As I woke up this morning, for some reason I thought about this blog and how what a better time to write a blog entry than right before the Super Bowl. Doing what ever single other person who writes about sports is going to be doing over the next week - picking a Super Bowl winner. But then I stopped myself. Why? Because I am what is known as a jinx.
This magical talent was not discovered until a few years ago. Sitting at a Cardinals baseball game with my friend Dale, I was doing what I do best - talking. Talking about how some player was hitting well that night or how our pitcher was getting everyone out. I don't remember the specifics, because well, I like to forget the bad times. Anyway, whichever it was - the good hitter or the great pitching, suddenly came to an end as soon as I mentioned it. From this moment on, any time I mentioned something good going on during a game for my team (my talent seems to affect the Cardinals mostly for some reason), that good thing would come to an end nine times out of 10. (It might be 10 times out of 10, but I like to figure there might be a reporting error, like there is in every single presidential poll.)
Unfortunately, sports is a very superstitious group of people. Grown men will wear the same underwear until they lose, not shave their beards during playoff season and go through the same routines daily if they are on a winning streak. So my being a bit of a jinx came to stick. I missed most of this year's amazing run through the playoffs by the Cardinals. I only allowed myself to watch the last strike in the last inning in many of the games that we were winning, lest I somehow use these magical powers for evil. I stayed home for every World Series game and most of the NLCS because well, the Cardinals seemed to win if I stayed home. (If I am at home by myself, I am not having a beer, and I am not accidentally reporting to a group of friends how well a particular player is doing. It was a self-imposed talking strike.) A superstitious jinx has no friends during the playoffs.
Anyway, this brings me to this year's Super Bowl. I really would like to write about it, but I just cannot bring myself to do so. The possibility of something as freakish as the helmet catch happening again scares me too much. I am not sure what I said before that game, but in the span of seven shorts months, a random player named David Tyree caught a ball against his helmet ruining the end of the 2007 season and a man named Bernard Pollard took out Tom Brady's knee, ruining the 2008 season before the end of the first quarter of the first game. So the only way I will pick a winner in THIS Super Bowl is if someone uses Chinese water torture on me. And even then, it might take awhile to get an answer out of me. So, I hope it is a great game and I hope the team I like comes out on top. The end. :)
