Where is everybody? Downtown Seattle is deserted. Ditto downtown Bellevue! Did half of our metropolitan population go to Phoenix?!
Before NE, I always thought Cowboys fans were the most hated nationwide because so few of them live in Texas and you have to wonder why are you a fan of that team? Of Jerry Jones? In NE, the only team that’s hated is the Jets. And Jets fans because, well, they’re J-E-T-S Jets fans. Second is probably Miami because it’s so hard for NE to win there when it’s hot and humid. There’s some residual hatred of the Colts but not because of Peyton, who people here really respect, but Bill Polian and his whining and the way he drove the changes to pass defense rules. Plus, he couldn’t pronounce the word Patriots; it would come out Pay-tree-otts. (We know he’s gone but …) And most people here liked Pete Carroll. The media didn’t like him - notably Ron Borges, who is a noted bleephead - because they thought Pete was too likable to be a good coach. Borges tried to goad him into a fight to prove (?) that Pete isn’t tough, which somehow confuses stupid bait-taking with actual toughness (and Pete could tear Borges head off his shoulders with one hand). I don’t think much of the media here or the quality of their football analysis. We do have a couple of decent hockey writers - KP Dupont and Fluto Shinazawa (who is a great writer of sentences) - Bob Ryan’s essentially retired and Jackie McMullen is mostly on TV now.
“Where is everybody? Downtown Seattle is deserted. Ditto downtown Bellevue! Did half of our metropolitan population go to Phoenix?!”
Uh oh, we were going to go down to Westlake Center tomorrow, thinking there would be lots of excitement there. And it might be deserted?
Enjoyment depends, in large part, on how the game is going! Having said that, this is not the first rodeo for New England Patriots fans. We’ve pretty much seen it all. This is our sixth SuperBowl in the Belichick Brady era. Some of those years, they had no business being there with the team they had and won. Some of those years, they had one of the best teams in the history of the NFL and lost (18-0 going into the big game).
People around here are pretty excited, because, despite making the AFC Championship game four years in a row and the SuperBowl twice during that stretch, this is the first time, really since 2007, that the Patriots have had a championship caliber team in all three phases of the game. The offense is good enough. The defense is truly excellent and excellent in a completely different style than Belichick has ever had. Instead of a run stopping defense, this team plays 75% of its snaps in a 5 or 6 DB package designed for the pass-happy NFL.
And, for the first time in several years, we go into the tournament not completely decimated with injuries. This will is Gronk’s first healthy post season in three years. Last time we went to the Superbowl, Last time we were in the Superbowl, Edelman had to play defense because we were out of DBs. Last year, our top two D linemen, top LB, and top CB were out with injuries. So after a couple of years of getting pretty far in the tournament with chicken wire and duct tape, it’s nice to have a championship caliber team.
Couldn’t pay me to go to a SuperBowl party when the Pats are playing. I want to be able to concentrate on the game.
BTW, I expect Sunday to be enjoyable. I think the matchups favor the Patriots, but don’t tell anyone.
@interesteddad Shhhhh 
Watching the Conan video, hilarious! The looks on the their faces when Conan whips out the guitar and starts singing are priceless.
At the same time, OMG Mortal Kombat is horrifying. I’ve never seen it before, and now I get why people object to it. Geez.
Nor have I, but in this context and after 2 of my lucky beers when I’ve been dry for a month “in training” it was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. 
I can’t imagine playing it seriously. It cracked me up because they looked pretty surprised as well, but I get the sense that if you play video games at all you know how to play anything. I am not a “gamer” and when the kids once goaded my into trying to play Assassin’s Creed I could not get the guy to jump to save me life - he would jump and miss and fall to his death from a tower. I just don’t have the touch. OK - the dog is back in from her potty break. Off to bed again.
I think this game is pretty even and could go almost any way depending on what kind of day people have (football game not Mortal Kombat).
Where is everybody? Downtown Seattle is deserted. Ditto downtown Bellevue! Did half of our metropolitan population go to Phoenix?!
*
Benaroya Hall was pretty packed tonight. But I imagine quite a few people will be leaving for Phoenix in the morning.
Sounds like the 12th man is going to be at least as much of a factor as he was last year. 
Are you making jerseys for the players, ek?
I also know a number of people who headed down to Vegas for the game
The only fans I “hate” are Cowboys fans (because that whole Murica’s Team silliness, and Eagles fans, because. Period.) My opinion of Seattle fans runs from amused to annoyed depending on how often I’ve seen over the top FB posts by some of my more “enthusiastic” (e.g. crazed) friends. I don’t really have a picture of NE fans, except maybe sort of like Yankee fans–however you read that. (sort of–we know our team is always the best and are slightly disgruntled if they don’t make the Superbowl/World Series or win the Superbowl/World Series.)
The thing that I believe will make this game so interesting and such a battle is the will to win on both sides starting with the coaches and quarterbacks. Manning expects to win but didn’t seems to have any drive to win when he wasn’t - he just looked befuddled. Fox pretty much just rolled over. Belichick will fight to the bitter end and Brady is scrappy, mouthy, maybe a bit arrogant but in a take charge and come back from the brink kind of way. Neither of them will roll over and they would both beat to you a pulp and dance on your grave if they could, I feel.
Wilson and Carroll have that same drive but in a raw, raw, we all believe in each other and God has put us on the earth in this moment to shine and use all our God given gifts to lead our team to greatness kind of way.
Then of course the Brady and Wilson venn diagram overlaps at the shawl collared sweater . . .
Craziness!!! Now there are people who purchased tickets on ticketing sites and they are not delivering them because the sites speculate thinking that the price will go down. The price keeps going up so now the middle man sites aren’t delivering many sold tickets.
Seattle fans, are you concerned with the SI cover “curse”?
No . . . I didn’t know there was one. Maybe the Madden Curse and the SI Curse will cancel each other out. Or maybe they don’t really exist.
I hope both teams play well and that is an actual game and not a rout. Of course, with the Seahawks winning.
I’m glad I packed my rain cape
@jshain , nah. The Seahawks have already overcome the curse once. Here’s how last season began, and of course, we know how it ended. 
http://newstalkkit.com/seahawks-wilson-appears-on-latest-sports-illustrated-cover/
From Wikipedia:
We have decided not to go watch the game on the theater size screen at the place where we went last year, but I would still like to get to see it. I wonder if there is a restaurant or someplace around here we could go. I might just end up listening to the radio station online. Of course, we could end up doing something else altogether, lol.
For a giggle, I looked at last year’s Super Bowl stats, mostly because the game didn’t interest me. It’s a litany of mistakes by Denver: 1st play was a fumble for a safety; after a few FG’s by Seattle, Denver on consecutive plays fumbled but recovered and then threw an INT inside their own 40. So in the 1stQ, Denver had the ball 3 times for a safety, a 3 and out, and an INT. So Seattle scores and it’s 15-0 and what happens next? Denver drives and Manning throws a pick 6, so they’ve had the ball 4 times and it’s been safety, 3 and out, INT, INT (for a TD) and it’s 22-0. It’s gets even funnier: 3Q kickoff returned for a TD by Seattle, so it’s 29-0 and the rout is official. Then a couple of series go by with short drives by both teams and Denver fumbles the ball away. So out of 7 possessions, Denver turned the ball over 4 times. That’s massive self-destruction.
I sincerely doubt NE will similarly self-destruct.