|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|  |
Super Bowl musings Personalities are the real story of XXXV
Updated: Monday January 22, 2001 9:50 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum touches on a Hot Button issue each Monday on CNNSI.com. After you read Jack's take, give us yours. Super Bowls are supposed to bring out the big-game best in pundits, but I have precious little original analysis to offer about XXXV. Here's what I think, and don't bother writing this down: Whatever the over-under is, even if it's seven, take the under; Ray Lewis tackles real hard; Kerry Collins deserves much credit for his personal comeback but he's not the second coming of Johnny Unitas as he appeared to be against the defenseless Minnesota Vikings; the game will turn on a fumble or a blocked punt (then again, most do); by week's end Jim "I Guarantee We'll Make the Playoffs" Fassel will be lifted to the level of Nostradamus; if a Super Bowl is ever to end with a 2-0 score, this will be the one. I don't think it will, however. I think the Giants will win 3-0. Maybe even 7-3. The pregame story that most interests me concerns the surge in sales of Lewis's No. 52 jersey. Be the first on your block to model merchandise plugging a guy who was on trial for a double murder! In other NFL news last week, the league announced that one of its marquee players, Vikings defensive tackle John Randle, was fined $7,500 for acting as if he were urinating on the field after sacking New Orleans quarterback Aaron Brooks in a Jan. 7 playoff game. On one level, I suppose, it's understandable, Randle being one of the few Vikings able to actually make a tackle, but it was a disgusting gesture that was much worse than any cowboy act done in the NBA in recent memory. In defensive-tackle news from Ravens camp, meanwhile, 340-pound Tony Siragusa (a guy you definitely don't want your daughter bringing home and saying, "Dad, I'd like you to meet ...") was fined $10,000 for body-slamming Oakland QB Rich Gannon out of the AFC title game. That came a week after ol' No. 52 himself was fined $7,500 for hitting Tennessee quarterback Steve McNair in the chest in the divisional playoffs. Still, there's one reason I'm emotionally invested in this Super Bowl: Giants general manager Ernie Accorsi. The best thing about sports -- the best thing about most things, I guess -- is not the games or the strategy or even the pregame meal. It's the people. There are good ones and bad ones, and, putting my normal cynicism aside, I believe the good ones outnumber the bad. Accorsi is one of the good ones. A couple decades ago I was a green reporter covering a difficult team, the Baltimore Colts. They didn't much like the media and they were veteran enough to know how to make a rookie feel stupid. On the field, the Colts were so-so, good enough to make the playoffs with a few breaks, bad enough to sink to mediocrity if a few things went wrong. The latter is what happened. Accorsi was the team's assistant general manager. He helped me without actually handing me a story. He didn't shut me out. He never acted as if he knew more than I did, and he knew a hundred times more than I did. (He still does.) He was much sharper than Baltimore's general manager at the time, but he never said anything derogatory about the man, not even once, not even off the record. Ernie told stories and confirmed good rumors and shot down bad ones and drank a few beers with you the night before the game and made you feel a part of something. He's a class act, and I wish everyone in the game was more like him. This is Accorsi's first Super Bowl team. I don't think the Giants are a great team but they are good enough to win. And I hope they do. Sports Illustrated senior writer Jack McCallum writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
