Saturday, January 31st, 2009

This week Boston University  released more evidence linking concussions suffered by football players to lasting brain damage. The study found brain damage in a sixth deceased former NFL player under the age of 50. Bill talks with Alan Schwarz, whose story about this new medical finding appeared in the New York Times this past Wednesday.

Millions of dollars are invested in the Super Bowl and the spectacle surrounding it every year. So, this year, in the midst of an economic downfall, what, if anything will change? Only A Game’s Dave Naylor reports from Tampa as he looks for signs the Super Bowl is less super in 2009.

After weeks of waiting, talking about the game, and waiting some more, the Super Bowl is finally ready to be played. The Boston Globe’s Mike Reiss joins Bill from Tampa and gives his opinion on what seems like a lopsided Super Bowl matchup.

Fifteen years and still going strong - Only A Game’s Super Bowl Haiku make a triumphant return. This year, the hut-hut-Haiku players include Walter Dixon, Clint Cavanaugh, James Isaacs, Anna Bensted, George Hicks, Kirsten Kalkhurst, Jonathan Peck, and many more.

Many people watch the Super Bowl not for the game, but for the advertisements. These ads cost multi-millions of dollars for seconds of air. Bill is joined by Boston University media analyst John Carroll thinks that this year’s ads won’t live up to standards of years past.

Only A Game listeners have written letters and now Bill responds.

Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss the Super Bowl and it’s violent, sexual commercials, Joe Torre’s name-calling of Alex Rodriguez, and the Mexican soccer team’s strategy to defeat the US team.

Instead of playing an actual game, what if the Super Bowl was determined by each team’s fight song? This week on Only A Game Bill gets some help figuring out who would win between the Cardinals and the Steelers as American Public Radio’s Jim Derogatis and Gerg Kot join the show to breakdown the Super Bowl team’s fight songs.