\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sen. John Kerry, eat your heart out! This week, I’ve felt like a politician, rubbing elbows with dozens of locals in my quest to reach a consensus on Sunday’s Super Bowl.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Armed with cell phone and reporter’s notepad, I stopped strangers on the street and invaded the working areas of Luna Community College, Highlands University and Carnegie Library.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I expected a number of partisan fans, each one pulling for either the New England Patriots or the Carolina Panthers. Instead, the most common response to my question, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Whom do you predict will win the Super Bowl?” was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who’s playing?”<\/p>\n
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who’s playing!” Why that’s almost as bad as the time the UNM football Lobos had a mediocre team. I joined some friends at the stadium in Albuquerque but forgot the four tickets on the dashboard of my unlocked car. When we got back to the car, just before game time, we discovered someone had entered the car and left five more Lobo tickets.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Apparently, this year’s serving of football stew doesn’t abound with partisans. People are more interested in the fellowship, tailgate parties, barbecue, chances of winning money, and other frills.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 How much more definitive can people be than Patricia Gallegos, LCC Humanities office specialist? First, she wanted to know who was playing, then took the liberty of declaring the Patriots winners by three. Why? \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Because I said so.” One would hope the teams are listening.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Vicky Sandoval, LCC’s human resources technician, doesn’t worry about who’s playing, but will be tuning in to watch Kid Rock at halftime, plus the new commercials, going at $2.3 million for a 30-second spot. Think how many instructional buildings LCC could erect on the revenue for just a Super Bowl minute or two.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One who knows who’s playing and who has a preference is Rolando Rael, a biology professor at HU. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I’m hoping the Pats win and win big.” Colleague Dave West, of the HU business department is pulling for the Carolina Panthers \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because they’re a Cinderella team, and I’m a big fan of Cinderella teams, like the Green Bay Packers.” West said the Packers’ winning the division made him a happier and somewhat wealthier man because he had bet on them.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Several of those interviewed are either for or against a team and beat their own favorite team. Roland Salas of HU’s student services center is a Raider fan who no doubt remembers the infamous \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tuck rule” two years ago that went against the Raiders and gave the Patriots a pass to the Super Bowl. Despite that, Salas concedes, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153New England’s gonna be pretty hard to beat.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Martin A. Ortiz, a member of the facilities management staff at Highlands, expects the Panthers to win in a close game.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Las Vegas resident and New York Giants fan Patrick Tafoya looks for the Patriots to win and even offered a final score: 34-27. Bill Moore, however, who likes the 49ers, said the Panthers should win, but by a lower score.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Miami Dolphins fan Larry Cruz, a student services counselor at LCC, predicts the Patriots will take it, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153and it won’t even be close.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 A die-hard Dallas Cowboy fan, Kayleen Encinias, an administrative assistant to the LCC dean, picks the Panthers to win. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don’t like the Patriots because they beat Dallas . . . (or was it the Panthers that beat the Cowboys?) No matter
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Across the campus, Director of Humanities, Eloy Garcia first asked, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Who’s playing?” then ventured a perceptive prognostication: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the Patriots by 12. Overall, they’re a better offensive and defensive team.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 LCC student Laura Yeaman of Rociada, picks the New Englanders, and Lupe Martinez, also of Rociada, ventured an \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don’t even know who’s playing.” A member of the Luna security staff, Alfred S. Carrillo, predicts the Panthers in a close game.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Luna library technician Diane Vigil said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don’t know who’s playing, but years ago, when my boys were at home, we all had our favorites.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 An extremely pragmatic preference was made by Rose Romero, a clerk at Carnegie Library, who picks New England \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because I’ve bet some money on them.” And co-worker Caressa Ortiz, another member of the Who’s Playing, Anyway? group, chooses the Patriots.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Jesse Torres, a student-Spanish tutor at NMHU, responded, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I don’t even know who’s playing. We just got a TV last Saturday.” However, he favors the Patriots \u00e2\u20ac\u0153because I’ve never even heard about the other team.”
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 It’s obvious a number of people aren’t the die-hard fans I expected to encounter. The impression is that they’re not passionate because the schedule of their own favorite team didn’t extend to February. No one claimed to be an original Patriots or Panthers fan.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 They’ll probably watch the Super Bowl because of the commercials, bands, entertainment and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dlet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not forget\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe football pools.
\n\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 One of the top responses, which typifies the importance she places on the Super Bore game, came from my wife Bonnie, who predicts the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Yankees will win on Sunday, in no more than six games.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Sen. John Kerry, eat your heart out! This week, I’ve felt like a politician, rubbing elbows with dozens of locals in my quest to reach a consensus on Sunday’s Super Bowl. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Armed with cell phone and reporter’s notepad, I stopped strangers on the street and invaded the working areas of Luna Community College, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}