The teams are picked for the Stupid Bowl, the pre-game hype is beginning, the tickets are on sale for the Feb. 3 matchup, and the Mercedes Dome in Atlanta I’m sure will be packed to capacity.

And for the 23rd year, I’ll be watching something else.

Over the years, I’ve made my disdain for this overblown spectacle widely known. I catch people off guard when they ask me whom I think will win the annual contest and I tell them I don’t care and I’m not watching the game.

It’s not that I’m not a football fan. I am, but I’d rather watch college football and the Canadian Football league than watch overpriced and overrated prima donnas banging their heads for four hours, or a halftime show with some singer who slurs their words so badly you can’t tell what they’re saying.

The last Super Bowl I watched was in 1995; San Francisco and San Diego, which was a blowout. San Diego folded in the second half and played half-dead the rest of the game. It was after that game I decided to stop watching. I stopped watching the NFL several years ago, because I couldn’t find one piece of redeeming value from watching.

College football, the CFL, that’s different. The CFL, as I’ve said before, is more exciting than the NFL; almost as exciting as the college game. I like the CFL for its three downs to make a first, all the backfield movement, the ruge and the enthusiasm of the players. And by the way, Saints fans, the CFL has had pass interference calls subject to video review for several years.

College football? If you have to ask why anyone would watch it, you’re not from this world. College football has enthusiastic fans and players. There’s the tradition and the rivalries, the game is much more exciting than the NFL. Besides, college football has College Football Game Day, which is much more entertaining and informative than the talking heads on the NFL pregame shows.

I wasn’t always so anti-NFL or anti-Super Bowl. In my younger years, I followed the pro game. In my family you pulled for Green Bay and hated Dallas, and in the then-AFL, you cheered for the Oilers. That was a time when there were two separate leagues, the NFL and the upstart AFL. The first Super Bowl was a contest to see which league had the best teams and the best talent. In Super Bowls 1 and 2, Kansas City and Oakland had good talent, but Green Bay was clearly the better team.

It was when the New York Jets beat the then-Baltimore Colts it was evident the AFL was catching up to the NFL and the merger talks began. For me, that’s what killed pro football and the Super Bowl.

So Feb. 3, while most of the nation will be glued to the tube watching the Patriots and the Rams, I’ll be sitting in my home with my wife watching “Victoria” on PBS.

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.