Not a football fan? What are you doing today?

[Penthesilea]

There are Europeans who play American football? This is news to me!!

They are far and between.
You made me look up the numbers. In Germany, there are 250 clubs for American Football, with 31 000 members. I don't know how many of them are active players. But 31 000 from 82 million people is indeed very few.

I also read that in Germany, there's also a Womens' league of American Football!

I'll root for the Steelers if Amanda and Jake are rooting for them!! I might get stuck watching the Game, because I'm snowed in with a couple of sports-crazed men. I'd prefer to go out and see a movie, such as Undertow, but it may be impossible for my Prius to blaze a trail through the snow. For some reason, the sand trucks are AWOL this weekend.

Even if I would like to watch with your sports-crazed men, I wish for you that you'll be able to leave. May the the snow plows come soon!

[David In Indy]

I'm torn. I feel like I should cheer for the Packers along side our Amanda, but at the same time Green Bay is the underdogs, and I have a tendancy to always root for the less likely team to win.

To tell you the truth, I'll probably be watching the Puppy Bowl more than anything this evening. FYI - the Puppy Bowl starts in about 10 minutes on Animal Planet in case anyone is interested. It's really cute!

Chrissi, I think the Superbowl starts at 6:00 pm (Eastern) which would probably be 11:00 or Midnight over there in Germany.

[southendmd]

There are Europeans who play American football? This is news to me!!

Maybe Chrissi's football-playing boyfriend was American!

I'll root for the Steelers if Amanda and Jake are rooting for them!! I might get stuck watching the Game, because I'm snowed in with a couple of sports-crazed men. I'd prefer to go out and see a movie, such as Undertow, but it may be impossible for my Prius to blaze a trail through the snow. For some reason, the sand trucks are AWOL this weekend.

Leave the Prius at home, borrow one of the men's trucks, and go see Undertow!

[southendmd]

Here's a bizarre bet:  http://www.npr.org/2011/02/06/133495044/pittsburgh-bets-a-renoir-on-super-bowl-victory


Pittsburgh Bets A Renoir On Super Bowl Victory


Among the stranger bets being waged on Super Bowl Sunday is whether Fergie will wear shorts during the halftime show. Another bets on the color of the winner's Gatorade dump.

Those bets aren't strictly legal in most states, but there's nothing to stop a few hometown art museums from making a friendly wager.

The Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh has bet a Renoir that the Steelers will win Sunday. The Milwaukee Museum of Art took that bet — and put up a rare Caillebotte in return.

"Our docents were extremely upset," Milwaukee Museum of Art Director Daniel Keegan tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. "They said, 'How could you possibly think of giving up the Caillebotte?' I said, 'That's the point — we have no intention of giving it up.'"

Should the Steelers lose to the Packers, Milwaukee's prize will be one of Pierre Auguste Renoir's paintings of bathers. Lynn Zelevansky, director of the Carnegie Art Museum, describes Bathers With Crab as "a late Renoir, which is the Renoir that everybody loves — all those lovely pink maidens."

Should the Packers lose, however, the Carnegie Museum gets Gustave Caillebotte's Boating on the Yerres. Either way, the winning city will keep the borrowed painting for just a few months before returning it to the loser. Until then, Keegan says, "We're going to have a great painting from a great museum in Milwaukee."

"We feel exactly the same way," Zelevansky says. "We have a very strong Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection — but we don't have Caillebotte. I'm looking forward to bringing Caillebotte to the museum."

[fritzkep]

Can't get as excited about the Super Bowl as I did last year, since the Saints aren't in it!

[Brown Eyes]

^Ugh.  I think the Superbowl bet with art is absolutely mortifying.  It's beyond embarassing IMO.

Anyway, being from Pittsburgh, I'm mostly locking myself in my apartment and waiting for it to be over.  Since I moved here in 2005 the Steelers have won 2 Superbowls already... I kind of can't believe how regularly this comes up.  And a lot of Pittsburghers just go so nuts over it.  It's hard to explain how nutty it can be unless you're here.

I find it depressing, especially given the horrible reputation of the quarterback.  I don't understand the urge to celebrate people like that.

[fritzkep]

Well, I can imagine that publicity about the bet might bring some people who had not considered viewing the art before into the respective museums. And thereby awaken something unrealized beforehand.

[serious crayons]

I'll be doing the inverse of what I usually do when watching TV. That is, I'll have my son call me in when there's a commercial on, then leave the room for the stuff in between.

[Front-Ranger]

I'll be doing the inverse of what I usually do when watching TV. That is, I'll have my son call me in when there's a commercial on, then leave the room for the stuff in between.

That was my plan, too, but the commercials so far have been very disappointing. I've counted 3 commercials already where people have thrown a can or a bottle at someone, and many of the others have been violent.

[Brown Eyes]

It's interesting to think about all of this in relation to Kate Mara and her family (their close ties to the Steelers).  I wonder what she's doing tonight?