OK, things aren’t quite thawed out yet, but when I got out of work yesterday, it was sunny and 27°. That may not sound like much, but you’d be amazed at how warm that felt. Not exactly summer-like, but certainly don’t bother to zip up your jacket, no need for the hat and gloves springlike weather for sure. And as I write this at 5:30 AM or so, it’s already 29°, on its way to 33 – and tomorrow they’re projecting a high of 39 (by golly, that ought to get the sump pumps humming again)!

This warm weather comes at quite a timely moment, because – as you may have heard but probably not – this is a big sports-type weekend around here. I mean, yeah, Sunday’s the Super Bowl and even if you care nothing at all about that, you’d have to be living under a rock (or be my wife) to not know that. I have no “dog” in that fight, personally. I don’t really follow either team, and I don’t hate either one of them, either (not like it’s Dallas vs. Anybody, where it’s a no-brainer to root for Anybody). And no matter who wins, I hope to see a shot of their fans celebrating by firing up a nice big fatty on national teevee – and then instead of flipping over cars and starting them on fire, devastating a few bags of Doritos (warning: you will have severe internal cheek lacerations the next morning – take it from one who knows. Those things have very pointy corners and shatter into shards with every chew) and taking a nap.

But when it comes down to it, I’m sure I’ll be pulling for the Denver Broncos. First, their color is orange, so, like, “duh.” Also, I’m sure Floyd Little is rooting for them, and what’s good enough for Floyd is good enough for me. And then there’s Peyton Manning.

I’ve never been a huge fan, but not a hater, either – I enjoyed seeing him throw to Marvin Harrison (who we kinda don’t talk about much here these days what with him having maybe kinda murdered somebody or having somebody murdered, but there’s no conviction, so, hey, whattya gonna do?) and back then the Colts also had Dwight Freeney (who was an undergrad when I was in my 26th or so year of college).

But, anyway, as an old man, I can’t help but pull for another old man (I never really liked John Elway until he got “old” – born the same year as me, by the way – and ended his career with a couple of Super Bowl wins), and Manning is not only old (at least in NFL years – what I wouldn’t give to be 37 again!) but had a freakin’ “anterior cervical discectomy and fusion.”

Now, from what I’ve read, surgeons consider this ACDF to be no big deal, same day surgery, but the description of his procedure includes:

…a 1- to 2-inch horizontal incision in the front of his neck, carefully moving away muscle, retracting the esophagus, the trachea and the carotid artery, cutting through a membranous sheath that covers the cervical spine and finally exposing the crushed disc.

There are seven cervical vertebrae extending from the base of the skull to the top of the chest. The damaged disc in Manning’s neck was located between the C6 and C7 vertebrae, at the bottom of the neck. Using scissor-like instruments and high speed drills, surgeons removed the disc fragments between the two vertebrae and grafted a piece of Manning’s hip bone into the empty space between the vertebrae. A titanium “bridge” spanning the disc stabilized the spine.

Sorry, but once you do that to me (assuming I let you, which is pretty fucking doubtful since I won’t even go to a foot doctor), aint no way I’m playing football again. Not that I play it now that my XBox died, but you know what I mean.

So, anyway, it’s not like I’ll cry if the Seahawks win, and hopefully it’ll be a good game and all that. And the NFL dodged a bullet, ‘cuz after some really shitty weather, the forecast for East Rutherford NJ for Sunday is probably dry and relatively warm – high in the 40s maybe even 50.

But – at least in these here parts – Sunday is the #2 event of the weekend. The real news is that the Duke Blue Devils are coming to town tomorrow evening. The two winningest coaches in NCAA Division I basketball – with 1,877 wins between them – not to mention the coaching duo that has gone 62-1 with Team USA and won the past two Olympic basketball gold medals (USA! USA!) will face each other in front of a record on-campus crowd of 35,446 people to see if Syracuse can set a record for best season start (which would be 21-0).

I bring this up now so that I can kind of enjoy it, because last time we set an attendance record (about a year ago), the dreaded Georgetown Hoyas stomped us (though I feel compelled to say that we went on to return the favor by later beating them in our final Big East meeting in the BE Tournament at Madison Square Garden and then advancing to the Final Four with a win on their home court while they choked and went home early as they have typically done for many years now – “Hoya Saxa” apparently being latin for “One and Done”).

There have been very few easy wins on the way to 20-0, so, yeah, we’re ripe for a loss, and on a national stage (ESPN College Game Day) on Super Bowl Eve with lots of people paying attention and everybody south of the Mason-Dixon line hating us even more than usual because our football coach made a teeny-weeny joke on Twitter of all things about a few snowflakes shutting down an entire major metropolitan area

“Oh, my god oh my god oh my god! People are dying, children are trapped on school buses, old people are stranded in their tarpaper shacks, the couch in my front yard is full of snow and you Yankees have the audacity to refer to us with a hashtag of ‘#softnosed’? How dare you, you insensitive lout, I do declay-uh you’ve given me the vapors!”

And Clemson… Most humorless fuckin’ fans in the NCAA. No wonder Lindsey Graham keeps getting elected.

I swear having Syracuse in the ACC is about to reignite the Civil War – and this time we won’t have Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter to bail us out…!

Anyhow, let’s just say a loss tomorrow wouldn’t surprise me.

The SU women started things off well last night, though, by travelling to Chapel Hill and upsettting the #6 North Carolina Tar Heels (after being down by 18), so good for them.

And there’s no break in the action as hated Notre Dame (whose racist, stereotype perpetuating “mascot” I shall not mention) comes to town on Monday (big weekend for the bars and pizza joints on the SU hill – one of them decided they had to close on Sunday, ‘cuz they didn’t have room to store enough food for the crowds they expect on Saturday and Monday if they were open for the Super Bowl).

So hopefully it’ll be a fun weekend. Warm, only a little snow (no more than it would take to shut down Atlanta – we don’t even roll the plows out for that), and hopefully win #21.

If you don’t hear from me for a while, you’ll know I’m either off sulking somewhere or defending my home from Johnny Reb.