Well, it was nice of Phoenix to go and do us all a solid the other day, pulling out of the bidding for the 2014 Super Bowl, removing one more impediment from the pathway that will bring the Big Game to the New Meadowlands.
Yes, it means that for the first time since the Packers beat the Browns in the mud for the 1965 NFL championship, a title game possibly could be held in less-than-ideal conditions (and by less than ideal, we mean “snowicane.”) Yes, it means that for the first time since Allie Sherman’s coffee froze on the sidelines of the 1962 NFL Championship game, a football game for an ultimate title will be played in Greater New York.
That’s all very nice.
What it also means, though, is that we actually got it right. Don’t forget, it wasn’t that long ago when New York was diving head-first into a bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics, something that for a very short while was a terribly polarizing subject in our town. All these years later, I still receive missives from bitter folks who think an Olympics in Fun City would have been a good idea, rather than the unmitigated disaster it would have been.
No, this is as it should have been: Hello world championship game. Goodbye, world.
I was reminded about our near-miss all across the last 16 days in Vancouver, a city that that may not quite be in New York’s weight class as a global destination but isn’t far behind: diverse, cosmopolitan, beautiful. And for 16 days, the world has trampled on this remarkable city, brought the streets to bursting points, inviting suffocating foot traffic (to say nothing of the coming debt to pay for all the fun).
And these were the Winter Games, not the Summer Games, with more events, more athletes, more nations, more venues. And these were Canadians who accepted the intrusion with little more than a wink and a smile, who were polite the day the world arrived and remain polite on the day before the world departs. Let’s just say New York probably wouldn’t have been quite so affable.
But the Super Bowl? The Super Bowl is right in our wheelhouse. The Super Bowl is a week, with the most important action contained to one building on one day. New York is so big it probably will not even notice that the Big Game has arrived, truth be told, until game day, at which point Route 3 and the Turnpike and the Parkway might be converted into supersized parking lots — still, no different than a big Giants game there, or a big Springsteen show.
And here’s the other thing: New York has been ready to play host to a Super Bowl for years now. It has had the willingness, the infrastructure — and, lord knows, the restaurants, bars and hotels — necessary to play host to this event. All it needed was the kind of new building the NFL all but requires cities out of the regular rotation to have.
And now it does.
We got this one just right. The Olympics in New York would have been a fiasco of the highest order. The Super Bowl is perfect. Hello, world championship. Goodbye, world.
WHACK BACK AT VAC
A.J. Scolamiero: Do you think that Johnny Damon turned down 14 million for two years from the Yankees, or was it his agent who convinced him he could get a better deal somewhere else? After all the money he has made, why not finish your career in the greatest city in the world for $7 million a year? Detroit?
Vac: I know it’s easy to blame Scott Boras for everything up to and including Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. But a player doesn’t hire Boras unless he wants what Boras does: squeeze every nickel.
Henry Levin: I couldn’t help but be wowed by the three medalists in the women’s snowboarding who were arm-and-arm on the podium. As best I can tell, more recent Olympics have seemed much less politicized.
Vac: I joke about how much I miss the Russian element of the Games all the time, but the fact is the athletes do seem to be having more fun than they ever have before, and that’s a good thing.
Brian Sanger: I think I’ll go console Robin Scherbatsky (the Canadian character on “How I Met Your Mother”). She’s probably distraught after the Team USA win last Sunday.
Vac: I have to admit: If you actually can spell “Scherbatsky” correctly, as you did, you are either a very big fan of the show or thisclose to receiving a restraining order.
Eric Leo: I don’t understand doubles luge. What is the point? Why not also have doubles skeleton? They are just facing the opposite way. How about mixed doubles in bobsled (twos and fours)? How about Ballroom Dancing as an Olympic sport? They already dance on ice, why not on a wooden floor?
Vac: Doubles skeleton might have to come with a parental warning.
VAC’S WHACKS
* My brother in arms Joel Sherman suggests that after watching Olympic hockey games proceed at a wonderfully rapid pace, the time might be right for the NHL to borrow a page from the World Cup and go with sponsors during game telecasts, rather than commercials.
* Man, do I ever miss the days when Kevin Smith did his own movies, rather than directing send-ups of cop-buddy flicks.
* The only surprising thing about Francisco Rodriguez coming down with pinkeye was that it didn’t happen last year. Pinkeye and lumbago were the only things that didn’t afflict the Mets in 2009.
* I loved the quasi apology the Canadian women’s hockey team issued the other day for their postgame beer-and-stogie extravaganza. They should have just said what they really meant: “We’re Canadian. How else did you expect us to celebrate?”