belichick giving a secret order to
execute Action Plan Charlie, which is the code word in the Patriots'
organization for delating footballs. The whole thing would have been worth it
even if Bill Simmons hadn't written a 180,000-word column on why the Pats are
now in FU mode and Cobra Kai and Ewing Theory and click this link to a Jimmy
Kimmel segment. But OF COURSE he also did that, and it was great. It's gonna be
such a bummer if the Patriots win. Patriots 28, Seahawks 24
