On the Restoration of Order in the AFC (Up With Brady, Down With Tebow)

Having spent my entire life in the Boston area (minus an 8 year stint in NH then ME for school), I've grown rather fond of the New England Patriots.  There is little reason for this to have happened, since for the majority of my childhood they were absolute crap.  When your childhood idol is Drew Bledsoe, you're likely not going to experience many championship thrills.  The pinnacle of my love for them was when they reached the '96/'97 Super Bowl.  Being a naive 9 year old, I, and my entire 4th grade class, believed that we'd clearly beat the Packers and win a championship.  Those of us born in 1987 had to deal with the existential crisis that we may have been the cause for the city's collective championship drought since 1986.  I was convinced that the 96 Pats would prove that wrong.  Instead, they were stomped by Desmond Howard.  Repeatedly.  It wasn't until 2001, when Bledsoe was mercifully injured by Mo Lewis, that things really got good for us in NE.

This has all been a long way of saying that this weekend was about one thing, and one thing only: Pats/Broncos.  The game was full of intriguing storylines, but Tebow/Brady had been the most hyped.  For people outside of Boston, this was apparently an actual discussion with actual people believing both sides of the issue.  For me, Tebow is a cute little phenomenon, but much like Tickle Me Elmo, or Tamagotchis, his shelf life is inherently limited.  The only thing making this game interesting to those of us from Boston was the increasingly porous nature of the New England pass defense.  If there was a defense in the NFL (or even in NFL Europe, or the CFL) that Tebow could pass on, it was this one.

To celebrate this game, ladies and gentlemen gathered in Somerville to imbibe and to eat a delicious steak and blue cheese salad.  Accompanying this bounty was a veritable fridgeful of beer (no, actually). I cannot divulge the number of people that were counted upon to make a dent in this array of beverages, but I can assure you (at the risk of earning myself a one way trip to an episode of Intervention) that it is fewer than you're estimating.  Luckily there are many leftovers.

Some of the highlights were:

• Maine Brewing Company Peeper Ale
• Anderson Valley Brewing Co. Boont Amber
• Abita Turbodog
• Left Hand Brewing Co. Sawtooth Ale
• Victory Yakima Glory

And there were also growlers of some now forgotten Berkshire Brewing Company beers.  However, this all paled in comparison to the piece de resistance:

A 30 pack of Genesee Beer.  Don't be fooled by the amazingly low score that Beer Advocate gave them. They don't want you to buy it so they can have it all for themselves.  This is a tremendous beer.  Much like the Schlitz that accompanied my Rose Bowl watching, this Genesee was a perfect match for football.  It's like a Bud Light that doesn't suck.  

Genesee is the beer that Rob Gronkowski would have invented if he were a brewer.  Also, new bucket list item: drink beer with Rob Gronkowski.

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend.  I'll be back in a couple days with some more wine-centric posts.  I haven't forgotten, I just haven't had anything inspiring recently.  There's nothing less exciting than writing a blog post on a mediocre wine.  Happy MLK day everyone from Wines Over Somerville.