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A foolish Super Bowl prediction

Though I started out, about 1975, to be a sports writer, I have managed mostly to avoid that fate. One of the consequences of starting this magazine eleven and a half years ago has been that our final production weekend almost inevitably runs up against the Super Bowl, and so I've not seen a full game in at least a decade. Depending on how things are going, I sometimes see part of a quarter here and there, and sometimes none of the game at all. Tomorrow I'll be lucky to see a play.

This year, what with business and a three-year-old who has not yet grasped how ineffably cool it would be to sit with daddy on the couch and watch large men run around on the television screen all afternoon, I've probably seen, oh, three games all the way through this season. Maybe not that many. Perhaps fragments of a dozen pro games, all told.

But, y'know, it's the national passtime, right?

Betting on the game, that is.

Well, I won't. The only thing more foolish than trying to guess how fast a horse is going to run is trying to guess how a bunch of athletes are going to perform.

But I have a prediction anyhow, just because tomorrow's is such an absurd match-up: One of the two or three anointed best quarterbacks in the league against inarguably the worst quarterback ever to play in the Super Bowl. And yet, it says here, the Bears win. (Or, at least, if I were a betting man, I'd take the Bears and the points.)

Peyton Manning still has to prove that he can win the big game. (Maybe I've just never gotten over seeing him run around Nashville one night with Kenny Chesney!) When it's right, the Bears defense is brutally effective, and they've had two weeks to prepare. Their special teams may be able to score just enough points. If I'm wrong, it's a blow-out for the Colts, but I still think a great defense trumps a great offense.

Or I just like underdogs.

But, hey, I could've been writing about Iraq...

Posted by grant on February 3, 2007 8:56 AM | Permalink

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