Super Bowl 49: Tough to find a sentimental favorite

Unlike many past Super Bowls, this version features two teams that play the ‘heel’ role to perfection.

Simply more than a football game, the Super Bowl becomes an event that the media can flawlessly turn into a story.

The characters of the story are depicted a certain way and a very identifiable flow occurs from opening of training camp in the brutal of the summer all the way to the Super Bowl venue.

We’ve seen it so many times before.

Perhaps the first story that was told to America happened in Super Bowl III. Joe Namath and his rag-tag set of New York Jets were identified as the team that had no chance to even compete with the big, bad champions of the NFL, the Baltimore Colts.

The media was even handed gold in a masterful way by Namath himself as he guaranteed victory. In 1968 this was simply unheard of.

We all know how the game unfolded. This story still remains the most crucial one in the history of this game, finally legitimizing the AFL and the notion of this silly Super Bowl concept.

Each year it seems there’s always at least that one team, that one athlete, or that one story to hold onto for the casual fan.

How about little brother Eli Manning in 2007?

The world already knew about Peyton Manning. He was fully entrenched in NFL dominance at the time having already been a two-time league MVP and coming off a Super Bowl MVP has he led his Indianapolis Colts to a championship the year prior.

In 2007 though, little brother Eli had taken the New York Giants on an incredible magic carpet ride through the NFC Playoffs. It was amazing, unpredictable and unforeseen.

Coming into the Super Bowl Eli had a tough task to deal with in the undefeated New England Patriots – the first team to go undefeated in the regular season since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

The backdrop behind this game was phenomenal.

To think about the “David vs Goliath” type story that people could play with in this instance was pure perfection.

The stories lead to America having something and somebody to hold onto leading up to the game. For those casual fans who didn’t really know much about football, Eli Manning became a perfect sell for that figure to root for. Peyton’s little brother could finally get his due on the big stage.

How about the grocery bagger in Kurt Warner?

In 1999, America ate it up. Warner who was very recently a grocery store manager with football being the furthest thing from his mind, captured the hearts of so many fans. His dominance that season and Super Bowl MVP performance was one story for the ages.

Considering how much the NFC dominated the AFC for a while in the 80’s and early 90’s, the media could always play the underdog card when there wasn’t that fantastic Warner-like story.

The point is, there has always been countless examples of rich, touching stories during Super Bowl week.

This year’s game is no doubt an epic matchup. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more even matchup as it relates to championship pedigree and stud players on each side.

For what the die-hard football fan has in the matchup, the casual fan is lacking in appeal.

"Instead of an underdog sob story to grab us by the heart-strings, the only thing America sees is deflated footballs, cheaters, trash-talkers, liars, crotch-grabbers, murderers and fools."

The talk the past two-weeks has been about deflate-gate, and for good reason as any issue relating to maintaining the integrity of the game is a serious one. The majority of the fans now see an entire organization in the Pats that has had past rumors about their unsavory ways now take another hit.

The New England Patriots could have been fan favorite. This Super Bowl would’ve finally been their chance to prove to the world Spygate meant nothing. Instead they have another issue pop-up right before the Super Bowl.

Incredible.

They see Bill Belichick get up there and pretend we’re idiots by giving a dissertation about deflation 101. They see Tom Brady say he couldn’t feel the difference of two plus lbs. of air pressure when so many living legends have scoffed at that notion (Troy Aikman to name one).

The casual fan also reads about former Patriots tight-end Aaron Hernandez beginning his murder trial this very same week.

As the talk about Deflate-Gate wound down, the talk surrounding Seattle Seahawks running-back Marshawn Lynch heated up.

Lynch, who is by far the most important player to the Seahawks offense, has not earned any points for the casual fan this week. They see a man who’s making of millions of dollars through the NFL, decide to not speak and hilariously provide the same phrase after each asked question.

They also see him capitalizing on the free advertisements to make a few extra bucks through his “Beast Mode” hats, while the rest of the casual fans have to pay for advertising.

If that’s not enough, crotch-grabbing has quickly become a hot topic of discussion with even Rob Gronkowski taking part in the festivities.

Where in the world are the heart-warming stories and the good guys?

Alright maybe we can look to the league office for some good guys.

Hysterical notion.

If the fan wants to feel good about an amazing product that is run flawlessly, they’ll have to find something else to feel good about.

All the casual fan has heard about regarding the NFL this past year is domestic violence, concussions, Ray Rice and Roger Goodell screwing up time and time again. And to put the sugar on top he is once again attempting to insult our intelligence with the Deflate-Gate controversy.

If anybody thinks the league couldn’t have solved or ruled on Deflate-Gate within the first 48 hours, then you also need to remove the cookies from the table for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

It’s more lies, deflection and stall tactics created by the commissioner so nothing gets in the way of their bread and butter Super Bowl. The mere thought of the NFL losing advertisers and money due to any controversy (regardless of its severity), is just too much for Goodell to bear.

So because of the question of cheating has come into play, many have tried to latch onto the defending champion Seahawks as the sentimental favorites.

But then they quickly think back to a year ago:

There’s no doubt Richard Sherman is an intelligent and quality person by all accounts. However, this is sort of act turns off many people. Sometimes, the loudest and long standing actions are done by those who win with humility.

As we are now almost 48 hours away from Super Bowl XLIX, the feeling around these two teams is that there is no sentimental favorite and many viewers will watch with no real skin in the game.

There’s seems to always be that one story that people can hold on to. This time around, however, it’s very tough to root for either team.

Unfortunately, both teams cannot lose on Sunday night.