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 Playing the Super Bowl odds
Posted: Thursday August 12, 1999 10:09 AM
I like to be negative this time of the year when I talk about the pro football season. There is so much cotton candy and optimism coming out of the NFL camps that it is enough to make a normal man gag. Every team is improved. Every team has filled in holes with draft choices and brought important players back from the injury list. Every team has a new look, a new attitude, maybe a few new wrinkles in the offense. Please. I prefer to accentuate the downside. The Denver Broncos never will win again, not without John Elway. The Atlanta Falcons overachieved a year ago and will return to their normal level this year. Dan Marino and Troy Aikman and Steve Young are too old. Tim Couch and Cade McNown are too young. Peyton Manning is too young. Barry Sanders is gone. Emmitt Smith is shot. The Seattle Seahawks will rebel under the firm hand of Mike Holmgren. The Green Bay Packers will sink without the firm hand of Mike Holmgren. Too much Bill Parcells is not a good thing for the New York Jets. No Bill Parcells is a bad thing for the New England Patriots. The Oakland Raiders look about as good as Kenny Stabler does in those beer commercials. The Cincinnati Bengals are hopeless. The Tennessee Titans are hapless. The Minnesota Vikings should have done it last year because they have no chance this time. My training camp prediction is that no one will win the Super Bowl on January 30 in Atlanta. I know I'll be wrong once, but I'll be right in 30 of 31 cases. I think that's a pretty good average. Sports Illustrated senior writer Leigh Montville appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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