Column: Aaron Worm, Behind the Mic

I don’t remember there being two down-to-the-wire championship games in the NFL in the same year, until yesterday.

A dropped pass and a missed field goal by Baltimore propelled New England to the big game, and San Francisco’s turnovers on punt returns sent the G-Men to Indianapolis. Now get ready to hear nonstop analysis and breakdown of Super Bowl 46. No game in professional sports gets as much attention as the Super Bowl.

We get almost two full weeks to hear every detail about each team. If there is a player who has a pet with a weird name, or a player that wears the same shirt under his jersey every game, we will hear about it. These two teams met in Super Bowl 42, so expect to see plenty of highlights including the amazing catch by Giants tight end David Tyree over and over. And then when we finally get to kick off in the late afternoon on Feb. 5, we will be so tired of hearing about the Patriots and Giants that we will be more interested in which dip tastes better at our Super Bowl party — guacamole or bean — than who is actually winning the game.

And even with so much hype, there will still be stories and information that may be missed. I will spend today finding those hidden gems for the Pats, next week we will talk Giants.

As for New England:

When my son, Isaak, and I watch sports and he sees a mascot on TV, he always asked what its name is. New England’s is Pat the Patriot.

The owner of the team, Robert Kraft, is the 833rd richest person in the world according to Forbes Magazine, with a net worth around $1.7 billion.

The quarterback, running backs and wide receivers always get the most ink in the paper. One of the most forgotten guys on the team is the long snapper. For the Patriots it’s Danny Aiken, from Cave Springs High School in Roanoke, Va., Besides Aiken, former NFL standouts Tiki and Ronde Barber are also from Cave Springs.

The Patriots’ offense uses their tight ends, Rob Gronkowki and Aaron Hernandez, often. Gronkowski caught 17 touchdown passes during the regular season. New England’s tight end coach Brian Ferentz, of Iowa City, played offensive lineman for the University of Iowa and is the son of Hawkeyes’ head coach Kirk Ferentz.

New England selected Stanford quarterback Jim Pluckett with the No. 1 overall pick in 1971. Stanford Quarterback Andrew Luck is the projected No. 1 pick in the upcoming NFL draft.

I didn’t find these nuggets on my own (thank you NFL.com and Wikipedia.org).

This week I will search for Giants tidbits and some other interesting Super Bowl notes, like how much guacamole dip is consumed on Super Bowl Sunday. Hang in there through the hype. Kickoff will get here eventually, and I have seven days to research Eli Manning. Did you know his brother is Peyton? OK, I will dig a little deeper than that.

 

KATE Sports Director Aaron Worm’s column appears each Monday in the Tribune. He can be heard from 6 to 11 a.m. weekdays on The Breeze.