Tuesday, September 16, 2003

Well, it's better than botherin' people!

In the movie Sleepless in Seattle there is a running joke about a false statistic that a woman is more likely to be killed by a terrorist than get married after the age of 40. At one point, someone says, "That statistic is totally not true. But it feels true."

Something else that feels true, but isn't, is the bit about spousal abuse being higher on Super Bowl Sunday than on any other day of the year. It's not true, but it feels true to me, especially when I listen to AM sports radio stations after a Bills game.

Case in point: as I noted in my review of Sunday's win over the Jags, I didn't see the whole game, opting instead to go to a movie. So when I came out of the theater, I turned on the radio to check the final score (a Jacksonville comeback would have been staggering, considering they were down 31-10 when we went into the theater). The host was railing on and on about how bad a certain decision by Gregg Williams was, and how could we possibly think the Bills are a Super Bowl contender when the head coach is making decisions like that, and this might be the kind of thing that sinks his career in Buffalo (Williams is, as of now, unsigned beyond this year as head coach of the Bills). Hearing this, I'm thinking, "Jeez, did they let the Jags back in at the end? or worse, did they surrender the big lead and actually lose?"

Well, no. The Bills never trailed in the game. Their smallest lead was seven points, twice, in the first half. Their final margin of victory was twenty-one points. It was a commanding effort, and yet, the folks on the radio were furious about a single play (a gonzo faked punt that failed miserably, in the second quarter, when the Bills were up 14-0). And this, mind you, was two and a half hours after the game had ended.

Maybe more guys don't beat their wives after their team loses the Super Bowl. But damn, sometimes I can see why we might think they do.

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