You might recall Kyle Whelliston’s ridiculous game of Super Bowl Knowledge Avoidance, “Last Man” (or #lastman), from 2011 and 2012. The object of the game is to go as long as possible without knowing who won the Super Bowl. The purpose of the game is… uh… well, for a certain breed of iconoclasts like Whelliston and some of his followers, it’s an anti-football thing, or an anti-sportz-media thing, or a general act of rebellion or conscientious objection against some aspect(s) the culture at large. For others, it’s just a goofy and nerdy thing to try and do — a personal challenge of an unusual kind, just for the heck of it.

Anyway, this year, I decided to try it for the first time.

Above: I squint at Gmail yesterday, trying to find a specific piece of information via search without accidentally seeing any e-mails about the Super Bowl. (I succeeded.)

I definitely fall into the second category mentioned above: people doing this just for nerdy kicks. As you know, I like football — college more than pros, but the pros are fine too, and I had watched the Super Bowl every year since Wide Right in 1990 (sorry, Becky & other Buffalonians). This year, though, I really couldn’t care less about the particular teams playing in the Super Bowl, so I decided, why not?

In retrospect, I sort of wish I hadn’t picked a year where there was an epic power blackout in the middle of the game (yes, I know about that) for my inaugural attempt at #lastman. I have also picked up hints that it was perhaps a really good game, or at least that some other memorable stuff (aside from the blackout) happened. I sense the whiff of a comeback, maybe, though I’m not sure. I know it was one of the most-watched of all time. But oh well.

Anyway, I’m in the midst of playing #lastman now: 41 hours, 46 minutes without “The Knowledge,” and counting.

Above: The Knowledge, in the form of a Denver Post in the break room, narrowly avoided yesterday and then photographed blindly from across the room.

I am one of six known players still alive in the game. The others are Kyle himself (though he’s about to leave the country, disqualifying him), Sameer Ohri, CNBC analyst John Carney, First Things intern Tristyn Bloom, and the fiancée (name unknown) of defending champ J. Scott Fitzwater. (Scott, for his part, still doesn’t know who won last year’s Super Bowl, but was eliminated early this year).

[WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: We're down to 3 known players: Bloom, Fitzwater's fiancée, and me. Kyle left for Canada, violating Rule Two; Ohri suffered death by Twitter mention (more details); Carney, death by CNBC news meeting. Technically this means I am now the last man standing, and Kyle says women can't play, but I say screw that. Title IX! Equal rights! Female sports fans should be able to complete in #lastman.

Meanwhile, Business Insider published an article about #lastman, in which I am extensively quoted. (The author, Joe Weisenthal a.k.a. @TheStalwart -- profiled here by the New York Times Magazine -- pretty much quoted my rambling, run-on, stream-of-consciousness verbal sentences verbatim. Heh. Yes, that's how I really talk.)

As I joked on Twitter:

Now that @businessinsider has published a piece on #lastman, will @midmajority hipsters desert the game in droves? #toomainstream #sellout

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

Can #lastman corporate sponsorships be far behind? Nike could do a "Keep Running" ad. There could be a #TheKnowledge-free Coke tent. LOLOLOL

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

I'm trolling Kyle a bit. See here and here for some context.

Also, I couldn't resist a few Lord of the Rings-themed #lastman tweets:

"What new devilry is this?" "The Knowledge. A demon of the #sportz world. This foe is beyond any of you. RUN!" #lastman

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 3, 2013

“Always remember, Frodo, The Knowledge is trying to get into your head. It *wants* to be found.” #lastman @findthelastman

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 1, 2013

You may triumph on the field of battle for a day, but against The Knowledge that is risen in the East, there is no victory. #lastman

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

"A great host, you say?" "108 million strong at least" "108 million?!" "It is an army w/ a single purpose: to destroy the world of #lastmen"

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

"The #lastmen cannot win this fight. They're all going to die." "Then I shall die as one of them!" #lastman

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

One does not simply walk into Twitter mentions. There is #TheKnowledge there that does not sleep. And the great @ is ever watchful. @sohri

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

Inside the pictured bag lies #TheKnowledge. ICYMI, here's video- youtu.be/LPZOw7fWe-4?ac -of how that came to be. #lastman twitter.com/brendanloy/sta…

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

Carrying #TheKnowledge around in a bag feels dangerous. Like #It might somehow will itself to fall out, One Ring-style. twitter.com/brendanloy/sta…

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

A day may come when the courage of #lastman fails, when we forsake our fellow #KnowledgeRunners and break all bonds of blissful ignorance...

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

...an hour of woes and shattered dreams, when the age of #lastman comes crashing down. BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!!! This day, we #run!!!

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you stand, #Lastmen of the West!! #lastman

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 5, 2013

Last but not least, I wanted to relate a conversation with Loyette, 5, who has a kindergarten classmate who went to the Super Bowl. First, this: "Daddy, do you want to know who won?" "No." "Why not?" "Well, I'm playing this game where a bunch of people are trying to be the last person to know who won." "Well, Daddy, I hope you win, so you get the gold medal." Aww. Then, a few minutes later, this discussion. Heh. Note how Becky deftly changes the subject to princesses.]

Below, two windows (the first archived, the second live) which together contain all my tweets and replies thereto, as well as all tweets to and from @findthelastman, the account that’s tracking the game (and is my primary source of information about the outside world at the moment). THESE WINDOWS ARE NOT SAFE FOR #LASTMAN PLAYERS, as they are believed to contain #TheKnowledge. I will not be looking at them. Nor will I be looking at comments on this blog post, nor Twitter mentions, nor most other electronic connections to the human race, until I’ve learned The Knowledge and thus lost the game.

LATE WEDNESDAY MORNING UPDATE: I now Know. I have The Knowledge. My #lastman run went for 2 days, 13 hours and 54 minutes.

Here’s how I found out.

FWIW, I’m not mad. I was about ready to be done. I just wanted to lose interestingly, which this qualifies as. Besides:

.@mikebonfanti isn’t even really to blame anyway. He’s just the vehicle #TheKnowledge chose to use. #AlwaysRememberFrodo #ItWantsToBeFound

— Brendan Loy (@brendanloy) February 6, 2013

Image of the #Knowledge-imparting e-mail after the jump (WARNING: contains The Knowledge).

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For most of us, myself included, today is Super Bowl Sunday. But for some in the quirky Mid-Majority cult community, it’s the start of Last Man — or, if you prefer, #lastman — the annual game of trying to avoid learning the result of the Super Bowl (a.k.a. #TheKnowledge) for as long as possible. You might remember this from last year.

Kyle Whelliston, the originator of the game, apparently will not be publicly participating via Twitter this year, but some others will be. I’ve created a liveblog window to track all tweets (give or take a few that CoverItLive drops; its Twitter search engine can be a bit wonky) using the hashtags #lastman, #findthelastman, or #theknowledge.

Good luck, Knowledge Runners! And to everyone else, enjoy the game! Go Giants!

This won’t really mean much of anything to regular blog readers, but over on Twitter, the quirky little community of mid-major obsessives orbiting The Mid-Majority is having a blast trying to “find” Kyle Whelliston, “Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego”-style, based on hints he’s dropped while hiding from “The Knowledge” (of who won the Super Bowl) during his annual “Last Man” game.

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I’ll be at a Super Bowl party this afternoon, and likely won’t be doing much live-tweeting (though any tweets I do post will, of course, appear at left), so I’m not going to set up an auto-importing live-blog thingy. But if anyone wants to comment on the game (or the commercials), here’s the place to do it. Go, uh, Packers! I guess! (Because half of my family is from Wisconsin, and, um, I like cheese.)

And the Jets linebacker would like to tell you about it:

Like MJD, “I just hope he doesn’t stay up tonight, calling Sal Palantonio’s home phone at all hours of the night, just screaming into the receiver about disrespect. It seems like he wants to.”

P.S. The New York and Boston tabloids didn’t disappoint in their coverage of the game:

More after the jump.

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Guest post by David K.

In case you missed it, the Seattle Seahawks improved to 8-9 (the first NFL team ever to even have that record) and advanced to the second round of the playoffs after upsetting the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints in Seattle on Saturday. The win was highlighted by an incredible 67 yard run by Seahawks Running back (and former Cal Bear) Marshawn Lynch. Check it out below, it was unbelievable.

For those who missed it (a group that includes me), here is the video of yesterday’s 71-yard kickoff return by 315-pound Patriots offensive lineman Dan Connolly, the longest kick return ever by an NFL offensive lineman and, according to the AP’s Ralph D. Russo, “without hesitation or qualifier…[the] greatest fat guy kick return in NFL history.”

Connolly didn’t quite manage to run it in for a touchdown — he was stopped inside the 5 — which is too bad. But the Patriots did punch it in three plays later, and won 31-27, so Connolly’s run was certainly a difference-maker in the game. Meanwhile, I suppose he left a little window for some other fat guy to come along and get a 70+ yard touchdown return. Hail to Thee, Fat Person!

Awesome video of the cave-in:

Guest post by David K.

The NFL draft is rolling along, no big surprises so far as Sam Bradford and Ndamukong Suh take the top two spots.

- Oklahoma is dominating so far with 3 of the top 4 picks.
- Lots of linemen taken so far, 6 out of 11.
- WOW! Tebow to Denver? Probably the biggest surprise pick of the 2010 draft.

I’m billing this as a “live chat” rather than a “live blog,” since I don’t know how much I’ll be participating in it, what with girls being awake for much of the game. But, at the very least, my occasional tweets will appear automatically in the chat window below.

Check out this awesome time lapse of University of Phoenix Stadium being made ready for the Cardinals-Packers game on January 3, then being transformed overnight into the site of the Fiesta Bowl on January 4:

There was also some sort of band event the day before the Cardinals game, if you’re wondering what’s going on around the 0:10 mark. (Hat tip: Stewart Mandel.)

The former USC superstar is who we thought he was. At least, he played like it yesterday for the Saints against the Cardinals in the divisional round of the playoffs.

I’m talking, of course, about the Denver Broncos, not the Boise State Broncos. I don’t follow the NFL very closely — I’m much more of a college football fan — but living in Denver, the saga of the Broncos this season has been impossible to miss. After the offseason Cutler/McDaniels kerfuffle, the team wasn’t expected to do much with a new coach and new quarterback. But they started off 6-0, shocking everyone and raising expectations. Since then, however, the Broncos have proved “they are who we thought they were” by going 2-7 over the last 9 games and moving to the brink of playoff elimination.

Anyway, today is the last game of the regular season, and ESPN explains Denver’s playoff scenarios:

Denver clinches a playoff spot with:

1. DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + BAL loss or tie OR
2. DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + PIT loss or tie OR
3. DEN win + NYJ loss or tie + HOU win OR
4. DEN win + BAL loss or tie + PIT loss or tie OR
5. DEN win + BAL loss or tie + HOU win OR
6. PIT loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + JAC loss OR
7. PIT loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + NYJ loss OR
8. PIT loss + BAL loss + JAC loss + NYJ loss OR
9. PIT loss + HOU loss + JAC loss + NYJ loss OR
10. MIA loss or tie + NYJ loss + BAL loss + HOU loss + JAC loss or tie

Well… I’m glad that’s cleared up.

P.S. So, basically, um, Goooo Broncos, Beeeeat Chiefs… and Goooo Bengals, Beeeeat Jets AND/OR Goooo Raiders, Beeeeat Ravens… and Goooo Dolphins, Beeeeat Steelers AND/OR Goooo Texans, Beeeeat Patriots. I think.

But Gandalf Ralph Wilson lifted up his arms and called once more in a clear voice: “Stand, Men of the West[ern New York]! Stand and wait! This is the hour of doom. … The realm of Jauron is ended!“

For a sports fan, it doesn’t get much worse than what Stewart Mandel reader Josh from Delaware, Ohio experienced last weekend:

Friday night, my high school alma mater was down 20-7 with a few minutes left, scored two touchdowns but missed the second extra point and lost in overtime. Saturday evening, my college alma mater held up very well on all but one series the entire night but failed to stop USC’s final drive. Sunday afternoon: I’m a Bengals fan. Brandon Stokley.

Ouch.