NFL Gridiron American Football

   Tomorrow is Superbowl XLVIII and yes normally I'm the last person to celebrate over the top USA cultural 'Manhattanisation' BUT this is a celebration of the best and worst of that all rolled into one Football Grand Final.

Yes It's:

- Called 'The Big Dance'

- Classic grandstanding to be called 'World Champions'

- A day of drinking games and heart attack inducing food in the US

- It's a difficult game to follow

- a game worth billions of dollars and top players earn millions

- The advertising spots are the world's most expensive to make and to show

- The halftime shows waver between a huge yawn and amazing spectacles

- The show at which Janet Jackson flashed a bare breast to a worldwide audience

- They stop for commercial breaks

- Concussions and illness later in life are a serious consequence

- Yada yada yada...

   It's a relatively short season of an interesting hybrid game invented from Rugby Union and I watch it all season on Foxtel or free to air and have done for as long as it's been on Oz TV.

My team is 'The Raiders' of Oakland/LA/Oakland though I have cheered for other sides over the last 20 years in lean times for the 'Black and Silver'

   I liked Dallas, Washington and San Francisco of the late 1980s and early 1990. I have enjoyed watching NY Giants, the Manning led Colts and the Patriots in recent years!! I don't know who to cheer for tomorrow in the Denver Broncos v Seattle Seahawks match up. I ill enjoy my beverages and lunch regardless!!

   Both these t-shirts were purchased in the US on seperate trips to NYC. The Jets at a dedicated store, the Raiders at Niketown on sale. I did come back from one trip with 13 new t-shirts... too many!!

   The Yanks love their sports played in regional Divisions and Conferences that date back to seperate competitions that have then agreed to play a Grand Final and interweave games during the year. It builds traditional rivalries and some teams can spend years trying to surpass a rival in order to have a crack at higher honours. It does rule out certain GF match ups as only the top teams from the AFC and NFC can play each other in the 'Superbowl.'

   The game is like chess and has tactics to match. Time in posession of the football is critical amd teams can get out to significant leads but be run down by teams who then keep the ball for several 'drives' into the opposition territory and attempts to score 'touchdowns.' A small number of Aussies have played at this top level, most as kickers.

   The Raiders have built a reputation on a working class image but an ethic of 'excellence' and there is no better sports uniform colour than black. Years ago they sold many times more merchandise than any other team.

   The NY JETS shared 'The Meadowlands' in New Jersey with the NY Giants and now a new stadium which plays host to this years game. Sadly neither team really looked like playing in this game at home.

AND in this years SUPERBOWL it's NFL royalty in Peyton Manning vs a new kid on the block in a Seattle side who will give it a big shove. The media love stories, labels, talk of legacies and key moments and Manning has missed out to close rivals Tom Brady and the New England Patriots when he was at the Colts, but this year has been amazing at Denver post Tim Tebow. So the narrative around Manning will be his comeback from neck surgery and those times he's missed out and whether those misses or this and other successes will be the story after his career.

   Seattle are flashy up and comers with a modern looking Nike uniform, trash talkers and some skilled individuals not so well know here in Oz. They'll play different styles of football and it could be experience vs nerves or one side having peaked and the other bringing surprises. Seattle did a great job to get past the 49ers and into this game!!