clarinews@clarinet.com (MIKE RABUN, UPI Sports Writer) (01/16/90)
We have now begun the longest two weeks in all of sport. Pass the headache remedy, extra strength. ``Hello, operator. Is it possible to leave a wake up call, please? Good. Let's say 4 p.m., local time on Sunday, Jan. 28. ``You're right, operator. It will be very hard to snooze until then. But, you never know unless you try.'' The National Football League, in all its wisdom, decrees that 14 days must pass between the time the Super Bowl teams are selected and the time those two teams meet. Lots of things to do, the NFL says. Arrangements to make, vehicles to rent, parties to cater. These things take time. After all, the league has only had about four years to plan for another New Orleans Super Bowl. Oh, well, on the assumption a two-week nap is out of the question, perhaps we can pass the time by putting our heads together in an attempt to come up with some logical reasons why the Denver Broncos are going to be the ones left standing at the close of business. And it's going to take every bit of two weeks to find one. What category do you choose? Running backs? Denver got wonderful mileage this year from rookie Bobby Humphrey and he was an integral part of the Broncos' game plan in the AFC title game. Humphrey, however, exited early with two broken ribs. And even if he should recover to the point he can play in the Super Bowl, there is little reason to believe that anyone in the NFL -- at least for one, big game -- would exchange Humphrey for San Francisco's Roger Craig. Wide receivers? Vance Johnson, Mark Jackson and Michael Young are clearly dangerous. They all made big catches for the Broncos in their 37-21 win over the Browns. But, seriously now, would you rather have them or the combination of Jerry Rice-John Taylor? Defense? The Broncos are better than they were. Defensive coordinator Wade Phillips put plenty of spunk into the Broncos unit that gave up a combined 81 points in two straight Super Bowls. Denver gave up fewer points than any team in the NFL during the regular season. But San Francisco's defense -- the 49ers forgotten side of the ball -- has allowed 16 points in two playoff games. Experience? Not even close. For the 49ers, big games come about with the regularity of trips to the gas station. Almost half of the current Denver team did not take part in the Broncos' last Super Bowl trip -- even though that was just two years ago. And at quarterback? At that position, the Broncos have a fiercely competitive, super athlete who can do amazing things when he gets rolling. Just because John Elway is being chased by two large men and is about to step out of bounds on the dead run does not mean he can't heave a sidearm throw 40 yards downfield for a touchdown to someone who has only a half step on the cornerback. But even in this area, where the Broncos have one of the most gifted players ever to play the position, Denver comes out second best. John Elway vs. Joe Montana. A great matchup. It will be the subject of poetry during the next few weeks. Minstrals will compose ballads. Once they reach New Orleans, their every step will be chronicled and when they conduct formal news conferences it may be standing room only. And when it comes time to play, how can you choose anyone other than Montana? And how can you choose any team other than the 49ers in Super Bowl XXIV? It is a popular enterprise in sport to compare things. Coaches are always asked to compare this player and that player and this team and that team. So if you want to compare the 49ers with something, the suggestion here is that you compare them with the Soviet Union's national hockey team. A personal observation is that the Soviet hockey team always looks like six robots on ice. Every man seems to be in the exact perfect position at every moment of the game. If the puck goes here, each player reacts one way. If it goes there, they react another way. And if the opposition makes one bobble along the way, it is an almost automatic goal. That's the way it is with the 49ers -- or at least this version of them. Their offense is robotic. If the defense does this, the 49ers do that. And vice versa. Each time the 49ers have the ball and do not score, it is an upset. The Broncos will be game. They will put up a spirited fight. And there is no law that says Denver will certainly lose. Common sense, however, says they will.
clarinews@clarinet.com (MIKE RABUN, UPI Sports Writer) (02/05/90)
The professional football season has finally whimpered to a conclusion, leaving the NFL with a considerable mess to clean up. And as those in the various positions of authority scramble around trying to figure how big a mop it is going to take, they would be well advised to start thinking about making some major changes with the Super Bowl. It is no longer possible to simply laugh it off. The numbers have been too consistent to ignore. Numbers like 38-9, 38-16, 46-10, 39-20, 42-10 and 55-10. Of the last seven Super Bowls, only one has been worth watching from start to finish. This most recent debacle produced the most telling number of all -- the kind that sends a chill right up the NFL's collective spine. That is the one associated with the Super Bowl's television rating, which hit a 20-year low. Almost 20 percent fewer people watched Super Bowl XXIV than did XXIII. When that sort of thing happens, something has to be done. Sure, the San Francisco 49ers were going to beat any team that confronted them in the Super Bowl this year. But there must have been somebody out there who could have put up a better fight in the big game than the Denver Broncos did. The idea is to have the two best teams playing for the championship and that wasn't the case this year. It hasn't been the case very often of late, in fact. It's time to do something about that little oversight and there may, indeed, be some stirrings within the inner sanctum of the NFL. ``Anything that would work to put the two best football teams on the field and still preserve the AFC-NFC rivalry in some way is a step in the right direction,'' says Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. And Jones also says some discussions along those lines already have been held. Various proposals might be talked about in rearranging the current playoff system, but for starters here is one very simple suggestion. Instead of having teams from the two conferences stay on their own side of the fence until the Super Bowl, have them intermingle. If you then wind up with two NFC or two AFC teams in the Super Bowl, so be it. We will use this most recent round of playoff contests as an example. Under this suggestion, the Wild Card games would be left as they are. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Houston Oilers in the AFC Wild Card game this season and the Los Angeles Rams knocked off the Philadelphia Eagles. After that, things would change. Instead of having the Steelers move on to play the team with the best record in the AFC, they would take on the NFC front runner. And vice versa. That would have put Pittsburgh up against San Francisco in Candlestick Park and the Rams against Denver in Mile High Stadium. The same theory would be put to use in the other divisional games. The third-seeded team in the AFC -- Buffalo, in this case -- would visit the No. 2 team from the NFC -- the New York Giants. That would leave the Minnesota Vikings traveling to Cleveland. The Rams-Broncos and Giants-Bills games would make up one half of the bracket with the Steelers-49ers and Vikings-Browns on the other side. Such pairings would leave the top-seeded teams from the AFC and NFC on opposite sides of the bracket. But to get to the Super Bowl, those teams would possibly have to beat the No. 2 seeded team from the other conference. If Denver was able to beat the Rams and then either the Giants or Buffalo, the Broncos could certainly have been called a worthy challenger to the 49ers no matter the outcome of the Super Bowl. The chief problem with this scheme lies with that old demon television. What happens if both semifinal games are hosted by teams from the same conference? Which network gets to show which game? The TV people, therefore, may put a big nix on this idea, or any others that have a similar base. And if they do, they will get what they deserve. Which, this year, was 55-10.