Bro Bowl

The BIG game is finally here.  America loves football.  You might be asking yourself, "what does Boomer feel about this game?"  Well maybe you aren't, but I am going to tell you anyway.

To be perfectly honest, I hate it.  I don't  really even hate all the hype around the Harbaugh brothers.  Everyone has been talking about that for weeks.  I think we were all tired of hearing about it before the NFC/AFC championship trophies were handed out.  Mike Tarico just said that this is the greatest sibling story in sports of all time.  No one has missed a chance to take part of the hyperbole for this event.  It is bad enough for the Super Bowl, its even worse having brothers as the head coaches of the opposing teams.  I hate it.

Let me tell you why.  Coaches, and players, are defined by how many of the big games you won.  Specifically, how many rings did you win?  Roy Williams was always the greatest coach to never win a title, until he did.  Cal was always the best recruiter to never win a title..until he did.  LeBron, couldn't win the big game...until he did.  Steve Young, Peyton Manning, the list goes on and on.  Those great players and coaches whose greatness was cemented by winning that one title.  The other side of the coin is that like the Charles Barkley and the Dan Marino of the sports worlds.  The greatest to never win a title.  Athletes are simply defined by the rings.  While a Harbaugh is guaranteed to win a Super Bowl, there is also one that is guaranteed to lose it as well.  There are no promises for tomorrow, its possible that neither will reach this game again.  This could be their one and only shot.  As much as I would want to win this game, I would not want to do it at the expense of my brother's legacy.  That is something that would stick with me forever.  Again, my brother may never win one, and his one shot was ruined by me.  When you lose a game like this, it never fully leaves you.  Every year you are reminded of how you came so close to the apex of your sport, yet fell short.  Every holiday you would see your brother, you would look at his ring finger on his right hand, and you would wonder what it was like to wear that huge ring.  Its tough, and I do not like one bit.

I wish this game could end in a tie, both teams declared a victor.  Nothing should come between family, but this is something that comes pretty close to doing that.  You never want your professional legacy to be tainted because of someone in your own family.  However, you gotta to pick sides, so I pick the 49ers.  Why you might ask?  Am I a life long 9ers fan?  No.  While I used to love Steve Young, Im not a 9ers fan.  Im picking the 9ers because I too am a younger brother.  No one who isn't a younger brother doesn't know the feelings that come along with that.  You don't know the fire, the burning desire, that rests deep inside of you for beating your older brother.  It doesn't matter what you are playing, you irrationally want to beat your older brother.  Its simply an instinct to prove your worth, fueled by thousands of years of the oldest brother getting everything.   Younger brothers are typically more fiery, more emotional, and less predictable.  They get knocked down time and time again, until one day their brother comes home from college and the younger brother finally beats his older brother in basketball.  So badly that the older brother has trouble scoring.  Hypothetically speaking of course.  So with that, Im pulling for the team from San Fran today.   Because....we all know that younger brothers are much, much, cooler.