The Super Bowl is upon us. It's a remarkable event, able to bring together the vast majority of Americans, calling them to a rather inert form of action in living rooms and bars all across this great land. In this Age of Entertainment Plenitude, with the hundreds of TV channels and thousands of other diversionary options we now enjoy, it's a remarkable feat.

To understand why the New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday's upset, we must first understand how they became the top-seeded NFC team in the first place. In the fall of 2007, the Giants were 0-2 and had gone 1-3 in the preseason. But in their third game of the season, they upset the Redskins and then kept on winning, ultimately defeating the Patriots to win the Superbowl. In 2008, they had another strong season, which earned them the top NFC seed.

First let me start off by saying that this isn't a particularly easy post for me to write. It'd be an honor to delight you all with a long diatribe about the Jets annual implosion, but that would conflict with one of the great joys of being their fan. That of course is the joy of pocketing all the rage and torment into the pit of my stomach and then watching it explode at the most inopportune times like a bootleg 8th century jack-in-the-box.

The Scariest Economic Indicator of all?!?!

Wall Street is a barren stretch of gloom and tumbleweed, unemployment could sniff double digits in '09, yet the Yankees are spending money as if its 'the day after tomorrow.'

$423.5 million in total salary
Mark Teixiera - 8 years, $180 million
C.C. Sabathia - 7 years, $161 million
A.J. Burnett - 5 years, $82.5 million

In less than 10 days the Pinstripes poured through enough money to make even Dennis Kozlowski blush.

Yea, he's a freshman in high school.

Behold...

A few quick thoughts:

1. So if he's Barry to his father Bobby Bonds that means....oh this kid is doomed

1) How sad is this photo below? Charles Rogers was a former star Michigan State wide receiver and a first-round pick of the Detroit Lions just a few years ago. Like most of the Lions picks over the past decade, Rogers was an unmitigated disaster; doing very little on the field except suffering season-ending injury after season-ending injury. He was quickly out of the league, and apparently has since experienced only trouble. His latest arrest was for violating probation stemming from an assault and battery case in September.

Found this kind of interesting. Apparently, the NFL will be experimenting by broadcasting tonight's NFL game between the 4-8 San Diego Chargers and the 3-9 Oakland Raiders live in 3-D in theaters in LA, New York and Boston. Nothing like watching a supreme battle of Who's the Suckiest AFC team as overpaid behemoths play crappy football right on your lap.

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop, the Conspiracy Zone!

I would not, could not, in a pinch
I could not, would not, without a flinch
I will not bet on them with a mouse
I will not bet on them with my house
I will not bet on them here or there
I will not bet on them anywhere
I do not believe in Gang Green Madame
I do not like them, cause Gang Green I am

That being said: The Jets are the team to beat in the AFC

Let me set the stage for you: It's a frigid fall day. You and your pals are locked in a 13-13 tie after gutting out a game of pigskin for the last 3 and a 1/2 hours. Sadly, several of your best buds haven't made it this far - cracked endoskeleton, torn ligaments, and dehydration. Most of you can barely breathe. Your jersey tips an 8 extra lbs from when you started, loaded up with epidermis juice and a dab of crimson (some of which has your blood type). You've told everyone the game will be done by 4:30, but no one is throwing in the towel just yet.

It astounds me, but my 'Please Fire Linehan' post from two weeks ago is still getting the most traffic on my blog. It seems people care a lot more about a crappy football coach on a crappy football team than the potential collapse of the stock market and U.S. economy ... Seems about right to me!

I understand few of my few regular readers will appreciate this particular post, but this is a matter of grave import: I really need the owners of the St. Louis Rams football team to fire their head coach.

The guy totally ruined my day, which is an impressive feat given how much I was looking forward to it. Today, after all, was the opening game in the touch football league I help organize, as well as the first Sunday of the NFL season.

So apparently, the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony wasn't exactly what it seemed. A firework display kicking off the countdown was generated by computer graphics, and a little girl performing a popular Chinese nationalist song was actually lip-syncing to the voice of another girl deemed not cute enough for prime time.

How truly appropriate and how terribly unsurprising.

Holy shit. Football is back. Here I am, still consumed by Cardinals baseball, dressing in shorts and flip-flops, loving the A/C, eating outside at restaurants, sweating in the subways... and yet, ten NFL teams played in preseason games last night.

This happens every August; I get totally blindsided by football's return. But only for a moment - and then I get psyched.