Ladies… Guide to Super Bowl Prop Bets

As Games Mistress mentioned yesterday, people love to bet on the Super Bowl. It’s always fun to play in a box pool or bet on the winner or even the coin toss (as I’m typing this, the Papa John’s commercial about winning the coin toss and getting free pizza is on). I already know who I’m rooting for, so a “who’s going to win” bet is out of the cards for me. For years, my friends, family and I made fun bets with nothing actually being wagered, but this year I thought it’d be fun to introduce some prop bets to our party. Here’s a list of fun prop bets for your party, especially if you don’t have any rooting interests.

My Team is Going to the Super Bowl: Holy Crap!

As most of you can tell by my screen name, I’m a huge Ravens fan. I remember the day that Baltimore finally got an NFL team, and I was a devoted fan ever since. In our short existence (est. 1996) we’ve already been blessed with a trip to the Super Bowl that ended in a huge win. But I was a freshman in college who watched the game with one other lonely Ravens fan in a student lounge. I didn’t get to celebrate. I didn’t get to go to a parade, but, hopefully, this time it will be different.

Name That Booty: Super Bowl Preview Edition

Not a booty, I know. This just makes me giggle (Photo: J.A. Roberts)

Your Super Bowl contenders are set: it’s the 49ers and Ravens – aka HARBAUGH BOWL, or HAR-BOWL, or BOWL OF BROTHERS (seriously, I just made that one up) – next Sunday in New Orleans. You’re likely aware of the main storylines behind the upcoming game, but here at Ladies… we cover the angle no news organization dares to examine.

Your NFL Fantasy Starts Here!

Well, it's ... not Bieber hair. (Reuters/Adam Hunger)

First there was the lockout.  Then there was preseason.  Finally, finally the NFL season actually starts playing games that count, with tonight’s Saints – Packers matchup.  Which also means, after weeks of draft preparation and stat scrutinizing, your fantasy team can finally start proving its worth (or disappointing you, if you are like a buddy of mine who says he only likes his fantasy team before the season starts).  We have a record 14 teams in Ladies… League this year, so there is much excitement and anticipation.  My team, Creepier Doll Collective (it was too good a name! it had to have a sequel!) wound up with Dreamboat himself, Tom Brady, at starting quarterback, but oddly I am much more excited to have my backup quarterback…

How I Crafted Like A Champion (or “A Peek Into The Demented Mind of Lady Bee”)

Can you guess what I made with this classic baby yarn?

It’s been a head-spinning 24 hours of breaking news: Forsberg’s retirement (*sniff!*), pitchers and catchers reporting (YES!) and Arcade Fire‘s tremendous Grammy win (OUI!). So dizzying that one needs to sit down, take stock, maybe do a little knitting to calm down.

While one of us Ladies… checks on Games Mistress to she how she’s faring through this Pujols drama (CAN’T YOU SEE YOU’RE KILLING HER, ALBERT?!), let me tell you how I made out in our Craft Like A Champion Challenge.

Hump Day Hotties: NFL Divisional Playoffs

To get you ready for the NFL Divisional Playoffs this weekend, I thought I would feature a hottie from each team playing this weekend.  To see if your favorite hottie made the cut, take a trip with me after the jump.  I hope I don’t disappoint!

Four things we loved about Wild Card Weekend

Judging from the seating, 14 is the loneliest number. (Photo: Getty Images)

For a few of us, like Ladies… Fantasy Football League winner Games Mistress CuteSports*, it was a fun weekend of NFL Playoff goodness. The other girls are just waiting until Opening Day.

*this is what happens when you file a post way past your bedtime

Hit and Run: First of 2011 Edition

Girls, we should really consider an "I Was There" post from the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim next year. I'm just sayin'. (Reuters)

Happy New Year, readers! We hope you had a fabulous holiday that wasn’t marred by travel hiccups, barfing flu or Christmas morning plumbing problems (that last one happened to me. True story.) We’re back at it after a much-needed break. If you laid low this past weekend after a raucous New Year’s Eve, let’s fill you in on what you may have missed.

Hanukkah Hunks: Night 2

Get ready to light that second candle, and get ready to say OHEY to rookie Taylor Mays!

Hit and Run: 3 Useless Things

Having a little trouble catching up from the holiday week, so I decided to do a bit of a Hit and Run filled with useless, yet very interesting facts (at least I found them to be).  More after the jump – hope everyone had a delightful football-filled turkey day!

Hump Day Hottie: NFL Wild Card Playoffs

Well, it’s finally here: Playoff Time!  This is when you separate the men from the boys.  Well us Ladies are separating the hotties from the not-so hotties.  Take a trip with me after the jump to see some hotties playing in the Wild Card match-ups this weekend.

NFL Playoffs – losing 20 teams of hotties for eight months Part 1

It’s late and I’m still awake, so instead of reveling in the happiness of the NFL Playoffs, I’ve decided to focus on how many cute, lycra-clad behinds that will disappear from our weekly viewing schedule for the next eight months.

In order to tide you over until August, follow the jump for one last look at the cute boys of the 2009 season who we won’t be seeing anymore…

Advent Calendar of Hotness: Day 14

You wouldn't know it from the photo, but this was taken on Christmas 2005. I was at the game and it was probably Kyle's best as a Raven.

No guessing games from me this time.  Kyle Boller is our hottie of the day.  I’ve been in love with this man since the day he was drafted by the Ravens.  He may suck at football, but he sure is nice to look at.  He’d be even hotter if he stopped dating skanks. 

More Kyle Boller prettiness after the jump.

QB crush? Caption this!

Is that Matt's hand on Kurt's...?! (Photo: Getty Images)

It’s Week 8 of the NFL, readers! I was going to choose a picture of our favourite douchewaffle in celebration of his upcoming visit to Lambeau, when I found…this. It’s a couple of weeks old, but hey, you need something to do before donning your Balloon Boy outfit to go pumpkin sacrificing. Happy weekend!

Hump Day Hotties: AFC & NFC West

Some of us Ladies have been looking forward to football season, so I thought what better way to get everyone hyped than to feature a hottie from every NFL team.  Each week for the next four weeks, we’ll be featuring lesser-known hotties from an AFC and NFC division.

So far we have featured hotties from the AFC & NFC North and East. This week, follow me after the jump to get a peek at some hotties from AFC and NFC West.

NFL Training (Camp) Wheels: A Photo Essay

Right, Reggie. Back to work. We get it.

I love NFL training camp, not because football is upon us again (if it’s still hot, it’s still baseball season, in my mind) but because of the sheer entertainment value of the photos.   Reggie Wayne showing up to training camp in a dump truck, dressed as a construction worker?  Obvious publicity grab, sure, but funny in a look-at-the-rich-and-talented-athlete-being-a-cheesy-goofball sort of way.

Strangely enough, Reggie’s transportation related stunt reflected a similar theme in many of the less staged photos of training camps across the league : the many unusual ways in which the athletes travel to and around their team’s facilities.

The All-Star Break Called… Part Deux

So I’ll admit it, I am a total snob when it comes thinking that the AL is superior to the NL.  I don’t know if its the designated hitter deal, the difference in stadium size (I like my homers in the AL), or the tighter strike zone… whatever it is, I’ve always considered the NL to be the red headed step child of Major League Baseball.  But I set those feelings aside to bring you the All-Star Team of the National League,  Ladies… style.

Another entry in the ‘Dick Move’ Hall of Fame.

So. That happened.

I’ll be up front about this. I’ve been a vocal Favre hater for more than a decade now. I rolled my eyes when Madden waxed rhapsodic about Favre’s status as a gunslinger. I groaned inwardly every time someone told me that he was a ‘man’s man.’ I hated the entire city of Green Bay for unleashing him on the world.

I hated him because he (and the Green Bay Packers) stomped all my beloved New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI, leaving college freshman Maggie slumped on her bed wearing an expression that looked…kind of like the expression in that picture, actually. I’m bitter, I have a long memory and I learned how to hold an old-fashioned Irish grudge at my Grandma’s knee.

I tell you this only so I can explain to you, Green Bay fans, that I understand how you’re feeling right now, or how you’re going to feel if he goes through with this and suits up for the Vikings. That white hot, fiery hatred? That urge to punch that picture at the top of this post repeatedly because you can’t get the real thing in your hot little hands? The indignant, righteous and strangely helpless fury? I’m with you. I’ve been there. Hell, I’m upset on your behalf.

See, I’ve long suspected that Favre was going to end up with a plaque in the ‘Dick Move’ Hall of Fame. (The man took a dive for Michael Strahan, for God’s sake. He did the ‘I’m going to maaaaaaaybe retire, maybe not, let’s talk about me some more’ dance so many times I think Peter King performs the steps in his sleep. The writing was on the wall, people.)

The question, though, is just who he’ll be joining in the semi-hallowed, but mostly tarnished ‘Dick Move’ Hall of Fame. Come for the self-indulgence, stay for the money-grubbing.

To Ram or Not to Ram…

While some may think that May is a bit early to be discussing football, I disagree! Especially when contemplating adding a new team to your rooting roster.  The St. Louis Rams (now you really think I’m crazy!) have been on a my radar for the past few years, and now with the acquisition of a certain Ohio State player I thought it was time to analyze their potential in becoming mine, and possibly your, new team!

I see a trend in my posts relating to time travel, so let’s roll with it… On to that beautiful time of year when Football and Baseball intersect to form a perfect fall day!

Post-Bowl Antiparty: Sad Cardinals

So, the Steelers won the Super Bowl. It was a pretty frickin’ crazy game. Congrats to them, I suppose.

I do not appreciate the way this Cardinal is looking at me.

I present to you these Sad Cardinals with no further comment.

The Ladies … Super Bowl Party Preview, or Preview Party, Your Choice

I hope the game is more exciting than this logo.

We are now a little over 48 hours away from the culmination of the entire 2008-09 NFL season.  Just like the World Series, this championship features a team making its unlikely first appearance in the big game and … a team from Pennsylvania.  Plus they are playing it in Tampa.  It’s certainly not the first time a city has hosted both a World Series and a Super Bowl, but it may be the first time a city outside of California has done it. So there’s your (unverified) Super Bowl fact of the day.

As this is a sports blog, written by sports fans, most of us Ladies have plans to watch the game. Some of us are neutral, some of us have a particular team, some of us are just obsessed with Kurt Warner, but we’ll all be parked in front of a television somewhere at game time.  Further details after the jump, but first:

POP (AND ALCOHOL)  QUIZ

Can you match the beverages below with the Lady who will be drinking it during the game? (Options: Lady Andrea, SA, Minda, Games Mistress, and Cinnamon Girl)

In Which I Use NFL Team Merchandise to Predict the Super Bowl Matchup

In my short tenure here at Ladies …, I have picked an Angels-Cubs World Series, and managed to finish last in our Bowl Pick ‘Em Pool (technically second to last, but that’s only because Cinn forgot to actually pick the games).  So it’s pretty clear I have no business whatsoever picking winners of this Sunday’s NFC and AFC championship games.  Like any good sports blogger, this is not going to stop me.

Since picking based on my sports “knowledge” doesn’t seem to be working, I decided to use a random and arbitrary method, completely unrelated to how much big-game experience the quarterbacks have and whether a star player is not 100% healthy.  However, I wasn’t exactly sure how to come up with said randomness.  And then, while conducting a Google Image hunt for a picture of the Arizona Cardinals’ mascot, I found my muse :

Hump Day Hottie: Larry Fitzgerald

So the Cardinals being in the NFC Championship game is a surprised huh? And hosting the game as well. Frankly, it’s just a little too much to take. I mean, these are the Arizona Cardinals here. For the entirety of my life they’ve been hapless and pathetic. Now they’re one game away from the Super Bowl. It’s almost a little too much.

You know who isn’t too much though? Larry Fitzgerald. I remember him at Pitt and was kind of upset for him when he got drafted by the football Cardinals. I thought he would surely be traded because Arizona just didn’t do pro football well. That just goes to show you what I know.

So, ahead of the championship game this weekend, let’s take a look at the hottie down in the desert.

Yes, I like the team photo. Sue me.

Nolan Vs. Tomlin-Whose Team Do You Wanna Be On?

This Sunday in Pittsburgh the 49ers and the Steelers meet in an important early season match-up.

Not the teams. I’m talking about the coaches-Mike Nolan and Mike Tomlin.

I envy the woman who’ll be at Heinz Field. But the question is, who’s hotter? This was brought up last Wednesday when I said this is the Hit & Run:

Nolan > Tomlin

Needless to say, TheStarterWife didn’t agree. So we thought we’ll put it out there…

Nolan or Tomlin? Who ya got?