Forget Super Bowl XLIIFernando Gallo

So here comes the Super Bowl, the big game that has a larger audience than American Idol and Dancing with the Stars combined. We football fans spend all of the fall and part of the winter watching teams pummel each other every weekend during the NFL season, and it all culminates in a seven-hour long extravaganza on the first Sunday in February. With all of the build-up and anticipation, it has to be the best game of the season, right?

But it’s not. And it won’t be this year, either, because the Super Bowl is just like Justin Timberlake’s “musical ability”: all hype. All we get from Super Bowl Sunday is a series of letdowns: The game is boring, the commercials are never as funny as they used to be and someone always has too much to drink and gets belligerent at your Super Bowl party.

I love the NFL as much as anybody, but the Super Bowl is the worst championship in sports. We have to wait two weeks between the conference championships and the grand finale, which means ESPN has to run a million stories about players I’ve never heard of so they can eat up time on SportsCenter. And enough already about Tom Brady’s ankle! I DON’T CARE. Brady is like a good super-villain: No matter how bad you want to get rid of him, he never goes away and he’ll always find a way to ruin everything. Hopefully he’ll go out with Jessica Simpson soon so she can jinx him in time for the playoffs next year.

This year’s game won’t be different than most other Super Bowls. Since 2000, the NFL Championship has been decided by an average of 11.6 points, so the Patriots will win 37-26. All I can hope for is that I have overdosed on chips and salsa and am passed out by halftime so that I don’t have to watch the halftime show and whatever crappy 1970’s act the NFL pulled out of the gutter to perform this year. So enjoy Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and pass me the Tostitos.

Patriots Baby!Alicia de la Garza

Not only are the New England Patriots going to beat the New York Giants, but they are going to win with a score of 21-14.

Well, as long as the Patriots don’t win the coin toss at the beginning of the game, the team really does have a shot. In all three of its previous Super Bowl wins, the team has lost the coin toss. Hopefully someone isn’t too good at the ol’ heads vs. tails game.

Although the Patriots just barely swept by the Giants in its regular season match-up, the Patriots are going to have a little extra fire for this one.

The real reason New England is going to come out of this victorious is because of one person and one person alone. That person is Tom Brady.

Although Brady is going to have to be in tiptop shape and must be really focused to help his team win, he is still a better quarterback than Eli Manning.

The Giants may have been lucky against Green Bay but it is obvious that Manning is too young for this type of competition. Just because his brother can pull it off doesn’t mean it runs in the family.

The Patriots have the upper hand considering the fact that they have more experience in big-time games such as the Super Bowl. The Giants don’t have that kind of experience but after beating Green Bay, the fire might have been lit under their feet.

The Giants are also at a loss because they are returning to the Super Bowl with only two players who participated in the last one.

The fact that this football season has been one with many surprising aspects to it, this Super Bowl is going to have a surprise all its own.

This is going to be the first Super Bowl ever to go into overtime. I know this seems farfetched, but it will happen. And after overtime is over, the Patriots will barely slide by to get the win.

Why Watch?Jordan Guinn

The game is going to be a blow out, the halftime show will not be geared towards a football audience at all and the ads are going to be drivel. I don’t care about Tom Brady’s foot. I can’t stand the grunting and mumbling of Bill Belichick that we have had to endure every five minutes on SportsCenter.

Don’t think that my hatred for the Patriots and New England teams in general makes me a Giants fan in this game. Eli Manning is a punk who is the perfect definition of the whiny younger brother. On draft day, after being selected by the San Diego Chargers, Manning basically threw a temper tantrum because he didn’t get selected by the team he wanted to be on. He wanted to be on the big stage, in New York, and now he has it. Hopefully Eli Manning throws five interceptions and fumbles several snaps before finally being replaced by punter Jeff Feagles.

There are many Super Bowl scenarios I have wished for. Hopefully Gissele shows up to Arizona and Brady pulls a Tony Romo. I want to see both the Giants and Patriots have three and outs for the entire first half. In a perfect world, Randy Moss would get two receiving touchdowns and get tackled on the one yard line as time expired, just so he missed out on tying Jerry Rice’s record.

If only there was some way both teams could lose. Not only lose, but have the games be a public disgrace. The kind of game you tell aspiring athletes not to watch because it is so sloppy and uncoordinated.

This Super Bowl was supposed to be about Brett Favre and Brady. The Packers and the Patriots. Favre was going to reach into his bag of tricks and pull out a win that would wipe the smug grins off every classless member of the Pats. Instead we get Manning. A twit who got lucky in Lambeau. Manning has no chance of taming the Pats on Sunday. The Giants put up a great fight in week 17 but New England is not going to lose to a team it just played a little over a month ago, especially on two weeks rest.

The Patriots for Sacramento PrideAndrew Eggers

I am pulling for the New England Patriots to win the Super Bowl and complete their perfect season this Sunday. I am not a fan of the Patriots, but I want to see linebacker Tedy Bruschi and wide receiver Donte’ Stallworth be a part of National Football League history since they are both Sacramento-area natives.

Bruschi, originally from Roseville, has been to the Super Bowl promise land three times before with the Patriots since being drafted into the league by them in 1996. I really like this guy’s heart and character. He came back from a stroke in 2005 when some thought that he would never play football again. Bruschi has also given back to his former high school contributing money for a new weight-lifting facility at Roseville High School.

Stallworth, who is in his sixth year in the NFL and a graduate of Sacramento’s Grant High School, is trying to win his first Super Bowl ring in his first year as a Patriot. I like Stallworth’s sense of hometown pride as evidenced in his pre-game introductions. Instead of saying that he went to the University of Tennessee – players usually state which college they attended – instead he says that he went to “Grant High School, Sacramento, Ca.”

The fact is that Stallworth has usually been Tom Brady’s third target on most plays this season – behind Randy Moss and Wes Welker – but has not complained about it to the media. He has made some key plays for the Patriots down the stretch this season, but ultimately is a team player trying to win games which ever way possible.

I predict that Stallworth has a better game this time around facing the New York Giants. In the team’s first meeting in week 17 at the Meadowlands, he caught three balls for 32 yards. With the Giants likely focusing in heavily on Moss and Welker, do not be surprised to see Stallworth get into the end zone this weekend.

I’ll say Patriots over the Giants 28-24 in a great game for the ages.

Who can you root for?Cameron Ross

It is typical by sports fan standards to root for the underdog and in Super Bowl XLII that is the New York Giants. The dilemma is whether Eli Manning deserves support.

Manning is the epitome of a spoiled brat who got to choose his team because of the success his father and brother have in the NFL.

It is an insult to all players drafted when one refuses to play for an organization, located in beautiful San Diego, while the rest are ecstatic to reach the professional ranks.

On the other hand, who would root for Tom Brady and the controversial New England Patriots? Unless you’re a Patriots fan there’s really no reason to hope a team will have a perfect season, obliterating any success of your team.

The Patriots were caught illegally videotaping other teams’ signals and have won three of the last six Super Bowls? suspicions, anyone?

Tom Brady is a genuine Golden Boy and dates celebrity starlets and is arguably notorious for knocking them up lately. Is this the type of star you want to hoist the Lombardi Trophy at the conclusion of the perfect season?

When the Patriots beat the Giants 38-35 in Week 17 it was tied for the narrowest New England victory with two previous wins. This gives hope the Giants can beat the Patriots but the spread probably won’t look that way.

This Super Bowl may super blow if the Patriots destroy the Giants and complete the perfect season under a controversial start with a “baby-daddy” quarterback and a forfeited draft pick.

Maybe Manning can justify his childish antics if the Giants are victorious and he’s viewed in the same company as his father and brother. He can silence the critics who insult him if he wins with the Giants because his decisions will be justified.

It’s all about the commercialsJose Martinez

Super Bowl Sunday is right around the corner. The sad thing is, more people are looking forward to watching the television commercials than the actual game.

Of course we all know Super Bowl Sunday has long been famous for its fair share of new commercials and previews for movies that aren’t set to be released for months.

The estimate for a 30-second spot during this year’s Super Bowl is $2.6 million, according to an article in the New York Times.

Anheuser-Busch is one of the most popular companies that choose to advertise during the Super Bowl, and this year the beer company is inviting viewers to vote for their favorite Anheuser-Busch commercial through e-mail or text message. All of the company’s commercials will be viewable on the company’s new web site, http://www.bud.tv. Other companies like Nationwide Insurance Company are allowing the audience to preview its commercial for the Super Bowl by logging on to its web site, http://www.nationwide.com. With the large amount of commercial time during the actual game, I’m sure there is going to be a commercial out there that everyone likes. Whether it be talking frogs from Budweiser, hot girls falling face first in front of moving vehicles from Doritos or two men in a garage doing something manly from Snickers, I am looking forward to what weird, funny, dumb and smart ideas companies will try to use to get people to purchase their products. Oh yeah, the game prediction? Patriots 24, Giants 27.