{"id":628,"date":"2013-02-02T23:48:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T23:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/02\/super-bowl-who-cares-not-me"},"modified":"2013-02-02T23:48:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T23:48:00","slug":"super-bowl-who-cares-not-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=628","title":{"rendered":"Super Bowl? Who cares? Not me"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Big Game is coming up Sunday. I get asked all the time, \u201cAre you ready for the Super Bowl?\u201d<\/p>\n

Well, yes and no. Yes because I\u2019ve done no preparation for it, no because I really don\u2019t care who wins it.<\/p>\n

Why? Well, it has to do with this AFC-NFC alignment. I\u2019m a long-time AFC fan, which dates back to the days of the old American Football League. Therein lies my lack of interest in this game. You see, the teams come from the same old National Football League. I\u2019ll now explain.<\/p>\n

The AFL and the NFL merged in 1970. When the leagues joined, the newly revamped NFL, under the command of Commissioner Pete Rozelle, got three NFL franchises to move into the AFC: Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Baltimore \u2013 and by Baltimore, I don\u2019t mean the Ravens. The Steelers, Browns and Colts joined the conference containing some of my favorite teams, which included the Oakland Raiders, Kansas City Chiefs, New York Jets and San Diego Chargers. <\/p>\n

Then the Baltimore Colts moved to Indianapolis, in the middle of the night, I should add. The Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, to become the Ravens; later, a new Cleveland Browns franchise was formed. Only the Steelers (my late father\u2019s favorite team, owing to his birth in nearby New Kensington, Pa.) have remained intact.<\/p>\n

But as a diehard AFL fan, I\u2019ve always considered the Steelers, Colts and Ravens (the former Browns) to be interlopers. They aren\u2019t really and truly AFC franchises. That label, in my mind, belongs to the AFL teams that moved into the NFL. My greatest joy was watching the AFL\u2019s New York Jets defeat in 1969 the then-Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III; my next greatest football joy occurred the following year when the Kansas City Chiefs took down the Minnesota Vikings 23-7. The year after, the Colts beat the Dallas Cowboys and my only joy there was that a team other than the Cowboys won the Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll admit to being kind of old-fashioned in this regard. I cling tightly to my loyalties. The AFL remains a fond memory for me, as I watched the likes of Joe Namath, Daryle \u201cThe Mad Bomber\u201d Lamonica, John Hadl, Lance \u201cBambi\u201d Alworth, Lenny Dawson, Cookie Gilchrist, Abner Haynes, Buck Buchanan and, oh, I could go on forever. <\/p>\n

If only the New England Patriots had beaten the Browns-turned-Ravens in that AFC championship game \u2026 then I\u2019d have a reason to cheer.<\/p>\n

But given that I have a sister who lives just south of San Francisco and who\u2019s a devoted 49ers fan, I\u2019ll cheer for her<\/em> team. But I\u2019ll do so with gritted teeth.<\/p>\n\n

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The Big Game is coming up Sunday. I get asked all the time, \u201cAre you ready for the Super Bowl?\u201d Well, yes and no. Yes because I\u2019ve done no preparation for it, no because I really don\u2019t care who wins it. Why? Well, it has to do with this AFC-NFC alignment. I\u2019m a long-time AFC … Continue reading Super Bowl? Who cares? Not me<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}