Well, I think everyone got the best of both worlds for the Super Bowl as it wound up Green Bay and Pittsburgh. Both games today should really not have been as close as they turned out. Green Bay started failing to convert several third and shorts and allowed Chicago to hang around way too long. Even with a gift interception for a TD, the Packers allowed the Bears to get right back in it.

As for the Steelers, that game should have been over at the half. The Jets failure to score after a lengthy 4th quarter drive destroyed any chance they had, even after they got a quick safety as a followup. I actually gained much respect for the Jets for not folding at the half. The Steelers made way too many mistakes with the ball in the second half to keep the Jets in it.

The Super Bowl got a terrific matchup with about as many angles as the press needs for the buildup to the game.

Meal of Links

I took advantage of the late NFL starts today to see "The Fighter". It's the well-documented story of the boxer Micky Ward and his crack-addicted trainer, Dick Eklund, who is also his brother. Yeah, it's a boxing movie, so I had to see it.

The boxing sequences almost bordered on lame here. Really nothing memorable. You get an over-the-top performance from Melissa Leo as Ward's mother, who also served as his business manager for a time. Basically Ward was the family corporation and the movie details how his career got better when he got better management, meaning Leo had to take a backseat.

Christian Bale as Eklund is the gem here, as always. Like the young DeNiro, he immerses himself in any character he plays. Gets the crack addict persona down, with almost as much weight loss as he had for "The Machinist". You cannot believe this is the same guy that plays the Dark Knight. Mark Wahlberg as Ward is kinda so-so. I thought he didn't come close to demonstrating how tough of a fighter Ward was. And Amy Adams gets a sassy role for a change.

I expected better here. Ward himself says over the closing credits that he was glad the filming of the movie was finally over, as if he was tired of reliving his past. It's a decent enough tale, but somehow the movie went off the tracks just enough to not put it into the must-see category. Curiously, the movie ignores Ward's greatest triumphs a a boxer, the Ward-Gatti Trilogy. With the strange circumstances of his death, maybe that will be detailed in the Arturo Gatti Story.

Jack LaLanne finally unplugged his juicer. He was 96 and quite a fascinating individual.

Now we know the reason (well, 4.6 million of 'em) Baby Doc went back to Haiti. Straight cash, homey.

Exercise Yard

Yesterday, a pro bowler shot 100 in a televised match. It was the lowest score ever by a professional on TV. His opponent? He shot a 299.

Visitor

None, on a really cold Sunday.