Super Bowl Sunday

The big sports news of the week seems to be that the Portland Landeagles and the Salt Lake City Hippos will be playing in Supper Bowl extra large VI aye aye captain. This event appears to be happening sometime later today, to be played in the breaks between beer and car ads. It features grown men headbutting each other and fighting over a prolate spheroid.

So yes, I have a mixed relationship with football. On one hand, I’m from New England, so I’d like the Patriots to win. On the other hand, I’m from New England, so I would appreciate it if Patriots All Access didn't displace Jeopardy! to 2:37 am and if the Revolution didn't have to trample flying Elvis’ face for the final couple months of the MLS season. Contrary to popular belief, a team playing on football lines and FieldTurf in a giant empty stadium isn't what most fans enjoy seeing.

In other news, the Revolution escaped the confines of the field house where they were practicing . . . and promptly went to Florida. I don’t blame them. After days of subzero windchill in Ithaca, the temperature finally crawled over freezing, allowing it to snow and rain at the same time. The Revolution played a preseason match against Malmo FF (from Sweden), got most of their uninjured players some minutes, and ended up tying 1-1. Not a bad result, especially for preseason. [Also, Marko Perovic, who played for the Revolution in 2010 and 2011, is back training with the Revolution. A lot of fans weren't happy to see him leave, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.]

It was an eight point weekend for the men’s and women’s hockey teams at Cornell, meaning they went undefeated against Yale and Brown (men were away, women were at home). I stayed in Ithaca and spent seven hours in Lynah with the pep band. My other option was homework that our professor informed us we probably wouldn’t be able to do yet. I found out what one of the women’s hockey players has been up to with the Canadian National Team, namely, getting ready for the Olympics. She assisted on or scored almost every single Cornell goal in the ECAC playoffs last year, so I guess she’s pretty good. . . . In this video she’s number 19, the one who gets illegally body checked to start the fight that sends twelve players to the penalty box. Good thing they made the box big enough. One final note: I’m pretty sure the song in the background is “Gonna Fly Now” from Rocky, which the pep band plays before third period of every hockey game.