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A Super Bowl XLII game ball is seen after some DNA identifiers were put on Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008, in Glendale, Ariz. The New England Patriots face the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII on Sunday, Feb. 3, 2008. (Charlie Riedel, Associated Press)

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Super Bowl Sunday is always a pretty special day. Yeah, there’s a ton of crap thrown in before, during and after, but if you pay close attention, there’s also a football game hidden in all the previews, commercials and halftime shows. The game isn’t always fantastic, but it’s been building up for 20 weeks or so and that alone makes it sort of exciting. It’s not a best of five or best of seven or best of anything. It’s one game and whoever wins it is the champion for the year. People also seem to party pretty hard that day, too. Actually, there are probably many people out there who are excited for the day and yet couldn’t begin to tell you who’s playing. There’s really more to the Super Bowl than a damned game, after all.

In case you’re one of those people, the New England Patriots are playing the New York Giants. It seems like everyone I talk to is rooting for the Giants. I don’t think it’s because they particularly like the Giants, so much as they just hate the Patriots. I don’t really get that, but whatever. New England could go undefeated on their way to a Super Bowl victory and that’s a pretty amazing thing to watch. Plus, their quarterback, Tom Brady, seems to get a lot of tail, so the way I look at it, good for him, good for the Patriots. That’s the side I wanna be on. Besides that, Eli Manning sort of strikes me as a pansy for some reason.

So, now that all that annoying game stuff is out of the way, let’s take a look at all the other spectacle that accompanies the game. Just so you know, the game itself will begin around 5 p.m. on Sunday. At least this gives a little kid an outside shot to see the end of the game before he has to go to bed. The pregame for the Super Bowl began roughly two weeks ago. By the time the game begins, if you’re not intimately familiar with each player on and off the field, you’re really just not trying hard enough.

I never understand why they can’t just start the damned thing in the early afternoon like they used to, but I’m guessing that has something to do with money and the NFL making a whole crapload of it. The price for a 30 second commercial is $2.7 million. The nice thing is, that means there won’t be any presidential political advertisements on the national broadcast because most of the candidates couldn’t afford them anyway. That brings up a good point. Maybe we should try to elect the NFL to be president of the United States. They seem to know what the piss they’re doing. I bet they could nip all that recession talk in the bud. Can our country just become on big NFL franchise? Just checking.

As always, the commercials will be really good. In fact, they will be much better than most of the actual content on usual network TV. Who cares about the freaking writers strike, those folks only fill the insignificant time between commercials anyway. Obviously, if you don’t happen to catch any of the commercials during their first airing, don’t fret. You will see the damned things constantly for the next six months. The companies want to make sure they get their messages out. Just so you know, their messages are basically, “Hey, seriously, buy more of our crap ... please.”

There will also be a lot of money changing hands in other ways, but I couldn’t find any mention of it on the official Super Bowl Web site. Sunday will be one of the biggest gambling days of the year. You can bet the point spread, the over/under, pretty much whatever you’d like. Personally, I like to just bet on whatever happens to strike my fancy at that particular moment, even if the bet can never really be confirmed. “$10 says that defensive tackle is sleeping with the linebacker. Seriously, did you see the way he slapped his ass. That was crazy familiar if you ask me.” If nothing else it keeps the discussion moving along.

Usually, the halftime show is a complete piece of crap. This year, Tom Petty will be the featured performer. I really like Tom Petty and I don’t think he’s crap. I would still bet, however, that the halftime show will suck some serious balls. The problem is, I’ve been to a few Tom Petty concerts and there’s really not much spectacle to it. I mean, it’s great and it sounds amazing, but it’s a rock show, you know, a real one. Let’s face it, the fella is talented but he’s not much in the looks department. I really hope he’s not jumping around in a leotard or anything just because it’s a special event.

I also hope nothing happens like it did with Janet Jackson. Seriously, I’ve got all his records, but I don’t want to see anything that Tom Petty has pop out of his little costume. Either way, they’ll have all those morons on the field waving flags and doing little dances and just about anything else you can imagine that would annoy the piss out of someone like me. Eventually, the game will start again and the bad taste in my mouth can’t be completely blamed on the chili I’ll eat at halftime.