Super Sunday

Bottom line...I love football. Always have, always will. There are days that I still bleed Columbia Blue in honor of my childhood dreams of the Oilers winning the big one. After a second devastating loss in the AFC Championship game during the 1979-80 season in Pittsburgh, Bum Phillips promised the fans they would be back to "knock the door down" to get into the Super Bowl.

A few years later while I was in high school I had an incredible experience when two of my passions collided. I grew up saltwater fishing in Matagorda Bay since my parents had a vacation home there. On this fateful occasion, we went to pick up a close friend of the family and his houseguest in our boat for another journey on the bay. Although I knew who would be joining us, I still couldn't believe who was climbing into our boat 10 minutes later. It was Dan Pastorini, ex-quarterback of the Houston Oilers! In between the dirty jokes and the fishing I finally got up the nerve to ask him about what it was like to play those two championship games in Pittsburgh. His answer was short and sweet but it was obvious that he was frustrated with the outcomes of those games as much as the fans were. All he said was, "It was cold!"

The Oilers had a few down years before emerging as another frontrunner during the era of Warren Moon and the run and shoot. The Astrodome became the House of Pain and once again the Oilers were the talk of the town. All of that came crashing down in 1992 when the Oilers were a good bet to make it to their first Super Bowl. In the 3rd quarter of their playoff game with the Buffalo Bills, the good guys were cruising to victory with a 35-3 lead. Somehow (and don't ask me how since that 90 minutes of my life is like a black hole) the Oilers folded like a wet blanket and ended up losing that game in overtime 41-38. They were never the same after that and 4 years later the owner packed up and left for Tennessee.

The Titans did make it to Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 but fell just short in one of the best Bowl games ever played when Kevin Dyson was tackled 1 yard short of the goal line for the tying score as time expired. St. Louis 23 Houston ( I mean Tennessee ) 16. It certainly wasn't the same as pulling for the Oilers, but I was quietly rooting for my old team as I waited anxiously for 2002 - the year I would once again have a team to call my own. The Texans arrived and I quickly remembered what it was like to have an upset stomach for 4 months out of the year. Despite the numerous bottles of Tums and Alka Seltzer, Sundays were the same again.

I know there are those people out there that whine about the players being overpaid and the league being out of control, but you know what? Despite all the naysayers, the market is there and if someone was going to pay Joe Smo $5 million a year to make copies, do you think he would turn the money down? Hell no! The NFL has arguably become the most popular sport in America. The Super Bowl alone is watched by nearly half of all US television households. Watercoolers have become havens for Monday morning quarterbacks and everyone loves to talk about the teams they hate (Cowboys?) and the mentally unstable players (TO?) that make up those teams. In light of the big game this Sunday a friend of mine sent me this funny article that I thought hit home pretty good.

So it's time to blow up those inflatable armchairs, pop open a cold one, line the table with wings and hope that you hit the squares on the office pool. And although my team still seems a long way off from knocking that door down I will still be rooting each year in the hopes of being on that doorstep again. There will always be a special place in my heart for the cheering pom poms of those Luv ya Blue days, but for now I am content with Luv ya Deep Steel Blue, Battle Red, and Liberty White...Go Texans!

Super Bowl XLI Prediction
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Indianapolis - 27
Chicago - 21

Cheers!