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Here's the kicker

In a defensive struggle, the little guys may be biggest

Click here for more on this story

By John Donovan, CNNSI.com

	• Storylines • Flags and Flattery • Direct Snaps • Dumbest Thing ... • The Bottom Line

TAMPA, Fla. -- Kickers, they say, could decide this thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say. Kickers could decide every game.

OK, then. Kickers matter even more in Sunday's Super Bowl because the offenses of the New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens are both so ... shall we say ... inconsistent.

Hmmm, you say. Those offenses are ... inconsistent.

Could be, you say. Could be.

"If it comes to that situation," says Brad Daluiso (he's one of the kickers in the game), "I am prepared for whatever may be needed."

Yes, the littlest guys in Super Bowl XXXV could, indeed, become the biggest Sunday, like it or not. The Giants' Daluiso and the Ravens' Matt Stover know it.

Both of them have been in tight situations before. Stover hit three field goals in the Ravens' win over Oakland in the AFC Championship Game. Ten years ago, an injured Stover watched Scott Norwood miss a field goal that could have won Super Bowl XXV for Buffalo. Instead, Stover and the Giants won.

Now it could be his turn to be out on the field when it counts.

"I've been here. You know what your heart's going to be like. I do have an understanding of what it's going to take," says Stover, who has spent many hours in the last few days visualizing kicking. "The mental game, I've had to really pick up, moreso because there's more opportunity for that one big play, being as we're playing a team like the Giants."

Daluiso had hit all nine of his career postseason field goal attempts before nipping the uprights in the NFC Championship Game. He, too, has been thinking of kicking the game winner. Though that's not what he wants.

"I secretly harbor a hope that it’s 45-0," he says. "Anyone who hopes it comes down to a kick is lying because that means you also have a chance of losing. If there’s a chance that we are not losing at the end of the game, that’s what I want."

Yes, the fact is the Super Bowl could come down to a field goal, and everyone knows it. Fact is, it's more likely in this game than in most.

And if it comes down to one kick? Daluiso made 17 of his 23 regular-season attempts in 2000. Stover, a Pro Bowl selection, was 35 of 39.

On to the Super Bowl Day at a Glance and this question. What do pirates and the Super Bowl have in common?

The answer: Well, not the Tampa Bay Bucs, that's for sure.

The final hours Good gracious. Is the game ever gonna get here? The players get to kick back on Saturday with their families (or not). And then they have one last night to get into trouble, or stay out of it. And all day Sunday to get worked up. Seems like a long time, eh?

Gasparilla It's a drinking fest, by any other name. Ships filled with faux Pirates invade Tampa on Saturday, the start of a daylong party that is part Mardi Gras and part MTV Spring Break. There will be plenty of hangovers on gameday.

The state of the league Commissioner Paul Tagliabue's address Friday on the NFL's health -- it's fine, he says, thank you -- was a lot easier on him than last year's, when player misconduct was a major topic. And that was before Ray Lewis. Still, a slighty teed-off Tags had something to say about the subject this year and all the "statistics" flying around. He says there were only 11 arrests on about 4,000 NFL players tracked this season. "If the rest of society can do as well as we do in the NFL," he said, "America's crime problem would be well addressed."

Flag -- Talk radio: It is like aural hell walking through Radio Row here in the middle of prime programming hours. Stations from all over the nation doing their thing. Lots of useless stuff has been written on this game. Lots, lots more has been said.

Flattery -- Giants players: They got through an entire week -- so far -- without being outrageous, mouthy or inflammatory. Not great tabloid fodder, but not a bunch of nonsense, either.

Flag -- Prognosticators: What, no one brave enough to predict a high-scoring game? No one with enough steel to say this might go against what everyone thinks? What? You looking at me? Noooo way.

Flag -- Autographs: If you're selling them, and the athlete doesn't know it, that's weak. If you're just getting some name on a piece of paper as some sign of a brush with perceived greatness, that may be even weaker.

Bold Prediction: Jamal Lewis gets 100 yards on the Giants' defense.

Bold Prediction II: Tiki Barber won't get 60 on Baltimore's. Ron Dayne won't get 30.

No way Ray Lewis wins MVP in this game, no matter what he does.

"Tomorrow -- or whenever that game's gonna be -- be ready." -- Boxer Joe Frazier, on Friday, addressing the Ravens at practice

The bottom line is, these last 24 hours or so won't be easy. Saturday's day off will be excruciating for players, almost as excruciating as Sunday's waiting around time before kickoff. Still, the gameplan is in, the practicing has been done. One final day is left, and a few hours. Suggestion for everyone: Take a nap.

 

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