Enter Our FREE, Online-Only Academy Awards & ‘Big Game’ Contests! 

With pro football’s “Big Game” being played on Sunday, February 16, and the televised “Oscars” broadcast two weeks later — on Sunday, March 2 â€” we decided to have both our annual FREE “Big Game Squares” contest and our occasional FREE “Oscars” contests be online-only this year, to give everyone an equal chance to enter and win.

To be given a square in our “Big Game Squares” contest, sponsored by Gas N Grills on Livingston Ave., CLICK HERE. Our Grand Prize, for having the winning square representing the final score between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, is a $200 gift card to the restaurant of your choice, anywhere in the Tampa Bay area! The owner of the square representing the score at halftime will win a $100 dining gift card and having the winning squares at the end of the first or third quarters of the “Big Game” will win you a $50 dining gift card. So, CLICK HERE to enter now. 

And, with the Oscar winners being announced on March 2, CLICK HERE to enter our 2025 “Oscars Contest,” sponsored by B&B Theatres at The Grove. You will be asked to predict the winners of each major category for a chance to win the Grand Prize of dinner for two, plus top-level movie tickets, popcorn & beverages to a movie at B&B Theatres. There also will be five runners-up who each will receive two free top-level movie tickets at B&B Theatres.

There is no purchase necessary to enter either of these contests, but you will have to provide your real first & last name, the community you live in, your daytime telephone number & your valid email address to enter either contest. For more info, including the official rules of both FREE contests, email us at ads@ntneighborhoodnews.com. Good luck!

In years past, we’ve run either a “Big Game Squares” or an Academy Awards contest — or both — in our New Tampa and Wesley Chapel print editions. 

Both contests, especially the Squares, take up a lot of space in our print issues and often would only allow readers in one of our distribution areas to enter that contest by reading our print editions, which always ended up with a lot more entries from that one area, and sometimes, other readers would end up getting shut out of that contest altogether — and that seemed unfair to me. 

So, rather than give one group of print edition readers an unfair advantage over the other, I decided that this year, we would offer both of these popular contests online only. 

Of course, since the next Wesley Chapel issue won’t hit mailboxes until after the Big Game, only those of you who receive our New Tampa edition are finding out about both contests in print, even though both of them will be posted on our Facebook page no later than Friday, January 31, and we will limit our Squares contest to the first 100 entrants (we allowed 200, or two full “grids,” last year), so it may be too late to enter by the time this issue reaches your mailbox. 

Now of course, I know that not everyone has a computer or smart phone to enter online, but surely everyone knows someone who does who could enter for you. To that end, online-only seemed to be the best way to give readers in both distribution areas the same opportunity to enter. 

So, here’s how the two contests will work: 

‘Big Game Squares’ 

This has become our second most popular contest, behind our annual Dining Survey & Contest, as even non-football fans usually watch the Big Game — even though some only watch for the commercials and/or halftime shows. 

Non-football fans who would never place a bet (legal or otherwise) love the Squares contest because it’s entirely about luck — you either have a square that wins one of our gift card prizes or you don’t. And, since the winning squares are determined by the score at the end of each quarter and can sometimes change at the last possible moment, having a square may be the only thing that keeps non-football-fans watching the Big Game until the very end. 

So, CLICK HERE and provide us with your REAL (you’d be surprised how many fake entries we receive in our contests) first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. 

If you give us all of the proper information, you will receive an email from me that says, “Congratulations, you will be assigned a square in this year’s ‘Big Game’ Contest! Once all of our 100 squares have been filled, we will email you again with the score digit for each team that will allow you to WIN!” 

For those who don’t know how these Squares contests work, the squares are assigned in the order they are received, but the numbers representing the last digit of the score for each team aren’t randomly assigned until all 100 squares are filled. 

Your second email will say, “Your square is KC 7, Phi 6.” That means if the score is 7-6 Chiefs (or 27-26, etc.) at the end of any quarter, you’d win the prize for that quarter — anywhere from a $50 to a $200 gift card to the restaurant of your choice anywhere in the Tampa Bay area. It’s fun and absolutely free — no purchase is ever required to enter any of our contests. 

‘Academy Awards Contest’ 

We’ve only been able to even have this contest a few times in the past because of the timing of when the nominees are announced to when the annual Academy Awards are held. 

As devastating as the uncontrolled wild fires in California have been, the fires caused both the announcement of this year’s nominees and the televised red carpet gala itself to be delayed — so much so that we actually have time to have this FREE contest this year as well. 

Here’s how it works: Once again, provide us with your REAL first AND last name, the community you live in, email address and daytime phone number. In addition, we ask each entrant in this contest to please pick the winner in each of the following major Oscars categories: 1. Best Picture, 2. Best Actress, 3. Best Actor, 4. Best Supporting Actress, 5. Best Supporting Actor, 6. Best Director & 7. Best Animated Feature. 

If only one entrant picks the winners in the most categories, they will win a prize package to the B&B Theatres at The Grove, with movie tickets, popcorn, dinner & drinks, valued at $200. 

If more than one entry has the same number of correct picks, the winner will be drawn at random from all tied entries. Each of the other tied entries will receive two B&B movie passes. CLICK HERE to enter.

It’s Kind Of Awesome To Live In ‘Champa’ Bay These Days!

Tom Brady hoists the Lombardi Trophy after leading Tampa Bay to a Super Bowl victory.

When I first moved back to Florida in 1993, the Tampa Bay Lightning had just completed their first season in the National Hockey League — at the Expo Hall at the Florida State Fairgrounds in unincorporated Hillsborough County.

And, one of the reasons I moved to Florida from Westchester County, NY, was because Tampa Bay was rumored to be getting not just an expansion baseball franchise, but my beloved San Francisco Giants were supposed to be leaving Candlestick Park to come to our area and I wanted to publish a Giants magazine.

Gary Nager, Editorial

Well, as the saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and Giants often go astray, and the Giants never moved here, but the Nagers still did. Five years later, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays were finally born as a Major League Baseball expansion franchise.

And, when I moved here in 1993, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were simply awful.

After going 0-14 in their first year (1976), the Bucs made the playoffs for the first time in 1979, and two more times in 1981 and ‘82, but then went 15 years before their next postseason game, under second-year coach Tony Dungy. Their record during that span was a dismal 100-223, which means they won less than a third of their all-time games from their inception through my third year of owning the Neighborhood News. Even so, you’d never know it if you talked to any fan who was from any part of the Bay area. 

The Bucs’ fans were almost cult-like, despite their creamsicle-colored uniforms, long before Dungy became the coach. I remember being threatened by a bar owner in New Port Richey for suggesting that he turn his largest-screen TV off a Bucs preseason game. He told me, “We’re all Bucs fans here, son. If you don’t like it, I invite you and your family to leave.”

But oh, how the Tampa Bay area’s sports franchises have risen. In perhaps the hardest year for sports ever, as virtually everyone in the country now knows, the Tampa Bay Lightning won the 2020 Stanley Cup (the team’s second), the Tampa Bay Rays made it to the World Series for the second time and the Tampa Bay Bucs capped their 2020 season with a dominating 31-9 win over the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs the day before we went to press with this issue — the team’s second time hoisting the Vince Lombardi trophy (photo).

It historically hasn’t been an easy time rooting for the local major sports franchises, especially, this Covid-crazy year, but how rewarding has it been? 

Who would have thought that the Bolts would come back from the previous season’s devastating sweep at the hands of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the first round of the 2019 playoffs? Who would have thought that the Rays, with one of MLB’s lowest payrolls, would beat out the Red Sox, Yankees and defending American League champion Astros to advance to the World Series? And, who would have thought that the Bucs would go from being a 7-5 playoff pretender with a questionable defense and a finally-old-looking 43-year-old QB to reel off eight consecutive wins, including decisive victories over Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints, Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers and the seemingly unbeatable Pat Mahomes and the Chiefs? Out of nowhere, we won eight consecutive games with a top-level defense and Tom Brady looking like, well, the Brady who had won six Super Bowls with the Patriots.

Wow. If not for The Weekend’s worst-ever halftime performance and Covid forcing most local fans to stay away from the first-ever Super Bowl played and won by a team in its own stadium, Brady, head coach Bruce Arians, offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich and defensive coordinator Todd Bowles finished off an almost perfect game to give the GOAT his seventh win and fifth Super Bowl MVP award. 

Congrats to the health care heroes who got to attend the game for free. I salute you and your efforts to keep as many of us as possible alive during this plague even more than I salute the Bucs, the Bolts, the Rays and even MLS’s Tampa Bay Rowdies for providing the best-possible distractions during this most difficult year. Way to go, Champa Bay!

Bucs-Chiefs: Who you got?

Tom Brady (All-Pro Reels Photography)

When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers went out and signed quarterback and six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady last year, they did it with one purpose in mind:

To be the first-ever NFL team to host a Super Bowl in its home stadium.

And now, here they are.

On Sunday, the Bucs (11-5 during the regular 2020 season) will meet the Kansas City Chiefs (14-2) at 6:30 p.m. in Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Yes, this will be the first time in 55 championship games that a team will be playing the Big Games in its home stadium. Will that make a difference? Maybe. Due to Covid-19, only 22,000 fans, including 7,500 vaccinated health care workers, will be allowed to attend, and there will be little of the usual pre-game hype. In fact, the Chiefs opened as 3-point favorites.

It will be the 10th Super Bowl for Brady, and just the second for Bucs, who beat the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in 2003 in their only other appearance.

Brady threw for 4,633 yards and 40 TDs this season and is widely considered the greatest quarterback of all time. He will face off against the guy many feel is his heir apparent in Patrick Mahomes, who led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl victory in 50 years last year.

Mahomes (4,740 yards, 38 TDs, with only six interceptions) has the NFL’s best QB rating against the blitz, which may neutralize one of the Bucs’ defensive strengths. He has dangerous pass-catching weapons in WR Tyreek Hill (1,276 yards, 15 TDs) and TE Travis Kelce (1,416 yards, 11 TDs), and a stable of running backs are talented but have been banged up this season. The offense is probably the most explosive in the league, so the Bucs will have to expose a Chiefs offensive line that has not looked great at times this season and has a slew of injuries.

Mahomes will be trying to win his second consecutive championship when the Bucs host the Chiefs at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday. (Photo: Jeffrey Beal)

Like Mahomes, Brady has a talented host of weapons to throw to, like WRs Mike Evans (1,006 yards, 13 TDs, but two big drops in the NFC title game) and Chris Godwin (840 yards, 7 TDs), and tight end Rob Gronkowski (623 yards, 7 TDs), who is no stranger to catching touchdowns from Brady in Super Bowls when both were with New England.

The Bucs’ offensive line has looked better as the season has progressed, but running backs Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones have been inconsistent.

However, the Bucs’ defense, led by rising star linebacker Devin White, has come up big this season, and managed to hold the Green Bay Packers to three-and-outs after all three of Brady’s interceptions in the NFC Championship game win.

It may sound cliché, but with both offenses clicking on all cylinders, it could come down to whichever defense makes the most stops, like it did when the Bucs stopped the Packers three times inside the 10 to force a field goal late and seal the win.

By making the Super Bowl, the Bucs have already capped the best year in Tampa Bay sports history, joining the World Series-runner-up Rays and Stanley Cup champion Lightning in making their league championships. 

A victory in America’s popular sport on the biggest stage of them all would only make it sweeter.

Can they do it? We’ll see, but go Bucs!

OUR PREDICTIONS:

JOHN: It’s going to be a shootout, and I thought Brady looked a little shaky in the NFC Championship game. I’ll take the best quarterback and most dangerous receivers. I feel dirty, but Chiefs 33-22. 

GARY: Both defenses played great football in their respective championship games, but I’ll take Brady’s experience over Mahomes’ youth this year, as long as Mike Evans doesn’t keep dropping passes. Bucs 34-27! 

WHERE TO WATCH IN NEW TAMPA

The Super Bowl party is one of the great American traditions of the Big Game, but with Covid-19 still rearing its ugly head, we suggest taking great care. If you insist on watching the game with other fans and don’t have a party to attend, here are some local suggestions:

Peabody’s Billiards & Games: After 21 years, the longtime Tampa Palms hangout has been completely renovated and has a fresh, modern look. It is offering $3.25 pints of beer and $5 Jameson Whiskey shots for the Super Bowl, as well as specials on buckets of beer bottles and a wing and pitcher combo special. They tell us there will be plenty of giveaways and swag, too, including a couple of folding lawn chairs and a cooler. There will be strict adherence to CDC guidelines, including a limit on capacity. For more information, call (813) 972-1725 or visit PeabodysTampa.com.

Glory Days Grill: One of New Tampa’s most popular gathering places for Sunday football games is having a $25 all-you-can-eat special menu, but you need to make reservations. There will be drink specials and giveaways between quarters, but you better hurry because they tell us they are almost all booked. For more information, call (813) 513-7550, or visit GloryDaysGrill.com.

The Fat Rabbit: Fat Rabbit will open at 11:30 a.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, but the festivities won’t begin until 4 p.m. The Tampa Palms favorite usually has happy hour until 5 p.m. but will be extending it through the game. There also will be wing specials —  even for those ordering pickup! — all day. For info, call (813) 252-3004 or visit “The Fat Rabbit Pub” on Facebook.

Stonewood Grill & Tavern: Stonewood is known for being a great restaurant, but the restaurant and its fun bar normally aren’t open Sunday nights, but it will be open for the Super Bowl. Brunch is 11-2:30 a.m., and happy hour will run until 7 p.m. Catering also is available for anyone hosting their own Super Bowl party, too. 

For more information, call (813) 978-0388 or visit StonewoodGrill.com.