Would you be pissed if you lost your Super Bowl ticket but got double your money back?

Apparently this is one of the most difficult Super Bowls to get a ticket to in recent history.  Reports are saying that the cheapest price is currently hovering around $9,000.

There's a story on the front page of ESPN.com right now called Hundreds Lose Out On Super Bowl Tickets.  Apparently a number of ticket agencies were never able to acquire the tickets they expected to and had to renege on ones they'd already sold.  This section of the article made me laugh out loud:

Daryl Kikucki, a 37-year-old regional service manager for a jet company in Seattle, is a Seahawks season-ticket holder who sold his ticket to the NFC Championship Game so that he could afford to go the Super Bowl.

He bought a $2,100 ticket listed on SeatGeek, which pulled the seat from a company called Prominent Tickets.

"Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have not received our normal allotment of Super Bowl inventory," read an email sent from the company to Kikuchi. "In our 26 years of business, we have never seen a market with such limited availability to the public ... If the tickets were out there, we would rather pay to fill your orders, but we cannot buy tickets that do not exist."

The company's terms and conditions, which a customer must check, absolves it from liability but does not represent that tickets that are listed might not be in its possession.

"Now when I think about this game, I get sick to my stomach, knowing I'm not going to be in the stadium," said Kikuchi, who added he had no choice but to take the company's offer of two times what he paid.

I love how they sneak that last phrase in there "he had no choice but to take the company's offer of two times what he paid."  Free $2,100?  Boo hoo.


Follow @LucidSportsFan

Patriots Super Bowl Preview compilation blog

I have to say, this first post from Week 5 of the NFL season now looks pretty brilliant:

The dropped interception that saved Tom Brady's career and extended the Patriots dynasty

It's been 14 years since an AFC East team finished with a better record than the Patriots

On the line Sunday:

Patriots' Dynasty: 4 years or 14 years? Tom Brady best QB ever?

Tom Brady is the NFL's all-time playoff leader in just about everything

13 finals in 13 years for Boston's major sports teams

How stupid does Super Bowl "XLIX" look?


Follow @LucidSportsFan

I was wrong about the Sixers, but I'm right about LeBron

I predicted this season's Philadelphia 76ers would be the worst NBA team ever.  It looks like that's not going to happen.

Good news for 76ers & Knicks fans -- both earned their 9th win tonight, clinching that they won't have the worst record in NBA history.
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 29, 2015

Oddly enough, with the Celtics losing to the Timberwolves the three bottom teams in the league all won yesterday.

Also last night, LeBron James (who sat out with a sprained wrist) made a fairly bold statement after watching his teammate Kyrie Irving scored 55 points:

Just watched live one of if not the one greatest performances by a person and he happen to be my teammate/runningmate/brother @KyrieIrving!!
— LeBron James (@KingJames) January 29, 2015

"Greatest performances by a person"???  Why do you have to say this kind of thing LeBron?!

It's pretty easy not to.  How can he fail to realize the absurdity of that statement as he's typing it?  Why does he feel the need to give people like me reasons like this to get so annoyed with him?

Now I've got to go back and add this in to my "all the reasons why I can't stand LeBron" compilation blog.

Oh and by the way, Irving's showing was actually fairly poor as far as 50-point games in the NBA go (check out my article on Hoops Habit), so I'd probably leave it off my list of "greatest performances by a person."

Follow @LucidSportsFan

Is Lego candy a parent's worst nightmare?

I recently encountered Lego candy for the first time.  I've had this picture on file as a potential blog idea for the past few weeks.  My original thought when I first saw this stuff was "Wow, that is really cool."

But now that I've had some time to reflect, I'm starting to view it from another angle.

Aren't most parents terrified of their small child swallowing little plastic things like legos?  Isn't that pretty much the reason why they started putting warning labels on toys?

Obviously Lego candy is intended for older kids, but creating a food product identical looking to one of the worst things a baby can put in it's mouth seems to be sending mixed signals.

It brings to mind this spectacular old SNL skit with Dan Aykroyd and Candice Bergen:



Follow @LucidSportsFan

Blizzard 2015 (and other relevant snowstorm blog highlights)

If my internet goes out and I am unable to write anything today, this is what happened.

That's a car, by the way.  Below is many hours later.

The internet survived the storm, but I'm going with this blog anyway for historical purposes.

RELATED:
I'm not of fan of the "saving your parking spot when it snows" phenomenon
My all-time favorite Christmas video: Donald Duck's snowball fight
Sidewalk courtesy in the city
The greatest home field advantage of all time?
Today seems like a good day to talk about sleds (I identify the winners and losers)

Follow @LucidSportsFan

How stupid does Super Bowl "XLIX" look?

First of all, I'd be willing to bet XLIX.com is probably a porn sight.  And if "X-licks" isn't the first that comes to mind, ex-lax probably is.  I'd also like to know what percentage of people see "XLIX" and actually think "49" right away.  If it's even 1 percent I'd be shocked.

Not only that, but the logic to how the letters represent 49 is dumb to begin with--50 minus 10, plus 10 minus 1.  Who would ever count that way?  Why didn't those silly Romans just use "IL" instead?

RELATED: NFL takes my advice, decides to call 2016 Super Bowl "50" instead of "L"



Follow @LucidSportsFan

A Miami Heat player you haven't heard of just did something nobody's ever done before

Whiteside boxing out Noah in today's game.

Triple-doubles don't happen in the NBA very often.  In fact, there have only been 16 of them in the league this season.  Putting together a triple-double with blocks rather than assists is extremely rare--nobody had done it since Joakim Noah in 2013.  Even more unusual than that is a player getting 12 blocks in a game, last accomplished by JaVale McGee in 2011.

Today Hasaan Whiteside of the Miami Heat recorded a triple-double with 14 points, 13 rebounds and 12 blocked shots.  The last guy to do that was Shawn Bradley in 1998.  What makes it even crazier is that Whiteside posted those numbers in just 25 minutes of action.  Basketball-Reference.com only goes back to 1985-86 for things like this, but I'm willing to bet Whiteside's statline today is an NBA-first.

And oh yeah, Whiteside was a second round pick from 2010 who played in both Lebanon and China last year.  Today was his 37th NBA game.

UPDATE:

Per Elias, Whiteside's 24 mins & 37 secs were: - fewest mins played to record 10+pts/10+rbs/10+blk - fewest mins w/ 12+p/12+r/12+b
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) January 26, 2015

Follow @LucidSportsFan