So much for the instant communication age.
Brandon Montour and the Anaheim Ducks were at the Air Canada Centre (ACC) in Toronto Monday night. Here was my chance to get the Montour jersey we have been saving autographed and get pictures and an interview after the game. Great idea eh? I was also going to look up Adam Henrique for our Brantford readers and get a ton of file photos of them both.
I began calling the Leafs’ media people and leaving text messages and such to arrange a press pass for myself last week. I left several messages over the weekend and tried again three times Monday. “Leave a message.”
Not hearing anything back, I settled in and started watching the game from the comfort of my own living room. The interview and autograph would have to wait.
My phone rings during the first intermission and it’s the Maple Leafs’ media director, Steve Keogh, calling to say he just got the message and was calling me back about the press pass. “Thanks, Steve,” I said. “But at this point, I think I’ll just stay home and watch on TV.”
I admit that although I really like football, I am not what one might call an aficionado, but on Super Bowl, Sunday, I am the greatest coach and quarterback the world has ever seen. Every once and a while I might even find a bar stool somewhere and try and blend in with every other greatest coach and quarterback in the world.
This year was a little different. You have the solid underdog Eagles, with a back-up QB, up against the parental champion New England Patriots. When in doubt, I always go for the underdog, but I did want arguably the best QB of the millennium to win another Super Bowl ring. That put me in the enviable position of being able to just watching a great football game without the bias slants and disappointments a Patriots or Eagles fan would inevitably see.
What I did see was two teams loving every minute of playing in the Super Bowl. Brady’s passes were like line-drives while Foles seemed to be able to lob passes over defenders to their targets, but both were amazing.
The turning point in the game, as I saw it, was that reverse trick play one might see in a high-school football game. The Patriots tried it first and the play worked like a charm, except the intended receiver, Tom Brady himself, could not make the catch. If he had, there was no one between him and the gaol line. Only a few plays later, the Eagles offensive coach called in the same trick play that nearly worked against them.
The gutsy play worked perfectly for the Eagles too but Foles caught the ball for the Philadelphia touchdown. The underdog quarterback was also given the game MVP honours.
That kind of game and that kind of ending I could watch no matter what the sport, although I still don’t understand Cricket.
