Don't use my picks - ever!
I did get the winner right, but I said load up on the Steelers to beat the spread and was dead wrong. I finished 6-5 for the season, but the only spread pick was the big game, and I blew it. So trust me, there's a reason I'm not working as one of those professional gamblers in Vegas. If I tried it I'd be homeless right now. I was looking good there when it was 20-7 Steelers, but that faded real quick.
Free agency has helped the Super Bowl more than hurt it
I know people are always talking about the mediocrity that comes with relative parity and all that, but you have to admit that we've had much better Super Bowls since free agency began in 1993. We didn't get a true free agency stocked Super Bowl champion until maybe Green Bay in 1996-97 (they had a lot free agents in crucial roles on both sides of the ball like Reggie White, Sean Jones, Keith Jackson, Andre Rison, and Eugene Robinson); the 1994-95 Niners had guys on defense like Deion, Ken Norton, Tim McDonald, and Gary Plummer but the offense was all pretty much homegrown. Since that Green Bay win we've had a few blowouts (Denver-Atlanta, Baltimore-New York, Tampa-Oakland), but ten good and/or competitive games. You go back and look at the thriteen Super Bowls prior to the Green Bay and you get ten blowouts versus three competitive games (Dallas-Pittsburgh, San Fran-Cincy, and New York-Buffalo). I know we seemingly get a lot more teams in the seven to nine win range every year, but the payoff is that the last, biggest game of the season has turned out a lot better.
Arizona is done
There's a really bad trend where like eight of nine Super Bowl losers have failed to make the playoffs the following year. In a lot instances, they finish up poorly (the Raiders, Eagles, Bears, Panthers, Rams, and Falcons all finished under .500 the year after losing in the big game). Is there any reason to believe the Cards will buck this trend? Like a lot of other Super Bowl losers, they got hot at the right time and benefited from some major collapses elsewhere. Look at the breaks they got. The Seahawks, winners of their division for the last several seasons, went into the tank. The Niners and Rams continued to stink for another season (yeah, I know the Niners were much improved at the end but they were out of it by midseason). They got to play two home playoff games against teams with better records. And the team would have most likely pummeled them, the Giants lost in the second round. You think the Cards would have won an NFC championship game in New York? I doubt it. And they stayed healthy to boot. Next year they'll have a tougher division (Seahawks should get a little better from last season, Niners will be better), they'll get the full attention of every opponent, and they're bound to run into some bad luck with injuries. They should also get the AFC South with the Colts, Titans, and Texans on their schedule....yikes.
Overtime is just fine!
We almost had an overtime Super Bowl, so of course the overtime haters had to pipe up again with their ideas for fixing it. Leave it alone! If you lose the coin toss, and have to kick to other team......PLAY DEFENSE. Stop them. If you can stop them on the opening drive in regulation, there's no reason you can't do it in OT.
That is cool Rob lol..Littal got like 50 wrong in a row before he got on his current win streak so don't sweat it