As soon as the ref was crossing his arms after the attempt at the “Hail Mary” pass, I was out of the stadium faster than you could process your thoughts on that Mannigham catch. Head down, hood on, hands in pockets. Not again. Why did it have to be Eli freaking Manning and the NY Football Giants, AGAIN. I was so lucky to grab a ticket for $1500 a roudtrip ticket for $250 and be sitting next to one of the greatest players to ever put on a pats jersey, Mr. Ty Law. On the ride from Chicago (where I flew in) to Indy I was listening to my favorite club soccer team, Chelsea play a big game against their biggest rival in Manchester United on the radio. Chelsea is up 1-0 at half and then score two more in the first 8 minutes of the second half to go up 3-0.

I thought to myself that this is going to be a great day, Chelsea stomping all over Man U, my first Super Bowl Pats-Giants this had it all. After Chelsea went up 3-0 I turned the radio off because I thought there was no way Man U was coming back it was over, while I was walking around Indy enjoying all the pre-game festivities I checked the final to the Chelsea-Man U game and Man U had came back and tied the game 3-3 and that was the final score. Oh $*!T, did I speak too soon? Then when I see Ty Law coming up those stairs in my section at the game, and asking ME, ME out of anyone, “Hey man is this 429 row 10?” Yes it is I said and he goes “Seat 9.” I was in seat 10 and couldnt believe that THE Ty Law is sitting next to me at THE SUPERBOWL. He was going to give us luck baby I knew it right then and there and didn’t have a worry in the world. We had Gronk back, Brady promised to play lights out, Revenge, #4 we just couldn’t lose, couldn’t lose.

The last drive of the first half and first drive of the second half was picture perfect by Mr.Brady and Co. Up 17-9 and our O-Line playing great, me and Ty talking defense, defense, held the Giants to 2 FG’s in the third and nothing in the 4th. 4 minutes left to play ball just past half field Brady about to take us on another scoring drive possibly to seal the game, then….. Wes Welker. I always say it about any WR in the NFL if it hits you dead in the hands twisting or not in the air, you have to make that catch. Im not blaming the loss on Wes because there were MANY, MANY oppurtunities to go up big. 3 fumbles 1 of them recovered by the Pats but wait, 12 men on the field, the very first play from scrimmage, grounding on Brady, you can’t blame the loss on that one play, or could you? If Wes had made that catch, who knows maybe we would of scored a TD and sealed it being up 9 or maybe we would of been held to a FG and only up 20-15 still giving Eli a chance, but when we couldn’t convert and had to punt it, 88 yard drive or 99 yard drive I knew Eli was going to atleast give them a  shot to win this game, he’s done it too many times alla week 9 and Super Bowl 42.

Eli to Manningham, (Eli to Tyree) Bradshaw scoring which would be the winning TD (Eli to Plexico). Deja Vu. You could say all you want about our last drive Deion and Aaron dropping those catches too, but Deion had a huge 4th down catch before that to keep us alive and hey, we shouldn’t of been in that situation in the first place. Got to give credit to the Giants though, they made the plays when needed and we didn’t, that’s just how it goes sometimes in the world of sports.

In my lifetime I’ve seen 3 Super Bowls by this team, 2 World Series Rings by the Red Sox 1 NBA Championship by the Celtics and 1 Stanley Cup by the Bruins. I went to Game 1 and 2 at Fenway in 04 against St. Louis (Won Both ended up champions), I was at Game 1 of the ’08 NBA Finals (Won That Game ended up champions) and I was at Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals (Won That ended up champions). Now at my first Super Bowl for the Pats and we lost.  You can’t win them all. To me as a Boston sports fan this was worse than 2010 NBA Finals Game 7 loss, Worse than the Sox collapse last September and I would say worse than losing in Super Bowl 42 even though it was for an undefeated season because I was actually at this game. The thing that keeps me going is that us Boston fans keep on recieving hate and hate and hate from the rest of the country because our sports teams are so good and as Bob Sab would say “AND THATS WHAT WE LOVE”, so keep the faith New England were not even close to being done yet.

So for my Spring 2011 Internship I was the Statician and volunteer for the Fayetteville Force for 5 our of their 6 home games during the 2011 season. I worked for a total of 60 hours working mostly on game days but also helped out at the Main Office of the Force.  My duties mostly consisted of recording the stats and then uploading the stats to league officials at the end of the game. My pre-game duties consisted of; taping the arena walls, brainstorming half-time and during game events, rolling t-shirts for cannon gun, folding and handing out game programs. In the main office I mostly just brainstormed with the front office on game day activities and learned the stats program. Unfortunately the Force had some issues with the players and management and the rest of the season was likely not going to happen but the SIFL (Southern Indoor Football League) stepped in and assembled replacement players and staff for the remainder of the seaon which was about 3-4 games. The Force was disbanded after the season and during the off-season a different owner took control and changed the team name to the Cape Fear Heroes who will start their first season in the new AIFL (American Indoor Football League)

http://www.capefearheroes.com/

So my Intramural Flag Football team “Mix It Up” played for the championship last week VS a very talented team combined of some students and faculty members. We played this team the second game of the season which was also their first game so we knew coming into the game that this was going to be a totally different team. It was a straight shootout from start to finish but the game changer was definitely when our safety Ewing picked off a pass and returned it for a TD for the last play of the first half. That put my team up by a TD going into the half and we didn’t look back. With some QB skills by O’Dell and championship defense we pulled out a victory and was crowned 2011 Intramural FF Champs. What did we get for winning? Well I thought we were going to compete in a tournament at another college but I guess that isn’t a possibility anymore. So we got $25 giftcards to wall-mart and a T-Shirt that said Intramural Champs. Since I’m not playing an actual sport here it’s good to win something here. Even if it is Intramural Flag Football, which is the ish.

So my  Intramural Flag Football Team takes the field for the championship game tomorrow @430 vs Student/Faculty. Last time we played them we shut em out 14-0 , that dont mean ish now though! We comin for yall boys.. and yea Im talkin bout Andy, Darryl, Ray, Antonio, Quincy, Tavares all yall! I really can’t wait to see what Mr. T does to O’Dell though. Tomorrow should be the good game and in my opinion the best two teams are in the right game. Just hoping we can pull out that W and be 2011 FF Champs. S/O to the team lets go get this. Finally getting out of Nimocks in 15 minutes, there’s absolutely nobody in here. #Bored #MixItUP