I've been reluctant to talk about today's Super Bowl - oh, excuse me, "Big Game" - given that, as a Pats fan, I find myself in uncharted territory. For once, we're a favorite.

In the other three games, there was a farily strong feeling of unreality, as if the Pats' presence was a mistake. I know, last time out the Pats were a number two seed - but so were the Chicago Bears.

This time around, we were a top seed and did what the top seed is supposed to do most of the time - take care of things at home and win their conference title.

I don't feel threatened by the Panthers - they're a good team and it should be a good game - and I don't think there's some sort of other-worldly phenomenon that'll cause problems (I assume whatever paranormality that's attached to the Red Sox stays solely with them). But I still didn't feel comfortable musing about this year's Super Bowl.

Not that you needed my input, as you could go just about anywhere over the last two weeks and find some talk about the game. I made a point of avoiding as much of that as possible as well, but that would have been true regardless of the teams involved.

And really, what more do I have to say about today's game than I hope the Pats win? I really don't care if it winds up 55-0 or 12-10 or whatever, just so long as the Lombardi Trophy makes its way north. I will say that should this come to pass, I'll skip on the rally, at least the Boston one. I don't think I need to come that close to being trampled or squeezed to death again. If the team goes on their New England capitals road show as they did before, maybe it'll be in Augusta at a time where we can see it on the way to visit Sarah's folks.