My Super Bowl Switcharoo

Have you ever experienced a time in your life when you thought you knew what you wanted but your instincts and emotions revealed an opposite desire?
More than likely you have faced this sort of thing. At the very least you have seen it take place in the movies before. What I’m talking about is the classic romantic comedy plot in which a man and woman think they hate one another because of differing perspectives or altering motives, but after 90 minutes of verbal sparring and a far-fetched case of mistaken identity or eavesdropping on the tail-end of a conversation that seems to make one of the couple seem to be up to something devious it is realized that the two are actually in love and have to find each other before they leave on an airplane or marry some other person.
We sometimes believe with all our heart we want a chocolate ice-cream cone but once we see our little brother lapping up a vanilla cone we realize we made a mistake and begin coveting our sibling’s dessert.
I had this happen Super Bowl Sunday regarding what team I wanted to win.
Like many in Dallas I had a tough decision to make concerning the biggest football game of the year. Should I scream and get excited for the hated New York Giants who are division rivals and knocked us out of the playoffs or did I want a perfect season to take place with a win from the New England Patriots, led by the socially retarded, football mastermind Bill Belichick? It was a classic *@%#ed if I do, *@%#ed if I don’t situation.
Only seconds before kickoff did I make my final decision that I wanted the Patriots to have a perfect season and set history as one of the best teams ever with a win. It was a little before halftime I realized the decision my brain made was not what my emotions wanted.
With such a close score all game long I noticed I was mentally wishing the Giants defense to smother Brady in the pocket and give him no chance at completing the majority of his passes.
As the game went on that mental urging transformed to physical gestures such as fist pumping and verbal “woo-hoos” with each passing drive that resulted in no points for the Patriots.
By the middle of the third quarter I had completely reversed my pre-game disposition concerning the outcome of the game and had fully embraced a Giants victory.
I am sure many “true” – aka close-minded – Dallas fans will say I have turned my back on America’s team, but instead of looking at it as me cheering for the Giants try thinking of it as me wanting the team that beat us to win so we can say that had we beat the Giants then we might have gone on to win the Super Bowl.
During the final quarter of the game I was hooping and hollering in my mom’s living room as Eli Manning led his team to football immortality. Near the end of the game I even told my family that I hoped the Patriots would lose by three points so that Belichick would be blasted for not kicking the field goal on fourth down and 13 yards to go.
I guess Belichick had no confidence in Stephen Gostkowski and a 49-yard field goal attempt.
The point of all this is to say not everything we think we want is really what we desire most.
All the consideration and thinking in the world doesn’t always give you the clearest decision. Sometimes you need your emotions to weigh in.