Well, tonight is the SooperDooperBowl, and my one wish is that the Indianapolic Colts do unto the Chicago Bears what the Bears did to the Patriots back in 1986. That is, shred, dice, slice, humiliate and destroy them, on live national television. Not that we harbor any sore feelings about that long ago, horrific, evening...For the rest of you who are not hobbled by such ghastly memories, here's an interesting story about tonight's game-
Far Away, Super Bowl’s Losers Will Be Champs
By LEE JENKINS
New York Times, February 4, 2007
MIAMI, Feb. 3 — In some parts of the world, the Seattle Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Buffalo Bills are the last great football dynasty and Tom Brady is some frustrated quarterback from New England who can never win it all.
Minutes after the end of the Super Bowl, every player on the winning team will get a cap. The loser’s logo could end up on heads in Uganda.
The Super Bowl will end about 10 p.m. Sunday, and by 10:01 every player on the winning team — along with coaches, executives, family members and ball boys — could be outfitted in colorful T-shirts and caps proclaiming them champions.
The other set of championship gear — the 288 T-shirts and caps made for the team that did not win — will be hidden behind a locked door at Dolphin Stadium. By order of the National Football League, those items are never to appear on television or on eBay. They are never even to be seen on American soil.
They will be shipped Monday morning to a warehouse in Sewickley, Pa., near Pittsburgh, where they will become property of World Vision, a relief organization that will package the clothing in wooden boxes and send it to a developing nation, usually in Africa.
This way, the N.F.L. can help one of its charities and avoid traumatizing one of its teams.
“Where these items go, the people don’t have electricity or running water,” said Jeff Fields, a corporate relations officer for World Vision. “They wouldn’t know who won the Super Bowl. They wouldn’t even know about football.”
The gear is flown, along with school and medical supplies, into a major city. It is then driven to one of the villages where World Vision staff members work. They distribute the shirts and caps at a community center, about two per family.
Beth Colleton, the N.F.L.’s director for community ventures, worked for a month at a World Vision service area in Ethiopia. One day, she saw a boy in the village wearing a Green Bay Packers 1998 Super Bowl champions T-shirt.
Ms. Colleton might have been the only person in the village to do a double take. The Denver Broncos were the 1998 Super Bowl champions.
After she returned home, she watched a documentary about Romanian orphans. One of them was wearing a Buffalo Bills Super Bowl champions T-shirt. “I almost fell out of my chair,” she said.
The Bills, losers of four consecutive Super Bowls in the 1990s, at least have a following in Romania. [more]
8 comments:
Dont be foold by th humanitarian propaganda from World Vision.
What theyr really doin is creatin a whole alternate reality.
Its sorta like Projeckt Genesis, but wif T-shirts insteada pyrotecknicks.
This dont hafta be a bad thing, ya know.
Jus send em bout 500 o THESE, an 500 o THESE.
Joey- I have to admit that as long as WorldVision is distributing Chicago Bears t-shirts next week, they can turn out to be from Morloc as far as we're concerned in New England.
Gotta get me some of those bumper stickers though!
It's hard for me to get overly interested in this Super Bowl because as they say, I have no dog in this fight.
Frankly, I could care less how it turns out.
How un-Superbowl of me.
Mike- you might want to think about turning yourself in to the Department of Homeland inSecurity.
Is there any truth to the rumor that the NFL has banned Janet Jackson from the entire state of Florida tonight?
Dave Barry says we will see Prince's nipple on the halftime show . . . maybe both of them.
Catalyst- I'm not sure there is enough beer in the entire world to make me ready for that.
There was a feetball game today? Huh.
Phoebe- naw, it got rained out.
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