Ben Morrow
Sports Columnist
Musings: The Super Bowl.
The world’s largest TV venue rolls around this Sunday, and somewhere among the commercials, the crazy friends, the bean dip, the full ice chests and the annual horrific halftime show there will hopefully be a memorable football game.
If this Super Bowl comes anywhere close to the Giants/Patriots matchup of four years ago, then Brady/Manning II should be more than entertaining. I just hope I can hear some of the game over the yelling of all my rowdy friends.
Pro football has spoken to those of us who will listen over the last few years. It’s not the team that’s been the best all year. It’s the hottest team who wins it all.
Look it up. When was the last time the team with the best regular season record won the big game?
The Packers will be watching on TV like the rest of us. The Colts lost the year before to my Saints. The Steelers won in 2008 with a 12-4 regular season record, although the Titans went into those playoffs at 13-3.
Come to think of it, the Patriots had their record-breaking perfect season shot down by Coughlin, Manning and Barber four years ago.
I smell a repeat of history, not redemption. I’m taking the Giants by four points.
(Side note: Given my record at prognosticating lately, I’ve probably just secured the latest Brady/Belichick ring.)
Rants: Men’s Basketball.
I’m learning there is a good and a bad side to winning, at least as it concerns dear old alma mater.
The good side is it brings all sorts of before-unseen accolades. The national press seems to be coming out of the woodwork to cover little ol’ Murray State.
This I’m glad to see. Such national exposure can only help recruiting across the board, both in athletics and academics. It can’t hurt financially, either.
Maybe after three or four national championships, President Randy Dunn will finally get that $600 billion library he’s dreamed of.
There is a down side to sudden and unprecedented success, though. Simply put, some people can handle it and some cannot.
Let’s compare. The University’s sports information department, on one hand, has worked admirably to accommodate the myriad national media that have descended on our little town to get their stories and pictures of Racer basketball.
Dave Winder and Co. deserve a sabbatical after this crazy season is over. They work overtime with class and style to make sure the Murray State experience is good for all of the frenzied Racer Nation.
Now let’s look at the other side. The University’s ticket office continues to act like anything larger than a crowd for a fishing expo is an excuse for panic mode.
Allow me an extended rant about my experience for a moment.
Last week, I wanted to buy my family tickets for the Feb. 11 BracketBuster game – a game that was advertised everywhere as “still available.”
I looked up the number for tickets on murraystate.edu, which, I found out later, is a different number than the one found on goracers.com.
(Again, kudos SID department; not so much the other guys.)
This number took me to Ticketmaster – in Nashville! After listening to every event that Nashville has ever hosted, the robot voice allowed me the option of picking an event in the Paducah area. Guess what? Murray isn’t included in the Paducah area.
After 30 minutes of futility, I threw down my new phone and drove straight to the RSEC (I mean CFSB Center), where a cocky 20-something so-and-so sneered and informed me they had been sold out for 20 minutes.
This guy’s demeanor implied this information was available via osmosis and I had demonstrated my inferiority by asking the world’s most obvious question.
He went on to inform me that the posters saying “Tickets Available” that he had sticky-tacked all over the walls three hours earlier where now “outdated.”
Am I to believe I am the only person with this experience?
OK. Deep breath.
I would chalk all this up to a crazy basketball season, but this isn’t the first time the ticket gods have scorned us mortal Racer fans here below.
Anyone remember football’s Family Day last year? The student line was lined up to the The Bank, and parents found out the hard way they couldn’t stand for an hour in other lines with their kids and get in. They had to go to the back of another line and start over.
The point is some people can’t handle success. It’s one thing to have growing pains. It’s another thing to be unprofessional.
Useless Drivel: Eggner’s Ferry Bridge.
This was an averted disaster, and there is at least one former boat pilot out there who’ll be lucky to get hired on at McDonald’s after that hellacious wreck. Anyone looking at the pictures can see that wasn’t even close. He should thank heaven no one was hurt, cut his losses and join a monastery.
However, with every cloud there is a silver lining.
I’m talking, of course, about the delightful Photoshop artwork that has been floating around the Internet after the bridge’s recent demise.
My personal favorite has to be the picture of Godzilla sitting in the water beside the bridge with the caption that reads, “What really happened.”
Second-place honors go to the one depicting the Duke boys jumping the newly created gap in the General Lee.
Yee Haw!!!