OPC's Continuing Coverage of the Super Bowl

In the local paper yesterday appeared a collection of Super Bowl picks by celebrities, my favorite of which came from Penn and Teller: "Pittsburgh, 27-17. Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has an unbeatable motivation: The NFL has promised that if he wins a second Super Bowl, he can put an umlaut on his uniform." Now, you might think this necessarily comes from Penn, since Teller doesn't talk, but Teller certainly writes, and this could have been delivered via email. Teller even talks, a little bit, as you know if you saw the 1989 film Penn and Teller Get Killed, directed by Arthur "No Relation" Penn. Teller speaks, albeit softly, at the very end of that.

More disturbingly, Vanilla Ice echoes my own pick by predicting the Cardinals, 31-21, with the reason being "I'm just going with my gut on this one." If there's one thing I always assume is wrong, it's Vanilla Ice's gut.

I do have to say I'm impressed with how many of these celebs display more than a superficial knowledge of the two teams. Speed skater Apolo Ohno says, "Warner might get sacked hard during the game, and those Pennsylvania boys are coming hungry." Branford Marsalis: "The Cardinals match up physically, and Warner knows exactly how to exploit the blitz, which the Steelers do a lot." Pilar Lastra, holder of briefcase 14 on Deal or No Deal: "[The Steelers] have both an amazing defense, and their offense is right up there with Arizona's."

Then there's Maya Angelou, who picks Arizona "because the Cardinal bird is so poetic." Thanks a lot, Maya. I guess we should be thankful she didn't simply assert that she knows why the caged bird sings.

I'm picking Arizona, in part because of Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin (who is almost as good as Larry Fitzgerald, and who is probably hacked off that Larry has gotten all the press lately while he's been ignored), but mostly because of Kurt Warner. This was in the paper today:

Warner and wife, Brenda, have a family tradition of picking up the check for another table whenever they eat out. ... "We started doing that when we were in St. Louis and the manager would always give us our meal for free whenever we ate out," Brenda Warner said earlier Friday. "I had been a single mother living on food stamps at one time who couldn't ever afford to eat out, and I never understood why people give free meals to people who can afford them."

The Warners started a tradition of allowing their seven children to pick one family in the restaurant, and they try to quietly pay that table's tab before slipping out the door.

"It's gotten to be part of a game with the kids," Brenda Warner said. "They'll say `Oh, that family has a lot of kids, dinner must be expensive.' Or `They look old, maybe it's hard for them to afford eating out a lot.' We try to be discreet about it, because we don't want people trying to get picked."

You can pick who you think is going to win, or you can pick who you want to win. I want Kurt Warner to win.