Super Bowl

Hagerstown resident Jorge Zambrana has to be at work between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. every Monday morning, so when the Pittsburgh Steelers played in the Super Bowl last year, he had to accept that he would be tired going to work the next day. “I was happy to be able to watch the game, but I had to stay up late and get up early the next day,” he said one day last week. “I know a lot of people that would want to take the day off if their team was in the Super Bowl.” Zambrana, 36, who is a driver for FedEx, said that he would like to see the Super Bowl moved to Saturday.

The Maryland State Highway Administration is planning for possible inclement weather Saturday, officials said Friday. “There's a reasonable chance for wintry precipitation Saturday night into Sunday,” SHA spokesman David Buck said. “Throw that into the mix with Super Bowl parties, and it is a recipe for problems.” With the Super Bowl scheduled to kick off Sunday at 6:30 p.m., Buck said that there could be more drivers than usual imbibing Sunday night. “People should never drink and drive, but the potential for somebody doing that is greater after something like the Super Bowl,” he said.

Chips. Wings. Brownies. Maybe a pot of chili. Is there anything more to know about Super Bowl food? No there is not. Yet here we are on the eve of the big game, and faster than you can say Barefoot Contessa, we are being snowed under with recipe books full of “imaginative” Super Bowl foodstuffs, most of which have no business coming anywhere near a football game. First of all, if we wanted imaginative, we wouldn't be watching football, we would be watching the St. Petersburg ballet.

Jeff Short, Dave Whittington, Joe Barnes, Todd Webster and Mark Wiley, all from Hagerstown, attended the Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., Feb. 1. SMSgt. Wiley is serving in the U.S. Air Force at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa.

When Tom Bikle was a boy, his father would drop him off at Baltimore Colts training camp on the way to his job in Westminster, Md. “I'd just spend the day there. Back then, it was very accessible to fans,” Bikle said of the camp at the former Western Maryland College. Players would lie under the trees and read their playbooks, he said. Most of the players, including the late quarterback Johnny Unitas and wide receiver Raymond Berry, knew Bikle by name at the time, he said. One time, Berry greeted Bikle with an autographed picture in response to Bikle sending him a letter, Bikle said.

When the king of watery, working class beer tries to go upscale, and the only pickup truck ad features a schmaltzy Paul Harvey voiceover about the tribulations of farming (tribulations that for the most part haven't existed since 1948), it is safe to declare that the Golden Age of Super Bowl advertising is dead. From here on out, anyone who “watches the Super Bowl for the commercials” might as well be watching it to see the guys who show up to paint yardlines on the field. GoDaddy, its ads facilitated by a humorless Danica Patrick, has apparently shown us all the skin the FCC will allow, so it now feels compelled to descend into gross-out territory.

"Oh, snowy night Hurry us up Don't be late It is ... " The message snapped me out of my trance. It is what? I guess I had fallen asleep, my eyes finally fading to another long night of reading. Not much else to do in this weather. But someone - or something - was trying to contact me. Was it a code? Apparently so. Because, as the renowned Herald-Mail cryptographer, I quickly cracked it. Lucky for me, too. In all this downtime between games, I almost had forgotten - there's still one contest remaining in the NFL season.

candiceb@herald-mail.com HAGERSTOWN - You've cracked open this newspaper. Maybe you're eating your breakfast or sipping from a mug of hot coffee, waiting for the hours of pregame Super Bowl coverage to begin. Wonder what the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks players are doing this morning? Mike Collier knows. He's been there. A former running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Collier was a backup on the 1975 championship team and helped to set up a go-ahead field goal in the Super Bowl.

For some, there are better things to do than watch the game By DAN KULIN dank@herald-mail.com When the New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams meet in the Super Bowl tonight, Maureen Miller may be among the millions sitting in front of a television. But she'll be watching HGTV - Home Garden Television. "Had Pittsburgh gone, we probably would have gone to a Super Bowl party," said Miller, 47, of Hagerstown. Like many non-Super Bowl watchers interviewed Saturday, Miller said the game will be on somewhere in her house.

Local Ravens fans charged up By KIMBERLY YAKOWSKI / Staff Writer Don Stotelmyer, Ravens Roost No. 7 Fan Club vice-president, said having his favorite team play in Super Bowl XXXV Sunday was a dream come true. "I'm ecstatic. I feel like someone should pinch me," Stotelmyer said at the Four Points Sheraton Hotel on the Dual Highway. Football fans throughout Washington County gathered to watch the Baltimore Ravens' Super Bowl XXXV victory, 34-7, over the New York Giants at bars and private parties Sunday.

So I sit down to my computer Monday morning after the Super Bowl and within a few minutes I am pleasantly surprised by what I missed by not watching the game. I know it might make many of you think I am un-American, but I have no interest in NFL football. There are lots of reasons, but the main one was the last strike. I love college football and true football or what Americans call soccer, so maybe I have some hope. But this is not my point. What took me by surprise was the buzz about the Dodge commercial.

When the king of watery, working class beer tries to go upscale, and the only pickup truck ad features a schmaltzy Paul Harvey voiceover about the tribulations of farming (tribulations that for the most part haven't existed since 1948), it is safe to declare that the Golden Age of Super Bowl advertising is dead. From here on out, anyone who “watches the Super Bowl for the commercials” might as well be watching it to see the guys who show up to paint yardlines on the field. GoDaddy, its ads facilitated by a humorless Danica Patrick, has apparently shown us all the skin the FCC will allow, so it now feels compelled to descend into gross-out territory.

There's no way to know whether special articles of clothing, facial hair or a particular snack had anything to do with the Baltimore Ravens' victory over San Francisco in Sunday's Super Bowl. But those who practiced such quirky superstitions on behalf of the Ravens can take pleasure in the idea they might have played a role in the win. Following is a sampling of what some area residents did to try to give Baltimore an edge: Mismatched socks and more Justin Anthony of Williamsport wears mismatched socks and the same boxer shorts and black University of Maryland basketball shorts for every Baltimore Ravens game.

Friends since their youth and diehard Baltimore Ravens fans, Donnie Stotelmyer and Mark Crilly were elated to get tickets to Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans. Crilly was selected in the Ravens lottery for the right to buy Super Bowl tickets - at a face value of $850 each. “Our families encouraged us” to go, said Stotelmyer, who along with Crilly graduated from South Hagerstown High School in 1975 and is a member of Ravens Roost No. 7. The AFC champion Ravens play the San Francisco 49ers, champions of the NFC, Sunday in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.

When Tom Bikle was a boy, his father would drop him off at Baltimore Colts training camp on the way to his job in Westminster, Md. “I'd just spend the day there. Back then, it was very accessible to fans,” Bikle said of the camp at the former Western Maryland College. Players would lie under the trees and read their playbooks, he said. Most of the players, including the late quarterback Johnny Unitas and wide receiver Raymond Berry, knew Bikle by name at the time, he said. One time, Berry greeted Bikle with an autographed picture in response to Bikle sending him a letter, Bikle said.

Chips. Wings. Brownies. Maybe a pot of chili. Is there anything more to know about Super Bowl food? No there is not. Yet here we are on the eve of the big game, and faster than you can say Barefoot Contessa, we are being snowed under with recipe books full of “imaginative” Super Bowl foodstuffs, most of which have no business coming anywhere near a football game. First of all, if we wanted imaginative, we wouldn't be watching football, we would be watching the St. Petersburg ballet.

Lee Rouson knows all about what hundreds of college football players are going through this weekend while hoping to get the phone call telling them they've been drafted by an NFL team. Rouson was drafted by Bill Parcells and the New York Giants in 1984 and went on to win two Super Bowl rings as a running back and special teams player. These days, Rouson is interested in a different kind of draft, one he talked about with about two dozen area coaches early Friday morning during a Fellowship of Christian Athletes coaches' legacy breakfast at Panera Bread in Hagerstown.

If you more or less came into this world with the commencement of the first Super Bowl, you watch warily as the Roman numerals become longer and more complex with each passing year. You realize that you are no longer a young XV yourself, but have moved on into joint-challenged CVLIIXIIVII territory. You can also track your age rather accurately by corresponding it to Super Bowl start times. If you can remember the days when the Super Bowl started at 2 p.m., well, help yourself to Medicare.

Alexander Kimble said he doesn't like being alone on weekends, so on Sunday night, he decided to take the Bridge of Life church up on its offer of a free Super Bowl party. Anyone could stop by the church Sunday at 14 S. Potomac St. and hang out in the hip surroundings of the church's youth room to watch the game between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. The room had a decidedly youthful feel to it with its mishmash of furniture, dim lighting and posters dotting the walls.

Hagerstown resident Jorge Zambrana has to be at work between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. every Monday morning, so when the Pittsburgh Steelers played in the Super Bowl last year, he had to accept that he would be tired going to work the next day. “I was happy to be able to watch the game, but I had to stay up late and get up early the next day,” he said one day last week. “I know a lot of people that would want to take the day off if their team was in the Super Bowl.” Zambrana, 36, who is a driver for FedEx, said that he would like to see the Super Bowl moved to Saturday.