football

The company that claims "It's in the game" was certainly immersed in Super Bowl week. EA Sports was busy preparing teams, educating fans, and predicting the results better than the best bettors in Vegas.

In what's become a yearly tradition, the Madden '09 simulator predicted the Steelers would win Super Bowl XLIII. As seven-point favorites, it was hardly a stretch, but the predicted score was 28-24. Actual score? 27-23. Not bad for a video game. While Santonio Holmes walked away with the real MVP, many pundits could argue that quarterback Ben Roethlisburger, who received the simulated honor, deserved it just as much.

What did last night's episode of The Office have in common with the Super Bowl, other than the latter preceding the former? Did anybody notice the little gadget that beeped when Michael Scott stepped close to Stanley?

After suffering a heart attack, Stanley decided to wear a "biofeedback machine" that provided an audible alert when his stress level was rising. When our favorite boss had his employees lying on a floor and envisioning "walking through a meadow," Stanley's stress would spike whenever his superior was near.

On the surface, the only thing green about the Super Bowl is the 95,000 square feet of brand new turf (at a cost of $85,000) they require to be brought into the host of the big game (okay, come to think of it, that's not very green at all). But, the NFL is doing what they can to give the appearance of being a neutral event in the decaying of our environment.

What makes a cowhide into a football (nope, they're not pigskins)? In the case of the NFL, it's a trip to Ada, Ohio (population 5,847). Since 1941 Wilson has provide the official NFL game ball and since 1955 those balls have been laced and branded in a single manufacturing plant in Ada, Ohio. The only dedicated football plant worldwide pumps out more than 700,000 balls. each year. Ain't that America?

As we compiled concepts for our collection of Super Bowl science, we came to a startling realization: we don’t understand kickers. Long the outcasts, we figured our lives obsessing over science would provide something of a kinship with the resident geek of the football field. But when we glimpsed into the kicking world we were plagued by uncertainty. So, to our reading public we request assistance in deciphering the king of special teams.

War paint. Fashion statement. Tradition. Advertisement. Pulpit. That's why most athletes wear black grease, or stickers, under their eyes. The vague possibility of some anti-reflective capability helping to distinguish a speeding object while staring into light seems more a rationalization for routine than a true crack at a competitive advantage. What make us so confident? In 60-years of misplaced mascara there's been one peer-reviewed study, and a couple less esteemed, that even attempted to quantify the effect of the ritual. Funny thing is, the data shows it works. Well, sort of.

Whenever rich people gather, charities flock hoping to solicit donations of time and money. But Chris Nowinski is asking NFL players at the Super Bowl this weekend for something a bit more personal. He wants them to donate their brains to science. And he’s getting what he wants.

While we wait for the era of live 3-D broadcasts to work out the kinks , we can rejoice at the era of 3-D advertisements. At the end of the second quarter, viewers with the appropriate set of eyewear will be treated to an entire commercial break in 3-D. But what does it mean if, while wearing the trendy glasses, you still can’t see the SoBe lizards dance around or the advertisement for the upcoming 3-D Monsters vs Aliens movie?

Viewer reaction to television can be emotional and emphatic. Case in point: when David Tyree caught Eli Manning's pass against his helmet in the fourth quarter of the 2008 Super Bowl, all of New England regurgitated while New York rejoiced. The YouTube clip above plots a complex compilation of diverging biometric data from 15 devastated Patriot fans and 15 elated Giants fans. Not only did the fans react to the play, but they reacted to each replay.