The Brain is a Funny Thing
While watching the Superbowl yesterday I was very excited and I assumed that it was because other recent Superbowls have been blowouts, or at least (I told myself) because the winner was never really in doubt.
But then I got to thinking about last years game between the Giants and the Patriots and I remembered that it was actually pretty close and it really could have gone either way. So I did a little digging to see what the scores from recent years have actually been:
2009: Pittsburgh Steelers 27–23 Arizona Cardinals
2008: New York Giants 17–14 New England Patriots
2007: Indianapolis Colts 29–17 Chicago Bears
2006: Pittsburgh Steelers 21–10 Seattle Seahawks
2005: New England Patriots 24–21 Philadelphia Eagles
2004: New England Patriots 32–29 Carolina Panthers
2003: Tampa Bay Buccaneers 48–21 Oakland Raiders
So the games between the Colts and the Bears in 2007 and the Steelers and the Seahawks in 2006 were never really in doubt, but you have to go all the way back to the Bucs vs. Raiders game in 2003 to find a true blowout. The rest of these games were within 4 points!
I’m sure that all of these games were exciting in their own way, but it seems pretty typical that the brain tells you that the thing you remember the best (ie. the most recent game) must have been the most interesting or exciting thing to happen in a long time.
The brain is a pretty funny thing!