I saw a countdown on ESPN today that told me that it was only 5 days, 7 hours until kickoff of the Super Bowl. That tells me we’ve been enduring hype for only 8 days, 17 hours. We’re more than halfway there, but it’s painful isn’t it. Here are some things that are running through my mind as wait … and wait … and wait … and
** This game has to come down to the wire again, doesn’t it. We all remember Super Bowl 42 and the Velcro Helmet Catch and Asante Samuel’s gaffe and then Plaxico’s game-winner. Do you remember when the Pats played the Giants back on November 6?
That day the Pats rallied from behind to take the lead with 1:36 to go, a touchdown pass from Brady to Gronk for 14-yards. Eli got the ball back and drove down the field, and threw a 1-yarder to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left to win it, 24-20.
** Turnovers are going to be the big difference in this one, I think. The Pats coughed it up 4 times in that loss to New York, a season-high. In the AFC championship game — the Cundiff Bowl — they committed 3, and probably should have lost. Taking care of the football is paramount. If the Patriots win the turnover battle, they can win the game. It’s simplistic, but so true.
** Non-football. Staying eligible to play on a high school team is not that hard. If you don’t do it, you let your team down, and yourself. You can read between the lines here, but I can’t really say any more than that.
** Blake Griffin’s dunk last night was pretty awesome, but was it really the greatest dunk ever? It was something to see, but we live in such a now-now-now society that the superlatives fly a little fast and loose. It was awesome, but I’m not ready to crown it the best ever.
** Rob Gronkowski is going to play. You know it, I know it, he knows it, his dad knows it. That said, I really think Aaron Hernandez is going to have a huge day. He’s more of the speed guy of the pair, and look what Vernon Davis did against the Giants in the NFC title game.
** I’m not an MMA guy by any means. That said, you should go out and rent The Warrior. It was awesome, and I can’t wait to see Tom Hardy play Bane in the new Batman movie now.
** Falmouth High School is having a fantastic winter right now, the boys’ hockey is 9-2-3, girls hockey is 7-4-1, girls hoop is 12-2 and boys hoop is 12-1. That’s a combined record of 40-9-4. I don’t think many high schools in the state can stack up to that.
** Those 4 teams have so many players that are fun to watch. I have a lot of favorites, but a quick list would have to include: Andrew McGill, Maddie Scavotto, Cy Wickersham and Nick Lineaweaver and Elizabeth Knox and Grace Geary. I’m also a fan of: Damien Reid, Devon Soares, Kyle Kasprzyk, Brenna Callahan, Durham Ghelfi, The Taylor Bros, The Cardeiro twins, Cody Murray, Zack Zaino.
** It’s the year of the freshman at FHS. The Class of 2015 is ridonkulous already. Scavotto, Brian Jeffrey, Ben Taylor, the litany of talented rooks on the girls’ hockey team (too many to name), Alexa Johnson, Tommi Gans. All 4 of those varsity clubs have big-time first-year players.
** Speaking of high school kids, I love how many of them are following my Twitter feed, both from Mashpee and Falmouth, and even some from D-Y and beyond. That said, here’s an important piece of advice to all of the Twitterati. What you say on your feed, unless you have a private account, is public record. People can, and will, check up on you. If you are out doing stupid things, and you post it, people will see that.
I’ve said this before, and I will say it again. When I was younger, when your parents were younger, when your coaches were younger, they too did stupid things. The big difference was and is, we did not document our idiocy for the world to see on Facebook and Twitter. If you post photos and status updates that are against the rules of what athletes/students are allowed to do, you will get noticed by someone that you don’t want to see it. Maybe a parent, maybe a coach, or maybe someone from another school that would love for you to miss a couple of games due to a suspension.
One of these days I’m going to hold a social media symposium at one of the schools.
** Mashpee deserves some love too. Who is filling up my notebook there? Zak Orcutt, Cody Bingham-Hendricks, Kevin Frye, Taylor Nickerson, Kyle Murray, The Conaways, Summer Fierro, Morgen Morris (when she’s healthy), Riley Taylor and Romeo Grey jump to mind. That’s just a quick list. Oh, and Jared Taylor may be playing mostly JV minutes, but he’s hard to miss with the shock blonde hairdo.
The views and opinions in the Enterprise blogs are those of the author and are not neccessarily shared by Falmouth Publishing.
