One season ends, another begins!

The game that has become known as "The Daytona 500 of Professional Football," the NFL Championship game, is over. That means the football season is officially over, and the official start of the NASCAR racing season begins in less than two weeks.
There really is more contrast than comparison between the NFL Championship game and the Daytona 500. The football game is at the end of the season, and crowns a champion, while the 500 begins the season, and gives a peek at things to come.
But the prestige of both events is real. A true football fan can tell you every Super Bowl winner since it began in 1964, and a true race fan can tell you the winner of every Daytona 500 race since 1959. The thing is that while the NFL Championship game is between two of the best teams in the NFL, the 500 crowns a race champion out of forty-three of the best race drivers in the world, and all forty-three are in the same field of battle at the same time. The prestige of being a Daytona 500 winner is every bit as great as the prestige of being the season champion, either in football or racing.
Blame it on tradition.
Still, we have to give football a pat on the back for a few things about the Super Bowl. Prince's half-time show broke a long hiatus for public performance by the musician/singer, and it was truly an awesome show. Prince seemed to be able to fit more music into eight minutes than any Super Bowl half-time performer I remember. And the Bud Light commercials were as good as always, including one featuring politically incorrect comedian Carlos Mencia teaching illegal immigrants just enough English to ask for a Bud Light in a manner stereotypical to their race. Hilarious. Blockbuster took favorite commercial honors this year with an advertisement for Blockbuster on-line which featured an unclickable, and unfortunate, mouse.
So, in tribute to The Daytona 500 of Professional Football, I present this picture of the closest I will ever get to the Super Bowl.