The Super Bowl XLII Karma Tracker - 1/30/08
The week before the Super Bowl has become a mad media frenzy - outlets are looking for any possible way to stand out among all the chatter. You know what? We’re no different. Introducing TVBigBoard’s first ever Super Bowl Karma Tracker.
This particular media week has been very interesting. You have two extremely confident teams going into this game. Any way you look at it, it’s going to be one for the ages. We either end up with a team completing it’s final step to a perfect 19-0 season, or we have an instant entry into the “Greatest Upsets of All-Time” discussion. On top of that, it’s a game whose collective fan bases despise each other. There are multiple sublots worth talking about - like Jeremy Shockey being so angry that his team is doing so well without him that he is considering not attending the game. The parties? Different story. But he’ll be damned if he supports his team.
We’ve got guys predicting wins. We’ve got victory parties being planned. We’ve got Vegas throwing out a seemingly crazy 12 pt spread that nobody understands. This all got me to thinking about karma and jinxes. All of these little things are working for and/or against both teams. So who has the advantage here? Who’s winning the karma battle that we all irrationally believe is vitally important to our teams fortunes? Well…I decided to track it for you!
Below is the karma tracker - specific events that have either happened in the past few weeks or directly effect either teams Super Bowl appearance. Positive points are good, negative points - not so good. The scoring is completely arbitrary. If you don’t like how I scored it, start your own list!
| The Super Bowl XLII Karma Tracker | Patriots | Giants |
| Team has "been there before"….recently | + 5 | - 3 |
| Team is in what is widely considered the "superior" conference | + 1 | - 1 |
| Momentum heading into Super Bowl (aka playoff performance) | - 1 | + 3 |
| Restraining order extended against premiere player | - 3 | N/A |
| Resulting karma from last meeting between two teams | N/A | + 5 |
| Players predicting win against undefeated team that has won three Super Bowls in the past six years |
N/A | - 3 |
| Players predicting EXACT score in said win | N/A | - 6 |
| Player talking about retiremant after said win | N/A | - 1 |
| Team lost to the Trent Dilfer led Ravens in last SB appearance | N/A | - 2 |
| Underdog becoming an underground favorite | N/A | - 1 |
| Underdog being predicted to win outright | + 1 | - 3 |
| 5 million comments (and counting) about you’re the status of your quarterback’s ankle |
- 1 | N/A |
| QB recently FEATURED on cover of Sports Illustrated | N/A | - 5 |
| My Pats fan friend making a bet with my Giants fan friend - but only giving 5 pts instead of the 11.5 pt spread |
- 1 | + 1 |
| Injured star player possibly not showing up to Super Bowl to support team | N/A | + 3 |
| Victory parade already being planned in home town | - 3 | N/A |
| Books on historic 19-0 season currently can be pre-ordered on Amazon.com | - 5 | N/A |
| Total Karma Points | - 7 | - 13 |