We thought the opening line for the Super Bowl, which favored New England by 3 1/2 points, was all wrong.  Now that the spread is down to 2 1/2, we have not changed our mind. 

It makes us a little nervous because everyone seems to be picking the Giants. Plus, the favorite has won 33 of the previous 45 Super Bowls. 

In the battle of two prolific passing offenses, we like New York 27-20. 

Season Upset Alert record to date: 18-13

The Super Bowl XLVI battle between the New York Giants and New England Patriots is a rematch of the great Super Bowl XLII, played in Glendale, Arizona during 2008.

The Giants came out on top in that one 17-14.

This will be the ninth rematch in Super Bowl history. The last Big Game repeat was Super Bowl XLVIII in Atlanta. In this 1994 contest, the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Buffalo Bills 30-17.

The year prior, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, Dallas trounced Buffalo 52-17 in Super Bowl XXVII.

While much attention has been given to New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s brand new 22,000 square foot home in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, far less fanfare has resulted from the news of New York Giants quarterback Eli Manning’s newly renovated 3,555 square foot condo in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Our guess is that the understated younger brother of Peyton Manning is just fine with that.

Unlike Brady, who is of course married to supermodel Gisele, Eli Manning has settled down with college girlfriend Abby McGrew. The couple met on the campus of Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi.

Sunday night, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will be making a record fifth Super Bowl appearance as a quarterback/coach tandem. The Pats duo had been tied with Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll of the Steelers for the all-time record.

If the Patriots win, Brady will tie Bradshaw and Joe Montana as the only quarterbacks to win four Super Bowls. For Belichick, he would join Noll as the only two coaches to win four Super Bowls. 

In addition, Brady will tie John Elway’s record of five Super Bowl starts from the QB position.

The NBA's truncated schedule includes a game featuring the Orlando Magic at Indiana Pacers on Saturday night, on a weekend when there is a significantly larger event taking place in Indianapolis. 

One problem, the team and the league could not find any hotel rooms for the Magic. 

The Magic host the Cavs on Friday. Following the game, the team will fly to Cincinnati, where they will spend the night. After a Saturday morning walkthrough in the hotel ballroom, Orlando will fly to Indianapolis for their game and then fly back to Florida immediately after the contest.

An obviously angry Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy voiced his dismay to the media.

Super Bowl XLVI will be played Sunday night at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Unlike the spread out nature of the last two Super Bowl logistical layouts, in the sprawling metropolises of Dallas/Fort Worth and South Florida, the condensed geography of Indiana’s capital city allows for far less time spent in transit between one base of operation to another.

Stadium

Sunday, the New York Giants and New England Patriots will play in Super Bowl XLVI, indoors at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Playing a Super Bowl indoors is not a big deal, as this will be the 14th Big Game played under a closed roof.

However, playing a game in a cold weather city, such as Indianapolis, is much more of a rarity. Of the 46 Super Bowls, this will be only the fourth game played above the Mason Dixon line.

The other three games include two stops in the Detroit area (Pontiac Silverdome in 1982 and Ford Field in 2006) and a visit to Minneapolis’ Metrodome in 1992.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the 2014 Super Bowl is played both in a cold weather city and outdoors, when the game takes place at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Amidst all the hype over Super Bowl XLVI, we noted that there have been 18 teams that have won a Super Bowl, led by Pittsburgh with six, San Francisco and Dallas with five, and Green Bay with four. 

With the Giants and Patriots both sitting at three Super Bowl wins a piece, the winner of Sunday’s game will join the exclusive four or more Big Game victory club.

Fourteen current NFL squads have never won the trophy, but here are the five teams most likely to win their first title in the next five seasons:

1.   Houston---outplayed the Ravens this year without a quarterback.

2.   Philadelphia---very dangerous by the end of the year.

3.   Detroit---best wide receiver in the NFL, plus good young QB.

4.   Carolina---Cam Newton.

Officials in most sports take a ton of verbal abuse from spectators and choose not to do anything about it.  Apparently, this is not the case in Bangladesh. 

When a 15-year-old fan ran onto the pitch to protest a decision during a cricket match last Friday, the umpire reacted by hitting him on the head with a bat, which the official had grabbed from a player.

Nazrul Islam did not appear to be hurt at the time of the incident, but suffered an internal hemorrhage overnight. He was taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. 

Police are searching for the umpire, who has since gone into hiding.

The first Wednesday in February is a huge day for college football fanatics, as it is the first day high school stars can sign national letters of intent with the university of their choosing. Although verbal commitments are meaningless, recruiting websites are already proclaiming the winners. 

Most top ten lists include the usual suspects like Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas.

In addition, resurging programs such as Clemson, Florida, Florida State, Michigan, Ohio State and Stanford are reportedly doing very well.

The "recruitniks" are also saluting the recruiting classes of Miami, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Texas A&M and UCLA.

It should be noted that the Buckeyes, Aggies and Bruins all fired their head coaches after last season.