I Don't Know Who To Root For In The Super Bowl

I have a conundrum with this year's Super Bowl; I have no idea who to root for.

I was fortunate this year to see an abundance of teams that I like make the playoffs. For the first time in a long time, the Steelers, Ravens, Jets and Giants all missed the playoffs.

The Patriots made it to Championship Sunday again (yawn), NaFoleseon Dynamite  took over for Mike Vick and the Eagles made a run into the postseason, former Eagles coach Andy Reid brought the Chiefs back from the abyss for at least a season, and even the Chargers were hard not to root for. Obviously there were the 49ers, Saints and Colts too, all of whom I like.

My least favorite teams in the playoffs this season were probably the Panthers and Bengals, but it's not even like I don't those teams.

So no matter what, I was going to have two teams I support at least a little bit make the Super Bowl. That's something that hasn't happened since the Pats beat the Eagles in Super Bowl XXXIX.

So that brings me to this Sunday. Seahawks vs. Broncos. I have yet to figure out who I should root for, with both teams have appealing characteristics.

I will now state my cases for each team.

Case for the Seahawks:

Ever since the days of Shawn Alexander and Matt hasselbeck, I have been fond of the Seahawks. Now that they have guys like Marshawn Lynch and Russell Wilson, they are one of the most fun teams to watch in all of sports. Seattle also has something that is far more entertaining than a high-powered offense, but a suffocating and relentless defense.

They hit hard, they run hard, and Wilson is the best quarterback in the league who doesn't have a Super Bowl Ring (you heard me).

They truly embody what a good NFL team should be. They don't need to score 35 points every game to win.

They are a great football team in every sense of the word, and they truly deserve to be in the position that they are in.

Like many of you, I'm not much of a Pete Carroll fan, but I honestly often forget that he is even the coach.

Also, Derrick Coleman's story is a fantastic one. It's impossible not to pull for that guy.

Case for the Broncos:

In a word, Peyton Manning.

My fellow Patriots fans can say what they want, but I love Peyton Manning. Any person who has even the slightest interest in the game of football should love Peyton.

He plays like the game like nobody we've ever seen, and he does so without being a smug a-hole like so many other great athletes.

I've never particularly been a Broncos fan at any point in my life, although I do like their stadium (lots of long field goals have been kicked there). I'm more rooting for Peyton than anything else, although Champ Bailey is a guy who definitely deserves a ring.

I am taking a historical approach to the game this year, mainly because of the fact that Peyton's little brother has more Super Bowl rings than he does. Thirty years from now, when we're looking back at the history of the league, do we really want to see Eli Manning with more rings than Peyton? Hell no.

For the record, I don't care if Peyton finishes with the same amount of rings as Tom Brady. They're two of the greatest quarterbacks of all-time, and they both deserve their share of Super Bowl wins.


So those are the factors at play for me on Sunday. I'm not interested in the Richard Sherman narratives or Pete Carroll or Wes Welker or any of that. It's going to be a terrific game, and it even looks like the weather is going be decent in New Jersey come game day.

And all told, I'll probably root for the team who the people at my Super Bowl party are rooting against. 

Enjoy the game everybody!

P.S. Has anybody delivered a better Media Day performance than Marshawn Lynch did yesterday?

It should also be noted that I predicted Championship Sunday perfectly.

Extra Points Going the Way of the Dodo?

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

There are a lot of pressing issues in the NFL nowadays, but the kicking of extra points is not one of them.

A couple days ago in an interview with Rich Eisen on the NFL Network, Roger Goodell said the NFL Competition Committee may get rid of the point-after altogether. Under adjusted rules, a team would get seven points for a touchdown and have the option to convert for an eighth point by throwing or running the ball into the endzone. If the team failed at the conversion, the touchdown would be bumped back down to six points.

Now, for those of you who know me and know me well, you know that I have a very strong affinity for kickers in the NFL. The only jersey I have of an active player is that of Stephen Gostkowski. Him and David Akers are two of my favorites, and I love what the position brings to the game. So I may be a little bias here.

Goodell says in the interview that extra points are "almost automatic," and he is absolutely right. The Washington Post reported that since 2004, kickers in the NFL have made 99.1% of their extra point attempts. This past season there was a total of five missed point-afters out of 1,261attempts.

But so what if it's automatic? It can't be a safety thing, as Goodell says. It has to be something he and the Competition Committee perceive would make the game more entertaining, as extra points are probably the least hazardous plays that occur over the course of a football game.

But if Goodell wants to make the game more entertaining, what did he do to kickoffs? Fans aren't able to watch guys like Devin Hester make some of the most exciting plays that the game has ever seen on kickoffs anymore.

Although, were it not for Rob Gronkowski being on the field for an extra point last season, the Patriots probably would have won the Super Bowl. But still...

I would, however, be open to the league changing WHERE the extra point is kicked from. If they move it back to the 20- or 25-yard line to make the kick a little tougher, I can understand that somewhat.

But as the league stands right now, there are more important areas of the game that need to be focused on; Concussions, pass interference, Richard Sherman, playing the Super Bowl in New Jersey, etc.

It's probably just an idea right now that doesn't really have any traction, and I hope it stays that way. I want to see my precious kickers on the field as often as possible, but most of all I don't want the NFL to complicate things more than it needs to.

Netflix Movie of the Week

So I'm going to start a weekly post about a great movie to watch on netflix. I assume most people have netflix or use someone else's account.


This week's movie is called Blackfish. Blackfish is a documentary film about killer whales and how they are treated in captivity. I took a film documentary course last semester and got a B in it so I'm basically an expert on the documentary film. So I know a good one when I see it. Give it a look it's about 80 minutes long so it won't take too much time out of your day.

Film Review: Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones

In the midst of all the Academy Award nominees being released, I took it upon myself to forgo all of the nominated masterpieces and see Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. The Marked Ones is the fifth installment of the "Paranormal Activity" franchise, and much like the first four, it raised way more questions than it answered.

But first, this was no ordinary trip to the cinema for me. It marks the first time in my 23-plus years of existence that I ventured to see a movie by myself. I picked an 11:50 showing on a Thursday morning, so not surprisingly I was the only person there. I sat all the way in the back of the smallest theater, ate my popcorn and talked to myself throughout the movie. It was a strange, strange, STRANGE feeling. In a way, I felt like a rich guy with his own movie theater.

But I digress...

As you probably figured out from the trailers, The Marked Ones takes on a whole new cast of people. Instead of Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and others, it stars a completely different family from California.

The movie follows the main character Jesse (Andrew Jacobs) and his friends Hector (Jorge Diaz) and Marisol (Gabrielle Walsh) as they try to figure out why Jesse has been possesed by a demon.

I don't consider myself an avid fan of the Paranormal Activity franchise. I thought the first movie was pretty clever for what it was. Since then, it's basically been four movies with the same stuff happening over and over again. Each movie has had certain elements to separate it from the other ones, but they are all basically the same. The only reason I keep coming back is so I can understand the events of the preceding movies.

- Why does Katie own a house in the fourth movie? And how did she obtain a kid?
- Where the hell is Hunter?
- Why is all of the stuff even happening? (this question is briefly answered in The Marked Ones)

With every movie comes more and more questions. This last movie probably brought up the most.

Like the Saw franchise, these movies will continue to drag on for years to come. But, I'll keep seeing them.

In conclusion, there were some elements in The Marked Ones that made it different than the other films in the series. As I said before, this movie raised a lot more questions that I simply want answers to. That will be enough to keep me coming back for more movies.

Hopefully they will actually make their Halloween-time deadline this year. Watching one of these movies in the middle of January is a little pointless.

Final Rating: 2/5 Stars

COMMENTER SUGGESTION: List Your 5 Favorite Trilogies

I'm still getting warmed up to this whole "blogging" thing, so here is a list to help me further get into the swing of things. This was suggested to me by one of the commenters, so here we go.

Disclaimer: I am considering a trilogy in this case to be anything that was once a trilogy and then was added on to. For instance, "Indiana Jones" will count as a trilogy because I consider the fourth installment to be crap.

So without further adieu, here are my five favorite trilogies and why.

#5 Tremors

Like Indiana Jones, the Tremors series had a horrendous fourth movie added to it. So I'm not counting the fourth movie in this assessment. 

This is probably the odd man out in this list, as in I highly doubt any of you would list it as your favorite trilogy. These movies have a very rare combination of things. It takes the silliness and stupidity of a SyFy original movie but makes it into something that's actually good. 

The first movie was great thanks in part to some terrific star power. Kevin Bacon delivered a timeless performance and Reba McEntire did Reba things. 

After that, the movies hinged on the awesomeness of the worms and the silly things they evolve into. 

The series is a timeless classic, and I one I'll never get sick of. 

#4 Indiana Jones

Here is a more obvious choice. 

Excluding "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Henry Jones Jr. kicked ass and took names for three wonderful films. He helped find the Ark of the Covenant, freed a bunch of slave children and saved Sean Connery from being killed by nazis. 

If I had to put the movies in order, it would probably go Last Crusade, Raiders, Temple of Doom. 

#3 Back to the Future

The Enchantment Under the Sea dance scene will forever be one of my favorite moments in movie history. The combination of Earth Angel and George McFly punching that ginger kid out gives me goosebumps every single time. 

Combine that with a car chase that involves a VW BUS AND A DELOREAN and you got yourself the beginning of one of the best trilogies ever. 

#2 Star Wars (Episodes IV-VI Obviously)

This is pretty self explanatory. I give episodes I-III a little more credit than most people, but they still don't touch the original trilogy. 

I've always been a lover of aliens and space travel, and Star Wars is basically the epitome that. 

Also, Star Wars has some of the greatest characters ever to hit the screen. Chewbacca, Yoda, Admiral Ackbar, Han Solo, Jabba the Hut and Bobba Fett would all make the cut in my top 50 characters of all time. But that's a blog for another day...

#1 Jurassic Park

Anyone who knows me saw this coming. Since I was in kindergarten dinosaurs have always been my favorite anything. Growing up, I always wanted to be a paleontologist. I had every Jurassic Park toy imaginable, and even today I am at level 75 in Jurassic Park Builder. 

I'll never, ever get tired of watching these movies. They're the kind of movies that I'd bring with me if I were stranded on a desert island and I could only bring three movies. 

So there you go, those are my top five movie trilogies. I hope you enjoyed the read, and I hope that it was entertaining in some way. If there are any other subjects you want me to make a list for, comment below!

Chozen

If you haven't heard of the show Chozen, you're missing out. It's a brand new show on FX. It's created by the same people that did Eastbound and Down and Archer. And if your a fan of either of these shows, Chozen will be a perfect choice for you. The pilot just aired on Monday night at 10:30. Take a look at the trailer but I really won't watch this around children unless you really don't like the kids.

The Third Greatest Intro Post You Will Ever Read!

Hello,


I'm the Butt. The name derives from my last name Buttner, which everyone calls me. I'm currently in my last semester of college at the greatest university UMASS Amherst! Studying Communications which is such an easy major. I only go to about 15% of my classes every semester and somehow pass them.


What makes me qualified to write an internet blog is that I have no life. So that means I'm always on the internet, which helps me understand what people are looking for. Which is anything to keep their attention. Whether that be reviews about a topic they're interested in, or porn, or finding a funny picture they like, or porn. The internet has it all.


I watch movies and TV most of the day as well as playing a bunch of video games. I'm currently playing some Pokemon on the gameboy, which I hope is still a cool thing to do.


My biggest downfall is that I have red hair, which means I have no luck with the ladies. So I'll have plenty of time to write endless blogs about random stuff that I think needs to be talked about like a proper way to eat oreo's. My mortal enemy is the sun, cause even in the winter I still get sunburns. Really...I do it sucks.


While my partner Danny wants this to be somewhat clean topics, I can't promise that my language or content will be PG rated.

I doubt people care but since Danny did some of his favorite things I'll do the same.

Favorite Movie: Tied between Dazed and Confused and Anchorman
Least Favorite Movie: Lady in the Water, to this day the only movie I have ever walked out on
Favorite Actor: Tom Hanks
Favorite Actress: Amy Adams
Favorite Tv Show- Lost

PS- Just to clarify Danny was my backup in high school volleyball, and i missed 3 games with an injury and in my first game back i nearly tripled his kill total.

PPS- I am better looking than in that photo he posted, but not by much...like a hard 6 easily.

UPDATE: This is Now a Dual Blog

Only 14 hours old now, I have received a lot of feedback and thoughts on what the direction of my blogging should be. Most seem to think sports should be my mantra, but focusing on the goofier side of things (like the entire NBA). I have also had suggestions that I review CDs and movies.

Honestly, I want to do all of it. Due to this, I have made a slight tweak to the blog...

Hence forth, I shall be blogging with none other than Thomas Buttner to maximize the subject matter covered here.

We like many of the same things, so our writing should work seamlessly with one another.

For those of you who don't know him, he has been one of my closest friends since our days of playing volleyball together in high school. We watch football on a weekly basis and have shared a romantic viewing of Despicable Me in the movie theater together.

Appropriately, I have also renamed the blog to "Danny & The Butt." 

Let's all welcome Buttner to the mix.

We'll write about a variety of things. From sports and movies to TV shows and dogs/cats. Let's have some fun with this. 

P.S. Should this thing have its own Facebook page? Would that make sense?

My Second-First Post: What the Hell Should I Talk about?

Hello all,

As you can see below, this is not my first blog post. But for all intensive purposes, it shall be considered my first blog post.

Within the last year I graduated college. Since then, my worst fears have been realized: it is really hard finding a job.

However, I have been working steadily for the past few months doing what I love. I cover local high school sports for the Eagle Tribune, and it's a blast. It's part time work, so I am still looking for something to compliment it.

Anyhow, I am finding myself with more downtime than I can handle so I am starting this blog.

So my question to all of you is, what should the subject of this blog be? Is there any part of my life/interests that any of you find particularly interesting? Movies, sports, music (kind of), dogs, manatees, hermit crabs, all of the above?

And unless you want an endless dribbling about Family Guy, American Dad and How I met Your Mother, I would NOT recommend I talk about television.

Should I stick with one subject or should I bounce around a little bit?

I am leaning towards having a movie-oriented blog. I can review and/or preview movies, talk about news stories that come out or I just rant about how much I hate Tim Burton.

Also, provided you answered yes to any of the prior questions, how often should I post things? Once a week? Twice? Thrice? I'm completely new at this so I need advice.


Well I guess that is it for now, but I feel like I should put something else in here that is blog-worthy. I'll keep it simple. I'm just going to list a few of my favorite things having to do with movies:

Favorite Movie: Independence Day
Least Favorite Movie: Any Tim Burton movie with the exceptions of "Sleepy Hollow" and "Big Fish"
Favorite Actor: Liam Neeson
Favorite Actress: Kathy Bates/Jennifer Lawrence/Catherine Zeta-Jones
Favorite Movie Character: Chewbacca/Ian Malcolm/Lloyd Christmas

Please give me any and all feedback as to what direction I should go in. I'd like to be as entertaining and worth-reading as possible. Writing is a passion of mine, so I'd like to begin a new form of it.

P.S. Please, please, PLEASE yell at me if I ever start sounding like I'm trying to be Barstool Sports. I read it a lot, but I don't want it to rub of on this. I want to be original.