Please don’t let any New Orleans Saints’ fans know this, but I am planning on watching the Super Bowl, lest I offend anyone’s sensibilities.

Actually, I’m looking forward to it. You know why? Because it’s the Super Bowl, that’s why. (And because I have nothing else to do Sunday night.)

The NFL hype machine gets me every year. I couldn’t care less about a Bengals-Buccaneers game during the regular season, but if they were to tee it up in the first week of February, I’d be all over it.

So we are faced with New England and Los Angeles in Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta. (By the way, I have this strange ability to remember Super Bowl sites; it’s almost Rainman-like.) It’s un-American to not pick a winner in this game, which doesn’t necessarily have to be the same team you are pulling for.

The answer to both of those is the same — I don’t know. I truly don’t know who I am going to be for. I have no strong dislike for either team. If the Rams win, we will never hear the end of it from the Saints fans, so there’s that. But the Rams would also be a fresh face on the victory stand. Plus, it would hack off Patriots coach Bill Belichick, which is never a bad thing. So I don’t know.

I think the Rams are actually they better team, except for one thing — that guy who wears No. 12 for New England is pretty good. It’s really hard to pick against him because you’d go broke doing that on a regular basis.

Like him or not, Tom Brady is that good. And I’m not going to be that guy who picks against him.

I voted as usual on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s 2018 Headliner of the Year award and totally whiffed.

The winner was New Orleans QB Drew Brees, deserving of the award. But so are others.

I did not have him in my Top 5. Duooh!

Here is the list, in case you missed it over the weekend:

1. Brees, who led the NFL this season in completion percentage (74.4) and passer rating (115.7), helped the Saints to a 13-3 regular season and set NFL career passing records for yards, completions, and completion percentage. Respect! I just didn’t vote for him No. 1 because it felt like this season was more about career accomplishments and because, well, Louisiana has a ton of athletic studs in it. When it comes to ball, we ain’t in Kansas anymore. It’s difficult to choose – you almost can’t go wrong with these sorts of awards – because you can’t swing a cat without hitting a bonafide stud.
2. Anthony Davis, who was first-team All-NBA with the Pelicans.
3. High school pole vault beast Mondo Duplantis of Lafayette, who won the European Championships, the World Junior and the Class 5A title for Lafayette High.
4. Alex Bregman, last year’s Headliner, who had 30 homers and 50 doubles for the Astros.
5. Patrick Reed, winner of the Masters in April.

Here’s how I voted:

1. Reed, BECAUSE HE WON THE MASTERS, for crying out loud.
2. Travis Etienne, Clemson running back from Jennings, who was first-team All-America, Offensive Player of the Year in the ACC, and helped the Tigers to the national championship in January. And he didn’t make the LSWA’s Top 5?
3. Jaylon Ferguson, LA Tech defensive end, the NCAA leader in sacks this year and the NCAA’s all-leader in that category.
4. Davis
5. David Toms, winner of the Senior Open.

Even as I turned in my vote I apologized for not having Bregman and Brees in my Top 5. But again, when it comes to ball, this state is salty. This is a perfect illustration why. And keep in mind Butkus Award winner Devin White, NBA Rookie of the Year Ben Simmons, UFC World Heavyweight champ Daniel Cormier, and Michael Thomas, who led the NFL in receiving, didn’t make the Top 5 either.

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