The Morning After Super Bowl LX

It's the morning after the Super Bowl. I was far too tired to write a post immediately after the game, which was won 29-13 by the Seattle Seahawks. So - here are my thoughts albeit not as immediate as I usually would have given.

Seattle won. I'm happy about that. I'm not happy about losing the coin toss bet and my totals wager on the Over, however!

I believe BOTH teams' defences played well. You have to be fair to the Patriots' D. They kept the team in the game longer than they should have. 

I watched the game on DAZN/NFL GamePass. It was the NBC stream, so I got to see all the US commercials during the breaks. There were some really good ones on there. I had the choice of Channel 5, Sky Sports or GamePass. If I didn't have the sub to the NFL streaming package, I would have sided with Sky. I liked the experience of seeing how they do it in the US. I might have to do it again. I'm quite surprised with myself for not having done the US stream before now.

After the trophy celebration, I switched over to the NFL Network to catch even more postgame coverage as I began to drop off to sleep.

I have to share this one: the stream cut out once. For the smallest of split seconds. It occurred at the most significant moment because it went black and came back on as Mack Hollins was holding the ball in the endzone after scoring a touchdown. 

I asked my friend, who I knew was also watching the US feed on DAZN/GamePass, if he experienced the same thing. He had.

And now it's the long road to the 2026 season. I can now finally get into a new gear in my preparation for the 2026 edition of Taylor's Pro Football Gambling Annual.

Super Bowl Coin Toss Betting And Starting A Buffalo Hunt

It's Super Bowl Sunday. The conclusion to one of the most peculiar NFL seasons I've ever experienced.

I'll get to all that by the end. First, I'll go through what I often plan around this weekend of the year.

The coin toss betting!

As usual, and for FUN ONLY, I have taken a look over the stats for the Super Bowl coin toss with the aim of having a small punt on the result.

Here are the stats you need.

1. Tails is currently leading all the Superbowls by landing thirty-one times to Heads' 28

2. In the Pacific time zone, both Heads and Tails are tied with 7 each

3. Narrowing down to the Super Bowls from the State of California, Tails has landed seven times to Heads' 6

4. Santa Clara last hosted the Super Bowl ten years ago. It was the Broncos' 24-10 win which saw Peyton Manning end his career with a second Vince Lombardi Trophy victory. The coin toss result from that result was.. Tails

So, the lean is Tails. To punctuate the decision, I have one more stat that can be shared for today and today only:

5. The New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, who will play later today, met at Super Bowl 49 in 2015. The result from that game's coin toss was.. yep, Tails. 

For what it's worth, Seattle won that call. They deferred to receive the ball in the second half but would go on to lose the game through a fluke of poor coaching decisions (if I say so myself!) late in the game.

As for tonight - I hope the Seahawks win. I like the idea of Sam Darnold finally getting a Super Bowl win after being a journeyman. It would also be fitting for him to do so on the 49ers field - where he once spent a season (and made it to the Super Bowl as a squad member). 

Darnold deserves it more than New England. However, the Patriots have an intriguing narrative of their own after having a disastrous few years and have seemingly turned everything around with Mike Vrabel coming in as head coach.

Anyway, that's enough of me writing good things about New England.

* * *

As I wrote in the opening paragraph - it has been an odd season. It was very hard to navigate through those months without Vick around. There would always be some random thing happen each week and the first thing I'd think to do would be to message her and see if she had seen or heard about it. 

It just goes to show how much her presence was a big part of my enjoyment of NFL seasons over the years.

I don't want the season to end today without acknowledging her in some way. Which kind of leads me onto something.

In May or June, I was on the Smyths Toys website looking at WWE products and came across a Ron Simmons action figure going for a relatively fair price. The figure was significant to me because it was celebrating Simmons becoming world champ - a feat he achieved on my mum's birthday. 

I ordered the figure. But, on that same day, I found the company was selling NFL 2024 sticker books and packets of stickers. I added a book and a bunch of packets to the order.

I showed Vicki the book and stickers. The plan I had was to do a special blog post on the Thursday of the season kick off with me opening every single packet and looking through everyone I found.

Unfortunately, Vick had left us by that day. I didn't feel like doing the post without her around, so kept the book and sticker packets to the side.

And there they stayed throughout the season. 

Sometime over the past week, I started taking the book out and wondering what to do with it. And then it hit me.

I have came up with an idea that will help me get through the next few weeks, and months, of no football and also celebrate Vick in a way.

As I mentioned a couple of days after Vick passed away, I decided to spend each Saturday night commemorating Vick in some way or other. I have kept to that promise for six months now. For example, on one occasion I made Buffalo chicken wings for our dinner (those who know me well will be aware that is crazy of me to go out of my comfort zone because of my inability to like food that is mega spicy!), having Diet Cokes and other random, yet fun, things I can think of to celebrate my friend.

My latest idea for these moments is to open one packet each Saturday night with the hope of finding players from the Buffalo Bills for Vick.

I started yesterday. I didn't find anything in my first expedition on this, for want of a better title: Buffalo Hunt.

One thing I was surprised at is how small the stickers are nowadays. I was stunned at their size as I thought back to all those sticker albums I tried to fill in back during my childhood.

The next three months are locked in, I look forward to sharing my findings.

Enjoy the game.

My Database And Spreadsheet Have Found A Best Bet For Super Bowl LX

I have teamed my spreadsheets and database up to take on the Super Bowl and have found one bet that was well worth a punt.

If I say so myself.

As usual, I have fired up the database with records of games dating back to the 1995 season. Of all those games, the Seahawks and Patriots have been on seven occasions with the first one, in this period, taking place in Week 6 of the 2004 season.

New England won that one with a score of 30-20 as four-point home favourites.

The Seahawks are 4-3 (57%) straight up and 4-2-1 (67%) against the spread overall from those seven meetings. So, bearing that in mind, I compared history with what my spreadsheet has calculated for the game.

It has the Seahawks winning straight up, but not covering the -4.5 spread. 

Per my own rule, from when I used to do these spreadsheets and database posts, I must pass on any spread wagers.

There is something the spreadsheets and database love, however.

The spreadsheet expects the teams to score approximately forty-eight points in total. With an Over/Under line of 45.5, it's calling for the game to go Over.

I've looked at the totals history from the seven games on the database. I couldn't believe it. the Over-Under is 7-0. Yes, one hundred percent of the results have landed with the scorelines exceeding their respective lines since 2004.

It's a bet I had to take. History told me to gamble.

Reigns + Hating Punk = Money

I loved the promo between CM Punk and Roman Reigns on this week's episode of WWE Monday Night Raw.

The closing segment of the show saw the 2026 Royal Rumble winner - Reigns - decide to choose Punk as his opponent for WrestleMania 42.

Punk's challenger, for the World Heavyweight Championship, made a strong mission statement for the April showcase calling on some comments Punk had made about Reigns on Colt Cabana's podcast in late 2014. 

Yes, things Punk said about Roman Reigns' early career twelve years ago are now being used to promote what will likely be WWE's biggest match of this year.

Incredible stuff.

And I'm not trying to be ironic stating that. The entire segment on Monday night was money. You had Reigns ending the dialogue by stating how much he dislikes Punk. 

No, that's too kind. Reigns HATES Punk. The fun part is we don't know if he genuinely does, or if it's all for show.

Maybe it's a bit of both for all we know.

I've been quite down on the WWE product lately. This sure was a step in the right direction.

Speaking of sureties. This will absolutely will be the match which goes on last at Mania 42. There's no way anything else will come close to being a contender for that particular main event slot. 

Gerrie Burke

'Oh no'. 

That was what I expressed in the early hours of this morning following a very short Google hunt for a radio presenter I used to listen to over a decade ago.

I was on TAFKA Twitter adding my Wordle result after midnight and, for an unknown reason, started looking through the lists of the accounts I follow.

There was 'Gerrie Burke' on the list. 'I haven't heard from him in a long time' I thought to myself. 

Burke used to be a producer on my favourite  American sports radio station - Sports Byline USA. I used to listen to many programmes on that outlet throughout my nights and when I'd wake up in the early hours of the morning.

I'd catch Sports Overnight America as I battled the will to get out of bed and start my day. I've always found sports radio fascinating, but I especially like the American variety.

Anyway, to cut a long story short - and this is going by my recollections, it might not be accurate - Burke served as the show's producer, but then covered a few nights and ultimately ended up becoming the permanent host.

I'd go so far as to guess (and remember, this is me not knowing the details) he played double duty on the late night programme serving as both presenter and producer.

He was knowledgeable about sports but I also found the occasions he talked about music to be very insightful. 

I cannot recall how long he remained in the role, but he vanished after a period never to be seen again. 

Last night's search, to see if Gerrie happened to be working for a different broadcaster nowadays, led me to an obituary page. 

Gerrie Burke passed away a little over three years ago. 

The page mentioned Gerrie's music and sport trivia knowledge (I can attest to those!), but it was also eye opening in another part.

It reads  'after graduating from Central High School in 1983, Gerrie attended Mansfield University for communications and then joined the military, where he spent most of his tenure stationed in Germany.'

Doing the working out, Gerrie could very well have been around Germany in the years I visited my relatives while my uncle served for the US military. My trips to the bases took place in 1987 and '88.

Man, it's one of those things I wish I had known earlier. 

It's something that might have made me get in touch with him to find out. Of course there were tons of US bases dotted across Germany back then, but would have been interesting to see if he had been stationed around Hahn (where my relatives lived) or in some of the other bases I visited on those holidays.

I'm very sorry to have found that news out this morning. 

The John Virgo Legend

I have quite a random story about John Virgo.

Even though I share the spotlight with Virgo in this tale, I have zero recollection of it but it absolutely did happen because - for decades - my father constantly told me the story whenever Virgo would pop up on our tellies (I wrote the plural for 'television' because I want to highlight how many years, and television sets, this story has surpassed).

Okay, here goes..

When I was a young child, we spent either a summer or an autumn half-term at a holiday camp. I suppose it was more likely Pontin's but it could have been Butlin's. Whichever one it was, and my money would be on Pontin's, John Virgo was there doing an exhibition of some kind. 

My dad took me to see Virgo wherever his 'performance' was being held. While he was doing this, I apparently vomited all over the area where we were sat.

I don't know if Virgo saw it. All I know is the story goes 'you threw up in front of John Virgo'. Or words to that effect.

Every single time he would appear on-screen, I'd be reminded. Whether it be when he would be on Big Break - the gameshow he assisted Jim Davidson on - or in his other roles covering snooker as a pundit or commentator.

I do remember being ill on that holiday, but the sole recollection I have doesn't have me sat inside a snooker hall. Instead, I was at the table in the chalet studying chocolates that were shaped like old-fashioned racing cars. 

I was sorry to hear of John Virgo's passing when the news broke earlier today. The reports state that he died in his Spanish home. He was seventy-nine years old.

I Try Heinz Beans With Pigs In Blankets III

Do you recall when I first tried Heinz Beans with Pigs in Blankets back in 2024? I followed that up a year later with another post once again trying out the Christmas-themed food.

In both posts, I noted I didn't seem to taste the 'Christmas seasoning' that is advertised on the side of the tin. However, I ended the 2025 post with a plan.

I theorised that I should leave the beans to mature for a bit and then try them once Christmas was far off in the background. Well, it was the second night of February last night. I suppose that's enough of a distance to test it out.

And...

It might be me being biased, but I have a feeling I was right. Last night's beans did taste a lot better than the previous two attempts. 

The strong scent struck me as soon as I opened the can. The beans also tasted a lot flavourful than the previous two attempts. 

I don't have any more cans left. I'll have to stock up later this year. If they make another Christmas return.