News-Gazette editor makes his game pick based on it
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So who you like in Sunday's Super Bowl? This game has a little something for everyone -- especially if you live in Osceola County. NFL.COM
View From the Bench
Ken Jackson
Soooooooo ... who's ready to kiss the football season g'bye on Sunday?
I love that the final game of the year, the Super Bowl, is a cultural event, with two weeks of build-up, gatherings of friends and relatives, delicious food choices and the presence of our friends who don't even follow or like football, who are just paying attention to the commercials or halftime concert.
What I'm saying is ... this game doesn't even need Taylor Swift!
But it has her anyway ... just like most of the NFL season had thanks to Kansas City Chief Travis Kelce, whose already one of the best players in the game, but apparently is one heck of a catch. Enough of one that Ms. Swift, who won a fourth Grammy Award for Album of the Year last week, is flying in from a concert in Tokyo tomorrow night to be in Las Vegas to see her man play, and be a part of the hoopla.
And, you gotta believe Roger Goodell and the NFL love it. When you have all the attention in the world, what's a little more?
When it comes to football -- oh yeah, it doesn't hurt that the Chiefs also has quarterback Patrick Mahomes and wundercoach Andy Reid, who seem to have taken those torches from Tom Brady and Bill Belichick when they were looking the other way.
But, the San Francisco 49ers has a weapon of its own. No, not Christian McCaffery, or George Kittle, or Deebo Samuel, or Nick Bosa (Wow, these guys are good!).
They've got Brock Purdy -- our Brock Purdy. Kinda.
If you weren't aware, Purdy's dad, Shawn Purdy, attended St. Cloud High School in the late 1988, where he was a baseball star and went on to a nine-year minor league pitching career. While Shawn retired to Arizona and opened a pool and spa business, and that's where Brock was born, the Purdys kept tabs here in town, and many of those who went to school or played ball with Shawn got to see quite a bit of Brock growing up. Brock even reportedly proposed to his fiancee Jenna right here in St. Cloud lsat summer. It's enough to be able to call the 49er's QB, "St. Cloud's own". Okay, it's a stretch, but I'm the one writing here. (And you're reading, which, by the way, thank you.)
So, if you aren't a big Chiefs or 49ers fan, and you were looking to pick a side or find a dog in the fight, this one has something for everyone. Kansas City was a flawed team in the middle of the year, and have caught fire in January, beating the Dolphins, Bills and Ravens, a QB collection of Tua, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson. So there's that -- and they have Taylor Swift.
But San Francisco has Brock, and St. Cloud's got the Purdy family. And there ain't nothin' tight like a family. There's St. Cloud roots. When thinking about this game, and my prediction, all I hear in my head is the voice of longtime St. Cloud High basketball coach Tim "Coach Mac" McMullen saying, "It ain't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
So pick the team wearing red. Ha ha, I had to try.
Sunday in Las Vegas, I'm going with Purdy and the dog's heart.
San Francisco 27, Kansas City 23.
