Random thoughts from alliteration to the cradle of coaches Here's all you really need to know about Super Bowl XXXVIII: • How improbable is this season's Super Bowl pairing? Well, consider that two years ago, the Patriots finished No. 1 in the NFL, upsetting the favored St. Louis Rams 20-17 in Super Bowl XXXVI in New Orleans. That same season, the Carolina Panthers finished 31st and dead last in the league, with a 1-15 record. Can you turn it around quickly in today's NFL? Twenty-four months later, the Panthers and Patriots are heading to Houston all even. Worst-to-first has become a clich or sorts, but Carolina's rapid two-year ascent is the best in league history, besting the turnaround made by San Francisco at the beginning of the Bill Walsh era. In 1979, the 49ers were 2-14. Two years later, in 1981, San Francisco went to the Super Bowl and won, slipping past Cincinnati 26-21 in Detroit. • We already know this much about this season's Super Bowl: A team with a quality defense is going to take home the hardware for the fourth consecutive year in a row. It's a definite trend: Baltimore in 2000, New England in 2001 and Tampa Bay last year. They all got to the Super Bowl and won on the strength of their defense. The Patriots and Panthers were ranked seventh and eighth, respectively, in overall defense this season. But in points allowed, the more important defensive measuring stick, New England was tops in the league with 14.9 points per game, and Carolina was 10th with 19.0. Put me down for a 19-15 Patriots win. • It has to be a close game, at least. These two teams know squeakers. Carolina is 10-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer, including 4-1 in overtime and 7-0 in three-point games. New England is 8-1 in games decided by seven points or fewer, including a 2-0 overtime mark. • The Patriots are the first team to ever win a Super Bowl, miss the playoffs the next season, and then make it back to the Super Bowl the following year. If New England beats Carolina, it will join the 1993-95 Dallas Cowboys as the only team to win a pair of Super Bowl titles in a three-year span, without the championships being in consecutive years. The Cowboys won their second Super Bowl title in a row under head coach Jimmy Johnson in 1993, then lost in the NFC title game to San Francisco in 1994 under Barry Switzer. Dallas came back in 1995 and won its third ring of the Troy Aikman-Emmitt Smith-Michael Irvin era. Others in the two-out-three club include Baltimore (lost in 1968, won in '70), Minnesota (lost in 1974 and '76), Dallas (lost in 1975, won in '77), Miami (lost in 1982 and '84), and Denver (lost in 1987 and '89). • Seventeen of the NFL's 32 franchises, or just more than half, have won a Super Bowl. But only nine have won multiple Super Bowls. New England will try to become the 10th, joining San Francisco (5-0), Dallas (5-3), Pittsburgh (4-1), Green Bay (3-1), Washington (3-2), Oakland/L.A. (3-2), N.Y. Giants (2-1), Miami (2-3) and Denver (2-4). • This is the second consecutive season that an expansion team is making its first ever Super Bowl appearance. And it took Carolina just nine seasons to become the first of the two 1995 expansion teams to reach the big game, besting Jacksonville. Last year, Tampa Bay, in its 27th season, went to its first Super Bowl. Seattle, which entered the league along with the Bucs in 1976, is still waiting for its first sniff of Super Bowl glory. For the record, Miami remains the expansion team that took the fastest route to the Super Bowl. The Dolphins, a 1966 AFL expansion team, made the Super Bowl in just their sixth season, 1971, losing to Dallas. Miami won it all in each of its next two seasons. Other expansion teams to reach the Big Game? Dallas, an NFL expansion team in 1960, made it for the first time in '70. Cincinnati, a 1968 AFL expansion team, went in '81. And Atlanta, a 1966 NFL expansion team, made its only Super appearance in '98. • Don't look now, but Kevin Dyson is back in the Super Bowl. The guy who four years ago came up one yard shy of scoring a game-tying Tennessee touchdown against St. Louis on the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV has returned to make amends. Just don't expect him to be Carolina's primary option if the Panthers are down to their final snap and trail New England by seven. Dyson, the former Titans receiver who signed with Carolina as a free agent in March, hasn't exactly been instrumental in the Panthers' Super Bowl run. Dyson suffered an Achilles' injury in June and did not come off the physically unable to perform list until Nov. 22. He played in only one regular-season game, catching two passes for 15 yards and returning one punt for 14 yards in a Week 16 win against Detroit. He has been active for all three of Carolina's playoff games, but his only contribution has been one kick return (a 17-yarder to open Sunday's game). Here's hoping the Patriots will counter by adding Mike Jones to their roster next week. At least for Tuesday's media day. Jones is the ex-Rams linebacker, now retired, who stopped Dyson three feet shy of everlasting Super Bowl fame in Atlanta. • So let me get this straight: Archie Manning never made the Super Bowl. Peyton Manning has never made the Super Bowl. But Ricky Manning Jr. goes his rookie year. Who decides these things? I know the NFL can spin anything to a positive angle, but if the league office bills this year's Super Bowl as Manning's big chance to play in football's ultimate game, I think it'll be shameless false advertising. • Just call Oakland the cradle of coaches. Jon Gruden last year, John Fox this year. Will the procession of ex-Raiders coaches to the Super Bowl never end? Come to think of it, I guess we now can count Bill Callahan among that group. Fox was the Raiders' defensive coordinator in 1994-95, but he left the team during the '96 preseason, and later that season surfaced as a consultant to the Rams. Asked the other day about his somewhat mysterious departure from Oakland, Fox said succinctly: "I resigned. I left.'' • Everyone thinks this Super Bowl pairing is a little light on juicy storylines. Not me. I can't wait to tear into that whimsical feature about the matchup between those ex-New York Giants defensive coordinators, Bill Belichick and John Fox. Both of the game's head coaches helped the Giants to Super Bowls when they were coordinating in New York, with Belichick working for Bill Parcells and Fox for Jim Fassel. And other than that I can't figure out a single thing anyone would care to read about. • I'm not saying the Panthers have no chance against New England. But everybody knows the Patriots are undefeated in February Super Bowls. Two years ago in New Orleans, in the only non-January Super Bowl in history, the Pats upset the mighty Rams 20-17, on Feb. 3. You can look it up. • For those of you appreciate a little alliteration every now and then, this Patriots-Panthers matchup isn't the first Super Bowl to feature teams whose nicknames start with the same letter. Who can forget Colts-Cowboys in Super Bowl V? Or Raiders-Redskins in Super Bowl XVIII? And of course, the Patriots have gone this route before. It was Packers vs. Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI in 1997. And the headline writers rejoice. • But the fans of Houston can't be all that excited about Panthers-Patriots. I mean, they've already seen both of these teams play this year. Carolina lost at Reliant Stadium in Week 9, falling 14-10 to the hometown Texans. New England made the trek to southeastern Texas three weeks later, nipping Houston 23-20 in overtime for its seventh consecutive win in what has grown to be a 14-game win streak. Sorry, folks, ticket refunds are not available. Try eBay. • XXX years have come and gone since Houston last played host to the Super Bowl. All anyone remembers from that game is Miami fullback Larry Csonka steamrolling a bunch of Vikings defenders, and the Dolphins winning their second consecutive championship on a dreary, cloudy January 1974 day at Rice University. Not to intimate that Super Bowl VIII was eons ago, but it's worth pointing out that Nixon hung on in the White House for another seven months or so after the game. That about puts it all into perspective. • And in one last nod to the magic that was the Steve Spurrier era in Washington, Redskins castoff Stephen Davis helps lead Carolina to its first Super Bowl. Hey, don't sweat it, Steve. Play 27 holes today and let all that stuff just slide right off your back. After all, you're not alone here. It was Daniel Snyder who ran Brad Johnson out of town with that inspired Jeff George signing. But then, that's last year's ex-Redskin Super Bowl story. • This isn't really Super Bowl related, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out that Philadelphia has now lost two consecutive NFC title games at home when facing teams it had already beaten in the regular season. Tampa Bay got the last laugh last year, and Carolina stung the Eagles even worse this year. Ouch. How do you give an entire franchise the Heimlich maneuver? • I'm not sure any of us are ready for this, but we have eight more days to prepare for Rod Smart -- aka "He Hate Me'' -- at Super Bowl media day. And you thought the XFL would never make it.
Here's a few firsts from USA Today. 1. 1st glow-in-the-dark Super Bowl tickets. 2. 1st Super Bowl that NFL Films will shoot in 3-D 3. 1st Spanish language merchandise 4. 1st Super Bowl with an official movie. Barbershop 2 will premiere at a Super Bowl event. I'm just hope that NFL Films will shoot Beyonce Knowles in 3-D since she's going to be there.
**Given all the factors will Eli Manning make it to the Super Bowl **He hate me in the Super bowl not Maddox. In-freakin-credible **I hear Don Henley will play WR for Philly next year? And Glenn Frey will play LB Once again, the entertainment portion (janet jackson, beyonce, etc...) does not represent the average fan. of couse, Metallica and/or U2 can not perform every year can they?
