Super Bowl XLII

Wow, what a game! In the history of the Super Bowl, there have only been a handful of games as exciting as the one which took place yesterday in Super Bowl XLII between the New York Giant and New England Patriots. Amazingly, my son’s favorite football game pulled out the improbable victory. I can hardly imagine what my brother-in-laws were going through yesterday during the game agonizing with each play. I most certainly thought of my son all game long, and I was very happy to think he was watching the game with long (very excited as well) family members. I also thought about an old friend who was a “gambling buddy” a number of years ago. This old friend has always been a die-hard New York Giants’ fan. The Giants appeared in Super Bowl XXV back in 1991, and this was at the height of my second journey into compulsive gambling. The Giants were a decided underdog to the Buffalo Bills, and back then we were gambling on any and all games; however, when it came to the Super Bowl, we could “only” wager $50 on the Giants because my friend got enough of a rush watching the Giants perform at the Super Bowl, and the miniscule $50 wager was due to the fact we had to have “something on the game.” I say miniscule $50 because at that time our regular wagers were between $300 and $500, so the $50 wager was nothing. The more I look back on my previous gambling behavior the more I become confounded at my sick and twisted logic. Oh, by the way, the Giants did win that Super Bowl also in a stunning upset, and I am sure we gambled away the $50 win the very next day!

I’m not sure why, but all during the game, I was being nostalgic maybe due to the fact I can specifically recall where I was for all three of the previous Super Bowl appearances by the Giants. The first one was Super Bowl XXI. (Please don’t consider me Romanesque remembering the exact numerals of the Super Bowl as I remarked the Super Bowl and I are the same age, which makes it easier). I remember watching that Super Bowl in my college apartment at the University of Maryland in a driving snowstorm, but I made it in time to watch the game. The aforementioned Super Bowl XXV I watched in my grandmother’s basement which also functioned as my grandmother’s basement. I watched this with the old friend and gambling buddy. The Giants didn’t return to the Super Bowl until 2001 for Super Bowl XXXV, and I watched that game at my good friend’s house. This is the same good friend who came to visit me this past Saturday. Completing the New York Giants’ Super Bowl appearances was yesterday as I watched in the camp’s television room with 60 or 70 other inmates. I certainly won’t forget this Super Bowl for a number of reasons.

It was a stellar performance by the New York Giants’ defense who stuffed the favored New England Patriots’ offense. I kept waiting for the Patriots to take control of the game, but that never materialized. Even when the Patriots took the lead with less than three minutes remaining in the game, I had a strong suspicion the Giants would prevail. I turned to the person next to me who was lamenting the fact that he believed the Patriots would win. I said to him that the game was not over and that Eli Manning (the Giants’ quarterback) could win the game. Eli did lead the Giants down the field for the victory in the waning moments. I was very impressed with them, and the Patriots’ remarkable season was all for naught.

The game was very fast paced, and even for a defensive struggle, it was very intriguing. Most of the commercials were good. The usual suspects; such as Pepsi, Coke, and Anheuser Busch, had good commercials, but my favorite was the dancing lizards with Naomi Campbell promoting Sobe Lifewater. The halftime show by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was excellent as he played four songs, all of which were among my favorites. The camp ran a great program yesterday because dinner (pizza and wings) was served before the game, and banana splits were given out at halftime. I saved my pizza for after the game, and I ate only the bananas out of the banana split. They were frozen as the banana splits were premade, and everything was frozen until it was time to pass them out. I enjoyed the frozen banana and thought it was a nice treat. Everything was well done, and although I would have much preferred to watch the game with my family, under the circumstances, it wasn’t a bad way to spend Super Bowl Sunday in prison.

The positive aspect about watching these events on the west coast is the game is over at 7:00 p.m.; whereas, on the east coast this translates to 10:00 p.m. I do wonder if my son made it through the whole game, and if he did, was he able to get up for school today? The game was over, and I must say, in a room of almost 70 people, at the beginning of the game only a handful of people were rooting for the Giants, but by the end of the game, it seemed like everyone was rooting for them. I guess everybody likes a winner. I was rooting for the Giants from the very beginning, but my expectations were low. As the game continued, I did think they had a legitimate opportunity to win. I was very excited for Eli Manning who has had a difficult four years in the New York press. He silenced (at least for now) all of those critics with his performance yesterday. He does come from a football family with his brother, Peyton, winning the Super Bowl last year, and his father, Archie, a member of the Football Hall of Fame. I have read a few articles on the family, and from what I can surmise, they seem like good people. Tom Brady, New England’s quarterback, has three Super Bowl victories, a super model girlfriend, not to mention a very handsome man, so it was very good to see the mild-mannered Eli Manning outperform him.

Yes, it was a very good day yesterday, and I returned to my room after the game to eat my pizza. My roommate is not a football fan, so he was very content with staying in the room reading and listening to music. The room was very peaceful during the game as everyone seemed to be in the television room. I recounted the game for my roommate in a few minutes, and then I read the newspaper. My roommate fell asleep very early, and I found myself drifting off to sleep. I did officially fall asleep, and I was mindful of my upper back. I was toying with the idea of working out this morning, but I could still feel some discomfort in the area, so I remained in bed while my roommate went outside. It is getting better, and I don’t want to re-aggravate anything, so staying in bed was the prescription for today. At this point, it was time to start my work week, and after this week, I only two more to go! It does seem like an endless loop, but in a little over three weeks, the loop will end.

I started today just like any other work week cleaning the bathrooms. I finished at my normal time and decided to do some core/Ab exercises. I got about 20 minutes into the workout session and had to cut it short. Everyone was summoned for one of the random drug tests. This was my first random drug test was a condition of the family visit. I drank enough water so by the time it was my turn, I had no problem “going.” Obviously, I will submit to these drug tests all day long as I have nothing to hide, and it did seem everyone else shared my same philosophy which I thought was good. It was a minor inconvenience to cut my workout short, but I took this as a sign I shouldn’t be working out today and went about the rest of my day without incident.