Here we are again, the biggest TV, sports and party weekend of the year…The Super Bowl.  I guess we can use this column to talk a bit about football.  After all football handicappers are just one step away from discovering the joy of racing handicapping.

I am sure for many going to the Super Bowl is a once in a lifetime experience, but I guess unless your team is in the game, this is one event truly made for TV.

Growing up in Baltimore, my highlight of the year of course was the Preakness, though the most exciting races always seemed to be at Laurel.  I will never forget Affirmed and Alydar in the Laurel Futurity.

I barely can remember the Colts losing to the Jets in Super Bowl 3 and for some reason I have very little recollection of the Colts beating the Cowboys two years later.  After that, the memories are much stronger as I became a season ticket holder, only to watch a decade of disaster (except a brief 3 year run with Bert Jones) and a team owner who destroyed a love affair with the city.

In the late 80’s I created the first racetrack sports bar that televised every NFL game (pre DirectTV) at Delaware Park.  I discovered that you could indeed promote to football fans and get them into racing.

We had some great promotions over the years including the likes of Ron Jaworski, Wilbert Montgomery, the late Jerome Brown and very young Mike Golic, now of ESPN’s Mike and Mike in the Morning.

I got out of racing for a decade and operated a business.  One store was located across from the Ravens training complex when they won the Super Bowl and met many of those players and even got to touch the fabled Lombardi Trophy.

But like most everyone else, the Super Bowl is a national holiday in front of the TV.  So I will give it my best to handicap this game.

The Giants had a stretch this year where you wondered if they would even beat out the Redskins, but then they turned it all around about the time you began hearing the annual chant to get rid of Coughlin.

Their running game is much improved and unlike the Patriots, they actually have a running game.  What is known as the Pat’s running game is Gronkowski and it doesn’t look like he will be a factor from that end.

There’s no doubt the Giants defense is better than the Patriots, but both D’s have come up short and have left it to the offense to be the game changers.

The positives everyone talks about with New England is their now legendary duo of Belechick and Brady and horse players know past performances mean so much.  While Gronkowski’s limited abilities may hurt New England, I see this as nothing more than a chance for them to go back to Wes Welker as the key to their game.

My heart says Patriots…and maybe my racing mind going by the pp’s.  However, even longer pp’s say defense win championships and the Giants have the edge there.  They are the ‘hot’ team, but how do you say New England is not, as they are in the Super Bowl.

So we’ll take irony…it was the year Manning was going to win the big one in Indy.  Albeit, it’s the wrong Manning, but the rest of it aligns with the stars.

Giants 27 Patriots 24.

Good luck and enjoy the holiday…and in between races today, check out the Super Bowl commercials…they are all over the internet.  This will be the year you can go to the bathroom during the commercials knowing you’ve already seen them.