Top 5 Angles of Local Interest for the NorCal Super Bowl viewer

So it’s the week before the Super Bowl (we refuse to acquiesce to the NFL’s demands that we call it “Super Week” unless the week starts wearing blue tights and a big red “˜S’ on its chest”¦). We’ve been told time and again that it is one of the most culturally significant events of the year in this country, and that we are thereby honor-bound to care (even though it is, insufferably, an all-Northeast affair). With that in mind, here are the Top Five reasons for NorCal folks to pay attention on Sunday.

1. Joe’s Legacy “” You know, San Francisco Joe. The best back in the history of quarters.  Four-time Super Bowl champ and three-time Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Joe. Montana. If New England wins, Tom Brady will almost HAVE to be the game’s MVP.  Do you really want to live in a world where a Patriot is in some way equivalent to the greatest quarterback of all time? Us neither. Caveat: At least Brady is a NorCal kid “” Serra-San Mateo, and all that.

2. Julian Edelman “” You might not know this, but Wes Welker’s Mini-Me hails from Redwood City, and played QB for Woodside High. We think the speedy 5-10 receiver/defensive back could be an X-factor vs. the Giants, even though every time we hear his name we think someone is talking about the PGA.

3. Dave Tollefson “” Talk about your feel-good tale of stick-to-itiveness. Walnut Creek’s own Tollefson has done his share of bouncing around in his college career. From Ygnacio Valley High to Los Medanos College, Fresno State to Northwest Missouri (huh?), Green Bay to Oakland to, finally, the NY Giants. And now he has a shot at a second ring. Who’da thunk that?

4. Prop Bets “” If there’s one thing that can keep a generally apathetic group of football fans involved in a game in which they have absolutely no rooting interest, it’s the prospect of winning some money/food/respect/opportunity to publicly humiliate a close personal friend on something as random as umpire knock-downs or who will make the first hyper-exaggerated first-down gesture (the line is running at 50:1 on Ochocinco, btw). 

5. General Bitterness “” For Niners fans, it was bad enough last year watching the guy they could have had No. 1 in the 2005 draft (Discount DoubleCheck Rodgers) carve up the Steelers’s D en route to a Packers championship. Now they have to watch The Team That Kyle Williams Let Win (heretofore known as TTTKWLT) potentially pound Brady & Co. for its second Super Bowl title in the past six years, and fourth overall.  Ugh. Say. What’s the line on how far into the game you’ll be before someone at your Super Bowl party makes a crack about how goofy lookin’ Eli Manning is? Our money’s on 5 minutes.

“” Bill Kolb