How I’m Picking the Team to Pull for in Super Bowl XLV

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not really an NFL fan. If I’m watching a game on TV, it’s usually so I can I pull for the Carolina Panthers because my sister Cheryl has won all of us over to her hometown team. I’ve traveled to games, including a heart-breaker of a playoff game. I’ve seen several other teams play as I love going to games in person – have gone to home games for the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, New Orleans Saints and the Saint Louis Rams. And otherwise I usually watch the Super Bowl.

So, with 30 teams at home and people who are not fans of the NFL anyway, I figure that I like the vast majority of America do not have an automatic team to pull for today. So how are you making your choice? I have the polls before my rationale, feel free to tap through your choice in the comments! 

[polldaddy poll=4510719]

[polldaddy poll=4510729]

My Pick for SuperBowl XLV

So for me? I’ve used different ways of picking teams different years. I have to say the Saints were an absolute no brainer for me. And I was on pins and needles for a week or so before that game. And some years I’ve been far more interested in the commercials than either team.

This year’s pick was pretty easy for me though I have had a friend or too suggest I help pull for their team. But in the end my decision was simple. I decided to cheer for the team that I associated the most with incredible dedication, hard work, the little guys when it comes to budgets, a team who people own shares in, where a connection to the ag industry is right there atop so many heads. Yeah, I obviously picked the Green Bay Packers.

Ag connections

If you are cheering for the Packers today, you may be interested to know that the team was named for a meat processing company. It was founded at a time when food supplies were not as stable as they are today and canned meats were a reality.

For me, this team from the smallest town to field the NFL carries the hopes of US agriculture with them as they head toward the end zone. Farmers, butchers, packers should identify with the team but so should all of us who go to the store or restaurants and find it so easy to buy the food we’d like. Today, farmers feed more people than ever before — in the US currently a farmer feeds an average of 155 people. (You can see more facts in this Food for Thought video.)

If you’d like to learn more about the kind of people who bring food to our stores, check out the blogs of these folks here and check my page of farm blogs I read:

• Mike & Pam Haley  (Haley Farms blog) who raise beef cattle in Ohio (& showed me around at my first livestock show)
• Chris Raines (meatblogger.org) who teaches meat science at Penn State (who showed Flat Stanley more about meat)
• Amy Sipes of John’s Custom Meats (butcher shop in KY) posts through Facebook
• Barbara Martin (a dairygoddess blog) a dairy farmer in California who has a cheesemaking business as well

Both Packers & Steeler Fans can

Whether you cheer for the Packers or Steelers, I hope you enjoy a combination of meats, cheeses, vegetables, etc and take a second to thank a farmer, cheesemaker, butcher or packer who helped get it to you.

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Added as the coin was about to toss — Farmers & packers certainly need Steelers. How many pieces of steel work on farms, in butcher shops, etc? Infinite I think!