I hope everyone’s ready for some football!

At 5:30 PM Central, me and all my rowdy friends will be gathering to watch the Superbowl. Okay, to be fair I’m probably the only one interested in the game, but it’ll be good to see everyone over some beers. I’d feel a lot more intense about watching the game with my (admittedly small) group of actual football friends if either of my teams had made the big game this year. But alas, there will be no New Orleans Saints Baltimore Ravens Superbowl.

It used to be just the Saints that I cheered for, (it was a long 24 years until they won that first Superbowl) but this year I decided I needed an AFC team to root for, doubling my odds as it were. Why Baltimore?

I could mention their defense or any number of statistics, but nope. It was Edgar Allan Poe.  Whether it’s actually true or not, to me the Baltimore Ravens are named for Poe’s “The Raven”. Literary football for the win! Not good enough? Hugin and Munin–Thought and Memory in Norse Mythology–are characters in my debut novel.

Why New Orleans? Seemed like a fun city. A fleur de lis logo makes them feel almost Canadian (Quebec is still a part of Canada, right? I don’t follow politics).

Also, zombies.

Tonight’s game is pits the New York Giants versus the New England Patriots which means I don’t really have a dog in this hunt. Sigh. I must now choose between my dislike of Eli Manning, and my HATE of the Patriots. The power of the Dark Side is strong in this one, so if you know me, you know that hate of the Patriots will win out.

Also: GIANTS! I like giants (and jotun, and cyclops, and titans and…well, you get the idea)

Another advantage to a Giants victory is that they are one of George R.R. Martin’s teams. So I can at least pretend that the Giants Superbowl success will translate into me getting book 6 of A Song of Ice and Fire in my hands just a tad sooner. A loss to the Patriots could delay book 6 by YEARS.

Go Giants!