Super Bowl XLVII Predictions

I normally make college football predictions, but it's time to make a prediction for the biggest game of all... and all the hoopla surrounding it.

PREGAME PREDICTIONS

Easy prediction: a Harbaugh will lift the Lombardi Trophy.

- The debate over whether to call it the "Harbowl" or "Sup-Harbowl" or something else will get old after about 30 seconds.

- I won't be watching. By Super Bowl Sunday, every pregame angle has been done. Let's play.

COMMERCIAL PREDICTIONS

I'm sure I could go somewhere online and see a list of Super Bowl commercials and maybe even watch most of them, but where's the fun in that? I'd rather be in the dark and make predictions. Also note: links are to old commercials, not spoilers.

- Bud Light will deliver some solid humor early on... like this.

- Coke will have an over-produced commercial that will be neither funny nor cute. Like this

- GoDaddy will have a steamy commercial (probably with Danica Patrick) that tells you to go online, where it gets even hotter.

- Everyone who goes to GoDaddy.com to see the "hotter" scene will be very disappointed.

- The Nike spot with Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy was great, and I'm surprised it was released a few weeks ago instead of debuting as a Super Bowl commercial. This makes me think there will be a sequel during the big game.

- We'll see a commercial with McKayla Maroney being impressed with something. The Olympics ended over five months ago. I'm surprised we haven't seen her cash in on that meme yet, but I think the Super Bowl is the ideal time to do it.

- Ranking for most-promoted CBS shows that we'll be tired of by the end of the night: 1. The Job, 2. Vegas, 3. Elementary (which, by the way, is a solid show)

IN-GAME PREDICTIONS

Kaepernick's been on fire. I think he keeps it going.

- Tom Crean will be there, and I'm setting the over/under on cutaways at 9.5.

- I'm setting the over/under on Alex Smith cutaways at 11.5.

- Mentions of the phrase "deer antler" will be set at 1.5.

- The murders Ray Lewis were linked to in 2000 will not be mentioned. (Yes, I know the charges were dismissed.)

- We will see three instances of Kaepernicking.

Let's see, have I left anything out?

Oh yeah, the game itself.

I like the 49ers 28-24. Kaepernick has been on fire, and the 49ers' defense will outplay the Ravens' defense.

- Jim Nantz's clearly scripted line when the game ends: "And the 49ers have struck gold."

When Memories Aren't So Memorable

Why do we love sports? Because when our favorite teams or athletes win, the feeling is great and the memories of their biggest wins last a lifetime.

What we hate (more than our team losing) is when those memories are stripped away because of information that comes out later.

I once kept these magazine covers because I admired these
athletes. Now, I keep them for their horrible irony.

Manti Te'o.
Lance Armstrong.
Joe Paterno.
Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

I could rant on Te'o, but it's looking more like he's not the horrible liar we thought he was when the story broke.

Armstrong is the subject of my scorn. What a shame this is. He was an amazing story, and we all wanted it to be true. People in the cycling community told us he was doping. We didn't want to believe it. We called them jealous. Haters. Losers.

They were right, and it bums us out.

It's just like when McGwire and Sosa chased down 61. We wanted the record to fall. We didn't even want to know if they were cheating. We wanted the story to be true.

It wasn't, and that stinks.

The question people ask that I'm trying to answer is if all the good Lance Armstrong did through Livestrong is now erased or tainted. I don't think it's erased. Tainted maybe, but he did do some good while he was cheating his way into cycling history. Any cancer patient who has been helped in any way, even if it's just the simple inspiration to keep fighting, is still grateful for Lance Armstrong. We just can't respect him as an athlete anymore. It's just really tough to separate "athlete" and "inspirational person" because we love when they are one and the same.

We hate finding out that our heroes aren't perfect, especially when we learn they cheated to achieve their greatest feats. Perhaps that's a a reminder that we use the term "heroes" a little too loosely when talking about sports. We don't know these people as much as we wish we did.

Maybe the bigger picture is that we all hate admitting we were duped. We don't like being lied to, and we hate being told an awesome story only to find it wasn't true. I don't think anyone should apologize if they have happy memories of the 1998 home run chase or Penn State winning championships. We just have to accept that people we once looked up to aren't perfect, and (in some cases) are despicable.

Keep the memory. Let go of the athlete.

As I get older,  I just cheer for athletes as athletes. I don't consider them role models or people I want to be like. They're not all bad obviously, but I really have no way of separating the good ones and the bad ones. I can pick out the good athletes from the bad athletes, though.

So, that's how I try to judge them now. I'll cheer for wins, curse the losses, salute them when they do charity work, but I won't idolize or worship athletes like I did when I was young. I just can't make the emotional attachments any more.

If these athletes are showing us anything in today's sports world, it's that if a story seems way too good to be true, it probably is.