Super Bowl Tuesday: The ESPNening

(Note: Unless something really exciting and unexpected comes up, I'm going to blog about the Super Bowl until it's over. Because honestly, this is what's going on in my universe right now and to write about groceries or laundry or television shows or farts or whatever it is I usually blog about seems kind of silly and disingenuous.)

If televised sports is your religion, then cable channel ESPN is your church or temple or mosque or zen den or whatever worship facility suits you. I myself could best be described as "somewhat lapsed" when appraising my levels of faith and devotion. I'm not nearly as passionate a fan as I used to be. Just like there are Christmas and Easter Christians, I guess I'm now just a Home Team and Championship sports fan, rarely tuning in otherwise. Anyway, ESPN has taken over Cotanchobee Park along the Garrison Channel, right behind the St. Pete Times Forum, so I went down to check that out before tonight's hockey game...

Here's the outdoor tv studio. Why outdoors? The Chamber of Commerce will tell you it's because the weather is just that darn nice, so come on down folks! To be fair, it is quite nice outside and you should come on down, if you can swing it, but I suspect the real reason is that continuing discussion of the contrasting quarterback styles of Ben Ruthlessblogger and Kurt Von Weinerwarmer isn't something that can be contained by four walls and a ceiling.

Here's the DirectTV blimp circling overhead. Blimps are drawn to high profile sporting events like turkey vultures are drawn to high profile roadkill. As game day approaches, we'll probably see blimps from Outback Steakhouse blimp and of course, Goodyear, which is to blimps what Gravedigger is to monster trucks. Those blimps will all tell you they're here on business, but I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to get it on with Tampa's own outdated, impractical and pointless mode of transportation, the Teco Streetcar Line. If that happens, I will do my best to get video.

Oh snap, that's Da Coach, Iron Mike Ditka! And he's looking right at me!! When I was a youngster growing up in the midwest, my favorite team was the Chicago Bears, which at that time consisted of offensive superstars like Walter Payton, Bob Avellini, Mike Phipps, James Scott, Robin Earl and Steve Schubert. In other words, Walter Payton. Coach Ditka arrived in 1982 and turned a franchise defined by decades of futility into Super Bowl Champions in three short years. To me, this was nothing less than a miracle. And now here we are, all these years later, sharing a "moment". Sigh....


Either the Embassy Suites Hotel is currently the champion of the NFL or Robert Schuller has opened a branch office in Tampa.

After I left the semi-exciting world of ESPN behind, I went across the street and watched some REAL entertainment: my beloved (yet constantly frustrating) Tampa Bay Lightning took care of the Montreal Canadiens 5-3. I've stated before that football lags well behind hockey in my list of favorite sports. Here are two reasons why. Football doesn't have anything as exciting as The Penalty Shot:

Nor does it have anything as hilariously stupid as Human Bowling:

Case closed, as far as I'm concerned.

Tomorrow: I will color your world, Super Bowl style!