10 Storylines That Will Make You Love (and Hate) Super Bowl XLIX

Two weeks until the NFL crowns its champion, which means 14 exhausting days of the most overhyped event on the world's annual calendar. Don't get us wrong, the Super Bowl is a tremendous show. We could just do without the sideshows.

Well, some of them. Others create drama that enriches the entertainment value and transcends sports. There are storylines to love and ones to hate, and we break down the top 10, alternating between both in this Bleacher Report slideshow.

You have the "look at us" Seattle Seahawks of the Great Northwest, led by gold-soled, cleat-wearing Marshawn Lynch and the self-proclaimed best cornerback in the game, Richard Sherman. And, by contrast, the smug Bill Belichick-led New England Patriots, who are trained in saying as little as possible—in a nonconfrontational way, unlike Lynch.

The Pats are busted spies, accused deceptive snakes and alleged football deflaters now, too. The Seahawks, tossing Doug Baldwin into this, are seeking the respect and attention of the nation, despite being the defending champs.

Neither team is particularly easy to root for, unless you live in the opposite northern corners of the country, but we do find some things to like about the drama that will unfold before the game itself does.

Love: A Matchup of Both No. 1 Seeds, Who Earned Their Way Here

Julio Cortez/Associated Press

Say what you will to disparage these teams, each of which had to claw back in home playoff games in this tournament, despite being heavy favorites. But this is just the 11th time since 1975 when the NFC's No. 1 seed met the AFC's No. 1 seed in the Super Bowl, according to the Boston Herald.

We get to see the season's two best play for the biggest prize. There are no upstart wild cards who merely got hot at the right time. These are their conference's least flawed teams from the playoffs and the season.

You have the reigning champion Seattle Seahawks against the most accomplished championship quarterback, Tom Brady, and head coach, Bill Belichick, of this millennium. You might hate this, but we love it. We truly get to see who was No. 1, with no second-guessing the merits of another potential matchup.

New England Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount is far less interested in the fact it is No. 1 against No. 1, telling Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald:

"

It doesn't matter who we were going to play against. We're going to go out there and play against anybody, no matter if it's the defending champs or whoever. We're just going to go out there and play against anybody.

"

Blount and the Patriots, please just make it an interesting game this time. Peyton Manning and the Denver Broncos were unable to last year.

Hate: Bill Belichick Is: 1. a Cheater; 2. an Opportunist; 3. Too Smug

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

Unless you are a New England Patriots—or New York Giants—fan, you struggle to stomach head coach Bill Belichick. He is not out there to be liked or heard, and he could care less what you think of him.

His news conferences are painful to watch and listen to. Why can't he just be human and forthcoming?

But no one likes a cheat, even if you would like to argue the Pats didn't truly benefit from the Spygate surreptitious recording of yesteryear or didn't break any rules with their massaging of formations against the Baltimore Ravens in these playoffs. Their latest alleged transgression: deflating footballs.

Controversy continues to swirl around Belichick. Currently in the news, the NFL is investigating whether the Patriots deflated footballs for the AFC Championship Game, a source told WTHR Channel 13 in Indianapolis' Bob Kravitz.

A softer football could be easier to throw and catch, particularly in unfavorable weather conditions. If the footballs were not the same for the Indianapolis Colts and the Patriots, Belichick's team could stand to lose draft picks...and league-wide respect.

You would think the No. 1-seeded Patriots playing at home wouldn't need to create advantages for themselves, but that is not the Patriot way or the way of Belichick. He is resourceful, if not an outright cheat. Cheaters are supposed to never win.

Love: Old Super Bowl Guard (Tom Brady) vs. New (Russell Wilson)

Regardless of whether you like a winner, someone accustomed to winning championships is going to lose in Arizona. This is the right kind of drama.

Tom Brady's Super Bowl legacy started out pristine early in his career. Losses to the New York Giants in two Super Bowls have stained it. Russell Wilson is coming off a Super Bowl victory and hasn't suffered the agony of championship defeat...yet.

One will be enhancing his legend. The other will be hurting it.

Sure, quarterbacks get too much credit for victory and too much blame for defeat, but that doesn't mean we don't love to revel in the debates. Wilson was brought to tears after his team's gutsy NFC Championship Game rally, while so many Brady detractors would like to see him cry after another Super Bowl loss.

You have to love this kind of high-stakes drama.

Hate: Marshawn Lynch, What a Waste of Attention and Poor Sport

Some might love the crotch-grabbing Marshawn Lynch for his defiance. We think he is the worst kind of hypocrite.

Lynch claimed, speaking to Deion Sanders at the past Super Bowl media day, he has no love for interviews and attention, because "I'm just about that action, boss."

No, he is the opposite of that. Stop drawing unnecessary attention to yourself under the ruse you don't want attention.

His defiant, repetitive responses in interviews are given under the guise he doesn't want people to notice him. Instead, it is a creative way for getting everyone to pay attention. He wants people to look at his feet, too.

He reportedly tried to wear $1,100 gold-plated cleats in the NFC Championship Game, but the NFL threatened to disqualify him from playing, per ESPN's Ed Werder. Instead, you could see Lynch wearing the standard-issue Seattle Seahawks cleats with gold-plated soles. Better but still unacceptable because of the platform he professes to stand on.

Why is this necessary for someone "just about that action"?

Outrageous acts and footwear would have been acceptable, unique behavior if Lynch didn't claim to be "just about that action." He is all about the drama and a hypocrite.

Also, the crotch-grabbing after his touchdown is deplorable behavior on national television and disrespectful for his opponents and the league. He is the worst kind of role model and sportsman. 

Someone needs to humble him. Watching the hypocrite, Lynch, in the Super Bowl would be a "love" if only we could see him eat gold-plated humble pie. We hate the fact he gets more opportunities to pretend he doesn't relish the attention he draws to himself.

Love: 50 Shades of Rob Gronkowski

Elise Amendola/Associated Press

OK, we will give this one to the oglers.

Not everyone has to love Rob Gronkowski as an all-American sex symbol to love the fact an aw-shucks jock is living the dream and creating them for others. There is even an erotica book out about him right now by Lacey Noonan, as Jonathan Lehman of the New York Post reviews.

How cool is that? Or not.

We like this only because Gronk gets individuals who may not be interested in football to care. Gronk's persona transcends sports, even if you may not like his outlandish partying, sophomoric humor and frat-boy ways.

Whether you want to vomit or not, there are people buying Gronk as an American sexual icon. We leave you with this Lehman excerpt from Noonan's erotica novel: "It jettisoned jiggling ribbons of electric jelly through my body and melted my knee like two pads of margarine—turned me on quicker ... than at any other time in my life besides my wedding night."

Jeezum. We cannot relate here, but there is definitely some kind of chemical love involved there for some.

Hate: Attention-Seeking Richard Sherman...'You Mad, Bro?'

Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images

There are plenty of reasons to love Richard Sherman as a football player, gregarious professional athlete and competitor. We could do without the disrespect for his opponents and look-at-me behavior.

In some ways, Sherman is an easy guy to root for as an overlooked draft pick-turned-NFL star. By all accounts he is a smart, engaging and even likable young man. He undoes it with his public speaking, though.

No one trashed an opponent more publicly and humiliatingly than Sherman did to "sorry receiver" Michael Crabtree after clinching the Seattle Seahawks' past trip to the Super Bowl. That brash outburst on national TV was only the highlight (or lowlight) of his postgame antics.

Sherman, just becoming an impact NFL corner, once famously taunted Tom Brady after a Seahawks victory over the Patriots with the words, "You mad, bro?"

You can buy Sherman's story he was just humbling an arrogant Brady, but taunting in both respects is out of line...especially to the victor. We are surprised Brady didn't fight Sherman right there. It had to take a lot to just walk away, or it was an acknowledgement Brady deserved Sherman's response.

We may have believed Sherman was doing the right thing if he didn't have to pound his chest to Erin Andrews and the world after last year's NFC Championship. It lacked class and sportsmanship and cast him in a negative light.

Love: Doug Baldwin's Rodney Dangerfield Act

Doug Baldwin is another, less-heralded Seattle Seahawks player pounding his chest for respect. We cannot be completely dismissive of their players here.

We will give a "love" to "Angry Doug's" postgame rant Sunday, which you can watch here in Terry Blount's story on ESPN.com. At least in this instance he wasn't grabbing his crotch or taunting his opponents and the game itself.

Angry Doug is the NFL's Rodney Dangerfield. He gets no respect.

Here is his entire rant, as told to Blount:

"

Are you ready for this? Are you? How many of you m-----f------ doubted us? How many of you doubted us when we were 3-3? Y'all, I want you to write this down. Write this down, OK? When we were 3-3, everyone counted us out. Y'all didn't believe in us.

A whole bunch of people thought we weren't going to make it. At 6-4, it was, 'Ah, that's OK. They have a winning record, but they aren't going to make the playoffs.' At 16-0 at the half [Sunday], how many of you counted us out? How many of y'all doubted us?

It is indicative of our season. Y'all didn't want to believe in us. It's OK. We don't need you to believe. We're going to believe in ourselves. We ain't worried about y'all. We are worried about ourselves. 

When we were down 16-0 at the half, guess what we said? 'Don't trip.' You don't win the game in the first half. You win it in the second half. We did what we do. We played Seahawks football. We got the opportunity to do what we love. And we'll see y'all at the Super Bowl.

"

Here's some respect. We will give you a "love" for that one.

Hate: Fans Disagreeing with Officiating

I know debating the calls of NFL's officials is a water-cooler hobby for the masses. It keeps people talking about the game.

But stop pretending you know more about the NFL than the league itself and its officials.

You do not have to agree with every call, and debating them can be a fun pastime, but you are not smarter than those making the decisions because you sit on the couch or bar stool watching the game and its drama unfold.

Dez Bryant's attempt at completing the NFL's strict criteria for the process of a catch indeed rendered an incompletion. The Detroit Lions were not hosed when the officials ruled the contact was not enough to warrant pass interference.

No, the officials didn't deliberately screw the Baltimore Ravens. Pee wee footballers have to know which players at the end of the line of scrimmage are eligible receivers on any given play. You can rest assured NFL players have the know-how as well.

Conspiracy theorists, the game is not rigged. Debate it, if you will, but try not to get bent out of shape about it. This is a just game, after all.

Love: Tom Brady Memes and More Gisele Bundchen

Hassan Ammar/Associated Press

You can despise Tom Brady for being a pretty boy. You can hate the fact he is married to supermodel Gisele Bundchen and generally lives a charmed life.

We love the fact it creates opportunities to mock Brady on social media outlets. Having more Bundchen in our streams is not a bad thing either, we suppose.

Brady and Bundchen, like we said with Gronk, transcend sports. We love football as entertainment, and we like the fact football entertains more than just those passionately interested in the outcomes of the games.

Like those who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials or pick their favorite team on the uniforms, there is something for everyone with the pageantry of the NFL and the Super Bowl.

Hate: Overprivileged Teams, Players Get More Chances at Glory

As much as we wrote, you should like the fact it is No. 1 versus No. 1 in the Super Bowl, the matchup does leave us without something: a likable underdog. Both the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots have cultivated winning traditions and the arrogance that comes with it.

Who do non-Seahawks and non-Patriots fans root for in this one?

You seemingly have to pick from the lesser of two evils, no matter which side you choose, as we wrote throughout this slideshow. Even the "loves" we outlined could be construed as "hates" for some.

The reality here is we managed to tick off both the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots fans. You hate this writer for it? Yeah, no sweat. We still love you, the reader.

It won't change the fact the rest of us are stuck watching a grotesquely fortunate franchise with overprivileged players celebrate another Super Bowl title.

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Eric Mack, one of the giants among fantasy writers, is the Fantasy Football Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, where you can ask him endless questions about your team, rip him for his content and even challenge him to a head-to-head fantasy game.