Chiefs vs 49ers again – at least it’s not the Cowboys

The stage is set for Super Bowl LVIII (58). The big show will feature the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers at Allegiant Stadium (home of the Las Vegas Raiders) in Paradise, Nevada.

On Sunday, our country will come to a standstill for the big game (or for the commercials for non-football fans or for glimpses of Taylor Swift for all the Swifties).

It’s hard for me to say which team I’ll root for. As a diehard Denver Broncos fan, I don’t want to see a division rival find success. And also as a Broncos fan, I can give you 55-10 reasons why I don’t want the 49ers to win. Given the choice, I’ll probably have to go with the Chiefs because I can’t bring myself to forgive the 49ers for Super Bowl XXIV.

The first Super Bowl I ever watched was Super Bowl XII when the Denver Broncos played the Dallas Cowboys. It was also the first football game I watched in its entirety. Although Denver lost to the Cowboys, that game made me both a football fan and a lifetime Broncomaniac. It also made me a Cowboys hater. I’ve come to loathe any team that beats the Broncos in the Super Bowl, and that’s become a long list!

Whenever the Broncos make it to the Super Bowl, I find that the longest, most agonizing weeks of my life are the two between the AFC Championship and the big game itself. As a Broncos fan, the most agonizing two months are usually those after the Super Bowl. Although the Broncos are 3-5 in the Super Bowl, it’s still much better than being 0-0. And, for the record, Denver is 3-1 in the Super Bowl since the Cowboys last played in the game. Just sayin’.

But you probably don’t want to hear about the Broncos (shame on you!). This is Houston Texans country with widespread support for that team in South Oklahoma. I am a huge Texans fan, which is another reason to not like the Cowboys. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought rookie quarterback CJ Stroud was going to be a draft bust given the way he played in the preseason and the first few games of the regular season. I have since learned the errors of my way and am now a fan of that kid.

I just hope that he learns the lessons lost on so many professional athletes who suddenly come into fame and wealth. Most of them can’t handle it. Given Stroud’s strong Christian faith, I have hopes that he will keep a level head and not be sucked up into the trappings of fame and fortune. The same for Tank Dell, Will Anderson Jr., and a lot of the new players on the Texans roster.

This team has the core personnel to go a lot further next year than they did this year when they came out of nowhere to reach the Divisional Round of the playoffs. They will be a lot of fun to watch next year.

In the meantime, we have Super Bowl LVIII coming up. The Super Bowl has become an unofficial national holiday. Even a lot of people who purport to be boycotting the NFL will tune in. It’s interesting how the NFL can manage to stay mired in controversy yet draw huge support. With the 49ers back in the big game there will undoubtedly be more reminders of their former quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, and his highly controversial kneeling during the playing of the national anthem.

Kaepernick did a good thing by raising awareness of racism in this country, but he went about it the wrong way. He taught millions of people to disrespect the United States and its symbols. That lack of respect remains today as players and many fans either refuse to stand for the anthem or otherwise refuse to place their hands over their hearts while it is played. I find that to be intolerable, un-American, and disrespectful. Yet I’m still a fan of the NFL and find myself cheering those same players once the game is underway. It’s hypocritical, I know.

Despite all the controversy over that and other issues in the NFL, I do greatly respect that they allow the players to be open and bold about their Christian faith. This is one of the things I love about CJ Stroud and the two starting quarterbacks in Sunday’s game. Stroud is quick to praise God every chance he gets (even if the networks edit out his comments). No, the NFL isn’t perfect but it does a lot right and it’s fun to watch. Even Major League Baseball – which has a longer and more storied history – can’t bring the nation together for a single game like the NFL does. The world doesn’t stop for seven games of the World Series like it does for the Super Bowl.

Don’t get me wrong, I love baseball and miss photographing the games of the Houston Astros and the Sugar Land Space Cowboys. One of my greatest experiences photographing professional sports was covering the World Series in 2019 when the Astros took on the Nationals.

I hope someday to be able to photograph the Broncos or Texans in the Super Bowl. The closest I came was in 2017 when Houston made the playoffs and the Super Bowl was being held at NRG Stadium. I did get “week of” credentials to cover all the activities related to the game, but did not get game credentials.

Oh well, that just leaves something to look forward to. Meanwhile we have a rematch of Super Bowl LIV coming up. Here’s hoping for a similar outcome.