Forum: Will You Watch The Super Bowl? Why Or Why Not?

Every week on Monday morning , the Council and our invited guests weigh in at the Watcher's Forum, short takes on a major issue of the day, the culture, or daily living. This week's question:Will You Watch The Super Bowl? Why Or Why Not?

The Razor : I gave up watching the Super Bowl or any NFL game two years ago. At the time CTE or chronic traumatic encephalopathy was making the news, as was the NFL channeling their inner tobacco company to deny it just as the latter denied the cancer link to smoking. I was also getting sick of seeing players laid out in the field. I was eating at some sports themed restaurant one Sunday afternoon and there were three games on at the same time, each showing players injured on the field. I felt that it was only a matter of time before someone died, and that even though I loved the sport, I couldn’t stomach it anymore.

The business of the game had also pulled at my libertarian and populist instincts. Seeing taxpayer money funneled to billionaires to pay for their stadiums as they blackmailed their host cities appalled me, a situation that my hometown of St. Louis finds itself in yet again with the owner of the Los Angeles St. Louis Rams threatening to move the team back to LA if he doesn’t get a grand stadium his team can lose games in. St. Louis has one of the best baseball teams in that sport, and even its hockey team is worthy of celebrating, but it has never had a decent football team. For some reason the NFL owners have some kind of mind control over politicians to fund their pet projects, and St. Louis is no different. They seem willing to spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to keep a bad football team around.

So no I won’t watch the Super Bowl even if the New England Patriots aren’t a bunch of cheating weasels which I believe without a shadow of a doubt they are. Instead I’ll be streaming Downton Abbey or a Sons of Anarchy episode through my Roku as I gather my courage to cancel my DirecTV subscription and cut the cable once and for all. But in the meantime a pox on the Pats.


Ask Marion :  No…NO…No…NO!!!!

My husband is a sports fanatic. He loves every sport and I’ve watched more games than I care to remember, so I really pick and choose the ones I will waste my time on these days! And this upcoming Super Bowl is not one!

I’m tired of hearing about soft and squishy balls!!

I don’t like the Patriots and I don’t like Pete Carroll!!

The Patriots have cheated before, so does anybody really believe that they didn’t this time around? Neither Tom Brady nor Bill Belichick have reasonable explanations for ‘DeflateGate’. Plus, Brady and his wife are arrogant and have severe potty mouths. None of which excites me.

Pete Carroll was definitely part of the problem that ultimately crippled the USC football program in 2010, bailed when everything hit the fan for the school and the program, deserting them for the Seahawks to line his own pockets. I can never understand why any USC fan would root for him or the Seahawks.

Perhaps the bigger question the media, who have been obsessed with the ‘deflated balls’ should be asking is: Which NFL Super Bowl XLIX (49) coach is a bigger cheater Bill Belichick or Pete Carroll?

Patriots Coach Bill Belichick:

SpyGate Scandal

In 2007, Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the New England Patriots had their 2008 first round draft pick taken away by the NFL after the Patriots had videotaped New York Jets defensive assistant coaches calling signals from the sidelines. Belichick admitted he had been taping other teams since 2000, and that he thought it was a legal practice because he did not use the tapes in the same game.

The Patriots have actually had a better overall record (75% wins vs 71%) after the taping controversy ended from 2008 to today than they did from 2000 to 2007. It's highly questionable how much the team benefited from the tapes.

DeflateGate Football Scandal

After the Patriots beat (could be said clobbered) the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in the AFC Championship game for the 2014 season, 11 of the 12 footballs the Patriots used in the game were found to have less air pressure in them than required by NFL rules.

The footballs in question clearly played little in the outcome of the game, something the Colts players themselves have said, so it remains to be seen what sanctions will be imposed. But looking at the Patriot’s history the sanctions and penalties should be tough.

Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll:

USC NCAA Sanctions

On June 10, 2010, the NCAA imposed a two-year bowl ban, the elimination of 30 football scholarships and the forfeiture of many wins from the 2004 to 2006 seasons on the USC Trojans college football team due to the rules that USC broke over the time frame. Pete Carroll was USC head football coach during the time the rules were broken and he had victories removed from his college coaching record.

Some would say the sanctions were overdone considering the allegations primarily focused on Reggie Bush getting improper gifts like a house for his family to temporarily live in.

NFL Fines and Penalties for Illegal Practices

In August of 2014, the Seattle Seahawks and Pete Carroll were fined $300,000 by the NFL for holding contact practices during training camps when it was forbidden by the rules during the offseason. Carroll was found to be a repeat offender for the offense over many years and the Seahawks are being further penalized by not being allowed to hold a few practices in the upcoming 2015 mini-camp season. Seahawks players will still be paid for those now missing practices.

Drug Suspensions

Since 2010, when Pete Carroll left USC to take over the coaching job, at least eight Seattle Seahawks players have been suspended nine times by the NFL for drug violations. The Seahawks players suspended were LenDale White (played for Carroll at USC), Brandon Browner (twice), Leroy Hill, John Moffitt, Allen Barbre, Winston Guy, Bruce Irvin, and Walter Thurmond.

I would say it's a toss-up which coach has been the bigger cheater. So no thank you… I will not be watching the upcoming CheaterGate Super Bowl.

GrEaT sAtAn"S gIrLfRiEnD :I reckon I'll watch the ads and the haff time entertainment yet sports on TV knocks me out faster than the Golf Channel or Canadian Parliament...

Laura Rambeau Lee, Right Reason: Being a diehard Pittsburgh Steelers fan, if they are not in the Super Bowl I don’t have much interest in the outcome. However, it is a big day and our extended families get together for lots of food and fun. The game will be on for the guys, while the girls will be catching up on family events. And of course, we will be watching the commercials and half-time show.



The Independent Sentinel : I'm going to watch it because it's the game of the year. Ballgazi doesn't affect it. I won't stop watching baseball because Whitey Ford is in the Hall of Fame even though he cheated and threw a spitball.

The Glittering Eye :
I don't plan to watch the SuperBowl next weekend. I rarely watch it--only when I'm out of town and the people I'm visiting are watching it.

I'm just not particularly interested in professional athletics and I've always found the half-time show lame.

The only reason to watch it would be the ads and if I were that interested I'd could catch those on YouTube.

 Well, there you have it!

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