With the Super Bowl being this Sunday, it's time for my fearless prediction: the Pats will win.

Were you expecting anything else?

Now, I don't have the cockiness that some fans do. I expect the game to be close. I hope the win won't come down to Adam Vinatieri's foot again, but it wouldn't shock me if it did, either. My thinking is that it'll be close for most of the game, with the Pats winning by a two-score margin thanks to some late points. Given the players and coaches that each team brings into the mix, though, there's very little that would surprise me.

Well, the Pats running the wishbone. That would surprise me.

I've managed to miss most of the hype these last couple of weeks by not watching televised sports news (or "news"), especially avoiding the half-hour specials our Fox affiliate has been running in place of the 7:30 Simpsons. No way I'm going to reward that sort of scheduling.

The one story I've found reasonably interesting is Jacksonville's performance as host. The gist of most of what I've heard is that the city isn't up to the challenge, which makes me worried that the game will fall into a regular Miami-New Orleans-San Diego orbit (with occasionall forays into Tampa and perhaps the Rose Bowl). I like the idea of non-traditional cities getting the game for variety's sake. After this year, though, the pressure will be on Detroit and Arizona to provide more amenities.

(That being said, I do wonder how much of what's being said is accurate and how much of it is media grumbling; Jon's posts on his work trips lead to some doubts on this topic.)

Still don't know what, if anything, I'm doing for the game. I don't even recall where I watched last year's game (I think it was at home; yup, I remember doing dishes during the "wardrobe malfunction"), so it's not like it's a huge concern.