Memory Game

So last night, because I am a wild and crazy guy[/sarcasm], I tried to remember all the Super Bowls chronologically backwards without the help of the internet. I was actually pretty accurate until it got to about 1983 where I didn't know the Redskins played the Dolphins (and I mixed up the Ravens/Giants and the Titans/Rams).

When I was younger I was dragged along with my parents to my mom's cousin's place in Daly City. I must have been a pre-teen, but a post-single-digit adolescent. They had a daughter who, later on in high school, ran away from home with a druggie boyfriend. In these halcyon days of innocence and boners you didn't know what to do with, I just saw her as an older cool girl who showed me and my sister a picture of a redwood tree in Muir Woods that needed multiple shots to capture its monstrosity.

We would go there once a year at the very least. My mom's cousin, Auntie Anita, were roommates when she moved from the province to Manila. That side of the family is crazy, but not like deadbeat dad and Springer crazy. Next time we have beers or whatnot I can discuss this at length because I can imagine my mom googling "Auntie Anita", giving me a call and telling me that in a passive-aggressive way that I done did some shit.

So one of my biggest memories there, while the grown-ups where chatting it up and my sister was talking to the cool older girl, was having free reign of their library which was modest but power-packed. And of all the books I remember, the one branded in my mind was "History of the Super Bowl" for the obvious young Niner fan reasons. Funny how I have to cram hard as fuck to remember what clasp is better for a tooth-bourne mucosa bound partial denture, but for the last 15+ years because of that book I will always remember who coined the term Super Bowl (Lamar Hunt).

Reading about the Jets/Colts in Super Bowl III was as exciting for a curious little fuckface like myself as was reading about the Revolutionary War in Social Studies or watching how oxygen feeds plants on Mr. Wizard.

Each Super Bowl had its own logo, its backstory, its motivations. Now that I'm older, I can't bother to remember Lynn Swann and Roger Staubach because I wasnt there. Looking at the list of Super Bowls I had written out made me feel like an old old man (wow the Niners beat the Bengals 20 years ago?!), but with old men come a more comprehensive list of satisfying memories. Dave Berman said that when he was 28 it was like his brain was only allowed one thought at a time and that when another thought crosses your mind then the previous thought is gone. That's actually how I feel now. I'd like to go in-depth and explain why that is so, but really I'm tired of deconstructing why I am what I am right now.

But looking down on the list of Super Bowls was like looking down at history, the NFL's history and mine. With each game came a distinct, specific feeling and location that will never be there again except in the minds of those who remember. Sure, we all remember the Patriots upsetting the Rams but I also remember being stoned as fuck at halftime asking Derrick some flimsy conspiracy theory that the Patriots were predetermined to win because we needed to infuse our country with patriotism after the 9/11 attacks. I remember Derrick politely whisking away that theory because it was a deluded and stoned thought.

So with the memory game comes the memories.

I will try to continue this as a series until I get fickle and do something else, but for now here is the first installment. Feel free to write back with your own.

January 26, 2003 - Super Bowl XXVII - Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48, Oakland Raiders 21

Ok, this was the year of the miraculous 49er playoff comeback against those dastardly New York football Giants. Previous to this week, I was watching the Niners/Giants wildcard game with Dibsy Do-Right inbetween playing Madden at my place. The first half was just diabolical mess after diabolical mess, watching Jeremy Shockey mocking the Niner fans as if he was ruler of this pocket of the city of San Francisco known as Candlestick Park (and will always be known as Candlestick).

Disgusted, we played Madden to erase the memory of another Niners loss. Then, the funniest thing happened. We flipped it onto ESPN and the Niners were only two scores behind. We thought about going back to the game but we persuaded ourselves that it was we, Dibs and I, that were the reason the Niners were losing. I mean, we flipped the channel for but a scant few moments and all of the sudden the Niners were surging a comeback. It was us who spoiled the 49ers hopes and we thought it should be us to help them get back on the horse by not watching.

Sounds ridiculous, right? The belief in something illogical and vain to think that our purpose as beings in the center of the universe was to follow through with a message -- although given with good intentions -- that we could only believe due to some faith that is neither controllable or scientifically proven?


(is that subtle enough for you?)

But the Niners won, making the second-largest comeback in NFL postseason play.

You're welcome.

So, Super Bowl Sunday. We were at Dibsy's this time and Erica had made good food and we watched all the pregame hoopla and hullaballoo. It's funny, because a lot of that fleeting Raider success in the late '90s were experienced with Don and Erica. I remember before she got tired of watching the back of mine and Don's heads playng Madden, she was actually interested in the game and how upset she was when Siragusa fucked up Rich Gannon's shoulder in the AFC Championship Game.

And now at what will now be the apex of the Raiders legacy (post-tuck rule era), I was at Don and Erica's house excited at the prospect of Hammer making a comeback song in honor of the Oaktown Silver and Black.

Thee game started and the Raiders suuuucked. Suuucked hard. I remember mostly pigging out, really. I remembered how the Niners succeeded due to me avoiding the game and I remember thinking "Man, I should try that again" and so I plopped myself down on the computer and surfed the web while everyone was either watching the game or shooting the shit.

And then when I turned my back on the Raiders, they got a touchdown pass and a blocked punt for a touchdown to cut the lead. I remember hearing CJ's yells and the optimism of coming back. Of course, it was just optimism and the Raiders went on to lose. I remember we played Smash Bros. or Madden after that (things tend to blur after awhile) and smoking a joint at halftime, but what I remembered most was that I missed out on watching the biggest 49er comeback in the history of the Niner playoff football history and the Raiders make a feint comeback because I thought that shit would actually work!

How easy to be egotistical to think the outcome of the game would be determined by where my eyes are situated at. It would make everything all much simpler.

"Did you hear, I won the lottery!"

"Congratulations man, it's because I didn't watch the news."

But sometimes little things like that can keep you sane, so I don't hold it against you if you need that sort of thing.

P.S. Jim Cornette, of all freaking people, probably made the essay of the year in terms of selling Obama to the undecideds and the Mcainiacs... CARNIES DOING GOOD!

Read here.