There are now officially five more days until my least favorite Monday of the year.The day after the Super Bowl, which this year falls on Feb. 7, 2005. It is rapidly approaching, and there is nothing I can do about it.It's like moving in your short stack, on the button with kings only to see the big blind flip over aces. It would be easy to complain, but instead you are better off smiling, shrugging your shoulders, and accepting your fate - even if you are a 4 to 1 dog.In a sense, the day after the Super Bowl is a lot like the result of this given scenario.I am a huge football fan, bigger than most, and my close friends can attest to this. Not only do I watch my hometown team, the New York Giants, with extreme intensity, but I also pay close attention to every other game on the schedule for some perverse reason.I spend the majority of the regular season on my futon, Subway in front of me, and discarded "soda" cans around the room that, despite my convictions, will not find their way to the garbage.I rarely miss a game. The NFL becomes my life from September through early February.The playoffs roll around in early January, and they usually provide a few of the best games of the season. This year was no exception, although the Steelers did not hold up their end of the bargain against New England.Yet, when it comes to the Super Bowl, rarely do you get a game satisfying enough that it provides the appropriate culmination to the regular season. Since I've been watching football, I have seen a few good ones, including last year's classic between the Pats and the Panthers.But that's just it: like a poker tournament, when you pick up a big hand and move all-in, and then realize you are 19 percent to win the hand, the Super Bowl hardly ever measures up to its anticipation.However, you do get lucky some of the time - or else there would be no sense in hoping.Hopefully next Monday morning, after a historic Super Bowl XXXIV, I will have the same feeling as I would from flopping the king and winning the pot despite the odds.If not, I will be left with a lonely walk back to my room after the aces held up, bare of everything except anticipation of what is to come in the future.
