By RON GOWER

rgower@tnonline.comSunday ranks as arguably the biggest day of the year in professional football.It's the XLIX annual Super Bowl. XLIX actually stands for the 49th, in case you're not sure.The New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks.Las Vegas oddsmakers have this as one of the most evenly matched Super Bowls ever, with the Tuesday line having New England favored by one point.Seattle is the defending Super Bowl champion, defeating the Denver Broncos last year, 43-8.New England is the last team to have back-to-back titles, winning over Carolina in 2004 and The Philadelphia Eagles in 2005.Prediction: Seattle 21, New England 10.Here are some other thoughts on the big game:I consider myself a football fan and enjoy watching a good college or pro game. But I admit that I mostly watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.Because of the commercial anticipation, it's one of the few times my wife will sit down and watch an entire game with me.Last year, most of the commercials, frankly, were duds.One of the best was a Budweiser ad involving a horse and a golden retriever puppy.Budweiser is showing a follow-up commercial involving the horse and puppy. It's one of the most anticipated for the Super Bowl.Those ads, incidentally, can cost up to $4.5 million for a 30-second spot.The first few Super Bowls had regular ads, nothing special.That changed in 1973 when blond bombshell Farrah Fawcett seductively lathered Noxzema shaving cream all over the smiling face of Joe Namath.Then the real commercial games began.Both starting quarterbacks are from Big Ten schools. The Big Ten includes Penn State.Russell Wilson, the signal caller for Seattle who led his team to an incredible comeback win over the Green Bay Packers two weeks ago, graduated from Wisconsin.New England quarterback Tom Brady is a graduate of Michigan.Since Brady is 37 and Wilson is 26, it's obvious they never faced each other in college.In 2012, the two quarterbacks played against each other in a regular season game in New England which Seattle won, 24-23.This year's Super Bowl takes away some of the limelight from Groundhog Day.Of course, after all the cold weather we've been having and the recent snow, maybe we'd better listen to what Punxsutawney Phil has to say.If asked to pick my favorite pro football player, I couldn't do it.To me the real stars aren't the players who play for a multimillion dollar paycheck, who try to outdo each other in hairstyles and tattoos and who dance a jig on the field every time they make a big play.My favorites are the young kids who play for the fun of it, who are out there practicing every day and working hard, hoping to do well enough to make an impression on the little league field, make the cut in high school, and dream of someday playing in the big game no matter what sport.Locally, we've had some major success stories in sports.Maybe we've never had a Super Bowl quarterback or a World Series home run hero, but you never know if someday it could happen.