Super Bowl Preview with the Falcons' Ovie Mughelli

Intro

This Sunday is not just any Sunday. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. The day of the most widely watched sporting event in the United States, the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl Sunday is like a holiday in the US. People get together at parties to watch the game. Even people who don’t like football watch the game because the advertisements are really expensive and really cool. And the city that hosts the Super Bowl is like one giant party. This year it’s in Tampa, Florida.

But what do NFL players who aren’t on one of the two teams playing for the championship do on Super Bowl Sunday? Where do they watch the game? Earlier this week, Jason got on the phone with Ovie Mughelli, the Atlanta Falcons unstoppable fullback, to talk about his plans for the big game.

Dialog

Jason

Ovie

Jason:  Hey, Ovie. I just wanted to talk to you about what your plans for the Super Bowl are.

Ovie:  Well, my plan for the Super Bowl is really to go down to Tampa and enjoy all the festivities, my teammates, hanging out with my colleagues. Hopefully there will be a bunch of fun events and parties. And the actual game I’m going to watch probably with some friends. I got a couple of nice offers from watching on big screens in an airport hangar to watching on a hundred screens in a hotel to watching it at a friend’s mansion. I’ve got to decide which one I want to go to. Either way, it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Jason:  Who are you pulling for?

Ovie:  I’m pulling for the Arizona Cardinals. They beat us, so I know first-hand they’re a hell of a good team. It took them to play out of their minds to beat us. I may be a little biased, but they’ve been playing great football every game in the playoffs. I think they’re not gonna stop doing that.

Jason:  Do you think it was an exceptionally good game when they beat you?

Ovie:  Yeah, they played exceptionally. They played their best football when they beat us and they’ve been doing that every single game. The closest game they’ve had in the playoffs has been against us. They blew out the Carolina Panthers as well as beating the Eagles pretty good. I think this Super Bowl will be very interesting but I think the Cardinals are gonna end up on top.

Jason:  So you’re really into video games and I just wondered, what’s the Super Bowl of video games to you?

Ovie:  The Super Bowl of video games would have to be the John Madden Football franchise on video games, I think. Every kid, every adult, even older people play Madden. It’s been out so long and it’s one of the best-selling video games out there, especially in the sports world. But I’d say Halo would have to be the Super Bowl of video games in non-sports games. I absolutely love that game. I think it’s the best thing ever. I’m actually going to play when I finish talking to you.

Jason:  Nice. Are you about as good at Halo as you are at blocking?

Ovie:  Yeah, actually, I am pretty good at Halo. I’m a pretty high rank and when I get out there I talk trash because I can definitely back it up.

Grammar Point

Verbs with ‘ing’: Gerund or Progressive?

You probably noticed that Jason and Ovie use a lot of verbs that end with ‘ing’ in their conversation. Some of these ‘ing’ verbs are gerunds and some of them are progressives.

Gerunds act like nouns in a sentence. For example, Ovie says, “I got a couple of nice offers from watching on big screens in an airport hangar to watching on a hundred screens in a hotel.” Both times watching appears in this sentence, it’s acting as a noun.

On the other hand, when Ovie says, “I’m pulling for the Cardinals,” he isn’t using a gerund, he’s using the present progressive tense. We use the present progressive to talk about on-going actions that are happening right now. It’s formed with be + main verb.

Discussion

Discussion - Join the discussion to learn more and make friends.

On Sunday, Ovie will be in Tampa, but he won’t be at the stadium watching the game. He’ll be with his teammates and friends at a big party. He has three to choose from!

Ovie is rooting for the Arizona Cardinals to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers. His team made it to the playoffs, but lost to the Cardinals, so he knows very well how good they are.

Since the Super Bowl is the biggest, most important football game there is, people often describe other really important events as “the Super Bowl of” something. For instance, election day is the Super Bowl of politics. For English students, the TOEFL is the Super Bowl of tests.

Jason knows that when Ovie isn’t blocking defenders or carrying the ball on the football field, he likes to play video games. So Jason asks him what he thinks is the Super Bowl of video games. Ovie says that for sports games, it’s Madden NFL. He thinks it’s the most important sports game to be good at. Ovie’s favorite game, Halo, is the Super Bowl of non-sports games, he says.

What’s the Super Bowl of your favorite hobby or activity?

For more with Ovie Mughelli, take a look at his website, his blog or Jason’s blog about interviewing him.

Comprehension Quiz