Information, please

Hungry for facts about the game? Are you kidding us?

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Posted: Wednesday January 26, 2000 09:47 AM

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

	• Storylines • Flags and Flattery • Direct Snaps • True & False • Must Sees, Mismatches • Dumbest Thing ... • The Bottom Line

You want information? Well, the Super Bowl is nothing if not a veritable font of football knowledge-to-be-had.

Tennessee's postseason media package, in two volumes, runs more than an inch thick per book. Book 1 is the weekly release, the other contains dozens of feature stories done about the team over the course of the year.

Shying away from all those cold, hard-bound facts? The NFL supplied more than 50 81/2-by-14 sheets on Tuesday filled with musings from players and coaches during Media Day. Dick Vermeil talking about retiring, or not. Jeff Fisher (5-foot-11, 185 pounds as a defensive back during his career) talking about being called "Guppy" as a player.

Isaac Bruce talking about God, Anthony Dorsett talking about his dad, Bruce Matthews talking about ping pong.

"I'm looking forward to going back to the hotel and refining my game some," Matthews allowed.

And there will be at least that much more in the way of flat-out "information" coming in each of the next few days.

Want more? That's what the 3,000-plus journalists -- and we use that word ever so loosely here -- are in town to provide. The NFL infomercial machine, of course, is only too happy to chuck up any sort of NFL-slanted numbers to help out the cause. (Did you know that the Super Bowl will be telecast live in more than 180 countries/territories?)

The problem, of course, is sifting through all that overload of information to get to what you're after. Like, for instance, what time the game starts (about 6:18 p.m. EST) and who's playing.

Of course, if you don't know that by now, maybe you need a little more info.

On to the Day at a Glance, which this day begs to question authority this way: Hey, NFL. Is all this really necessary?

The answer: When you run the most popular sport in America, and put on the biggest sporting event in the world, there's no such thing as too much. At least in the NFL's eyes.

Back to the salt mines Wednesday marks the first real day of getting back to work for the players. While coaches, who never get any time off, already have pretty much worked up a game plan, the players won't even see it until today. This will be the day most of the work gets done, on the field.

Dome boys The weather remains a big story in Atlanta, where the lows are expected to stay below freezing for the rest of the week. And a Dixie dusting of snow is expected, too. That's why they put a roof on the Georgia Dome in the first place.

The Bucs factor The Rams certainly are expecting the Titans to try to take a page out of Tampa Bay's defensive game plan after the Bucs held the Rams to 11 points in the NFC title game. The Titans' defense is good. But that good?

Retirement for Dick? The rumors persist that Rams coach Dick Vermeil may quit if his team wins this thing. He says he's thought about it for, oh, about five minutes.

Flag -- The media: Scribes interviewing other scribes, talking heads getting the celebrity treatment, press conferences to announce how the press will cover the game, photo ops, canned quotes, shuttle busses, dumb questions ... you know, there's a story out there somewhere.

Flattery -- Kevin Carter: A class act who is maybe the quietest NFL sack leader in recent history. Reggie White could take a lesson from this guy.

Flattery -- Yancey Thigpen: A bad foot, an offense that rarely gets him the ball -- if it's up to Thigpen, none of it is going to stop him from playing Sunday.

Flag -- Sprawl: The scourge of Atlanta, and many other big cities, urban sprawl is one reason that Super Bowls are better held in smaller, more compact cities. There are some parts of Atlanta utterly untouched by this game.

This just in: The Rams will throw early, and often. It's up to the Titans to stop them.

The Titans bolted to a 21-0 lead in the first meeting of these teams this season. Won't happen again.

Early pick for a Titans hero: Defensive back Donald Mitchell.

Early pick for Rams hero: Wide receiver Az-Zahir Hakim.

1. Steve McNair hasn't completed a pass over 25 yards this postseason.

2. The No. 1 run defense in the NFL belongs to the St. Louis Rams.

3. The Titans have averaged more running yards than the Rams this postseason.

Answers below.

Our daily look at a key matchup in the game

The cities -- Nashville, Tennessee vs. St. Louis, Missouri. Super XXXIV, already dubbed the relocation bowl, showcases a couple prime reasons why franchises pull up and leave. Big, new, money-making stadiums. Towns that are so NFL-hungry they'll do almost anything to get it. And a decent fan base that will jump on the wagon at the hint of success. A prediction for a not-too-futuristic Supie: The Los Angeles Raiders vs. the Mexico City Jets.

"So, what's it feel like to be in the Super Bowl?"

The best thing about having only one week between the conference title games and the Super Bowl is that the avalanche of "information" about the game is cut in half. Or close to half, anyway. The Glance is just like all the players: We just wanna go out and hit somebody.

T-F answers: 1.) False. He had a 26-yarder. 2.) That's right, and Eddie George knows it. 3.) True, by about 130 running yards a game.

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