"Now That Is SUPER!!"

Not rivaling the audience that tuned in for the last episode of M*A*S*H, but estimated to be perhaps the most watched Super Bowl of the proceeding forty-one. I lay claim to admitting that I viewed both, Super Bowl Forty-Two and M*A*S*H... and if memory serves all or a portion of all of the intervening Super Bowls.

As far as this Super Bowl may be judged, it was very competative and, therefore, entertaining. I had no personal dog in this contest, nor any of my hard-earned cash wagered, so I gravitated toward pulling for the proclaimed underdog New York Giant just to have something to keep my interest in tact between copious mouthfuls of snack food. The game was "good" overall, but very good in the final quarter when all of the scoring was accomplished with Eli Manning and the N.Y. Giants pulling out the victory against the heretofore undeafeated, 18 & 0 New England Patriots.

Good, as far as it goes. There can never be any real losers in any game of athletics. My sense of dispair or exhuberation at the conclusion of any athletic event is always tempered by the realization that there are men and women in far away places wearing the uniforms of our armed forces that are making game day decisions that literally could mean whether or not they get to put that uniform on again tomorrow. There will always be "another game," but there is no guarantee that there will be another day for these brave men and women who face with determined trepidation the prosepct of placing themselves yet again in harm's way. God Bless 'Em. God protect them. The real victory...one worth celebrating by us all...is when these men and women come home to their loved ones permanently. Now that will be SUPER!!