XXXVI has XXV ring to it

ST. LOUIS -- Super Bowl XXV. That's all I can think about this morning. Giants-Bills. New York, of course, was the Little Engine That Could. The Bills, who had just beaten the Raiders 51-3, were the big, bad offensive wolves, the best offense of their day.

Like this year, there was no off-week between the conference title games and the Super Bowl 11 years ago. The Giants played San Francisco at Candlestick, winning 15-13 on magnificent defensive and special-teams efforts; Matt Bahr's fifth field goal of the game clinched it. After the game, the Giants were readying for the five-hour cross-country flight to Tampa. Bill Parcells stepped onto the team bus and spotted Ron Erhardt, his offensive coordinator, in the seat across the aisle.

1. St. Louis (16-2). "Do you know what a great story this is for Aeneas Williams?" Mike Martz asked me after the game. "He's from New Orleans, he used to work in the Superdome, he's tried to get to the game his whole career. Isn't it something?"  2. New England (13-5). Here's what's good about the Patriots getting there: They upset the Steelers Sunday, but I still feel that if they played again, New England would win. The best two teams are in this game.  3. Philadelphia (13-6). Valiant. Terrific. Gritty. This team has a marvelous upside. And that Donovan McNabb is going to be a very big star in this game for a long time.  4. Pittsburgh (14-4). Bad time to revert, Kordell.   5. Oakland. (11-7). Yeah, they got jobbed. But I like the classy way Jon Gruden handled it. Didn't bitch or moan over spilled milk.  6. Green Bay (13-5). I hear the luggage handlers dropped a few bags when the Pack returned from St. Louis last week.  7. Baltimore (11-7). Free Marvin Lewis.   8. San Francisco (12-5). I erred last week, putting Chicago No. 8 and the Niners No. 9. San Francisco's better. And Terrell Owens isn't going anywhere, by the way.  9. Chicago (13-4). Did you know the Bears will play their home games next season downstate in Champaign, Ill., while their home mausoleum is being refurbished?  10. New York Jets (10-7). Ted Cottrell shows up at his realtor's office this morning in Garden City. He puts a down payment on a cute little split-level in Manhasset. "I'll be here a while," he says with a wan smile.  11. Miami (11-6). Norv Turner to Miami? Now that Marty Schottenheimer is solid in San Diego, and Turner's not going to coach under him, the Dolphins look good.  12. Tampa Bay (9-8). You're on the clock now, Mr. McKay. Take your time. Pick the right guy.

"Shorten the game," Parcells said.

The Giants, double-digit underdogs, won by holding onto the ball for 40:19 at Tampa Stadium, an armed camp while the Gulf War was happening -- sound familiar, securityaholics? -- and by the Bills mismanaging the clock in the final two minutes and by Scott Norwood missing a 47-yard field goal.

I'll never forget getting a few minutes with Parcells the next morning in his room in the Hyatt Westshore in Tampa. He was trying to jam everything in his suitcase, and I was trying to get a few answers about his strange last Giants team. He talked proudly all week about how the Giants proved that playing field-position football can win games. The Giants had a nine-yard advantage between where their offensive drives started and where the opponent's drives started. I said something like: "Is it possible that four of your six most valuable players are special-teams players?"

He thought for a minute. Punter Sean Landeta, Bahr, special-teams gunner Reyna Thompson and return specialist Dave Meggett, I meant. And he agreed. Maybe Lawrence Taylor and Phil Simms -- who had missed the last month and the playoffs with a stress fracture in his foot -- would have been the other two. But he loved the fact that this was a team devoid of big stars, except for Taylor, and they knew they might be a run-of-the-mill team if not for playing great on special teams.

And so let's look at Sunday's games. The Rams were taken to the wire by the gritty Iggles before winning 29-24. They're the best offensive team of our time, maybe ever. Before this Rams attack, no team had ever scored 500 points in three consecutive seasons. "I don't know how you stop us, to be honest with you," guard Adam Timmerman told me after the game. Good defense, too. An early two-touchdown pick. The Patriots ... well, let's go to the videotape. With 9:05 left in the third quarter of the AFC Championship Game in Pittsburgh and the Pats up 14-3, Steelers kicker Kris Brown tried a 34-yard field goal. Big tackle Brandon Mitchell burst through the middle of the line and blocked the attempt. Troy Brown sprinted in and picked up the ball, running 10 yards with it before lateraling to second-year, end-of-the-roster guy Antwan Harris, who ran the final 50 yards for the touchdown. That was the game, really. Even second-half rallying fools like the Steelers aren't good enough to overcome a 21-3 deficit with 24 minutes left.

"After we played the Patriots in November," tight end Ernie Conwell said in the Rams' happy locker room Sunday, "I remember Mike [Martz] saying to us right after the game, 'Gentlemen, I didn't tell you this before the game, but this is a Super Bowl-caliber team we just played. They're balanced offensively, defensively and on special teams, and they're the toughest team we've played this year.' He was right."

Let the hype begin.

Elton John hates Al Davis. Don't ask me how I know. He just does.

OFFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New England QB Drew Bledsoe, who, playing for the first time in almost four months, piloted the Patriots to a stunning win in Pittsburgh. The play that showed me that Bledsoe was back came early in the fourth quarter, with the Pats up 21-17 on third-and-3 from the Steelers' 38, with Lee Flowers blitzing unblocked from his right. Bledsoe went airborne, spied his hot receiver, fullback Marc Edwards, and dumped it to him for a six-yard gain -- then got creamed by Flowers. Bledsoe went 10-of-21 for 102 yards and a touchdown, with no picks. Now we'll watch Bill Belichick make the only news of Super Bowl week when, at some point, he picks his starting quarterback for the game.

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE WEEK: St. Louis DE Grant Wistrom, who continued an all-pro season (in my estimation) with some very bigtime plays down the stretch against McNabb on Sunday. Early in the fourth quarter, with the Eagles down 22-17 and taking possession at their 15, Wistrom beat NFC Pro Bowl tackle Tra Thomas around end and sacked McNabb for a 10-yard loss. On third down, when McNabb escaped the pocket and looked to be running for a crucial first down, Wistrom actually caught this most mobile of great quarterbacks from behind, forcing Philadelphia to punt. That led to insurance points for the Rams.

SPECIAL TEAMS PLAYER OF THE WEEK: New England PR/WR Troy Brown. I'll never forget calling Brown the day the Pro Bowl squads were announced and he wasn't on the AFC team -- despite, at the time, having 95 catches and being third in the AFC in punt returns. "It's too bad," Brown told me, "they don't have a category in the Pro Bowl for, quote, football player, unquote," he said. Well, he was later named to the Pro Bowl when Rod Smith got hurt. But there is a spot for him on any big-game team I'd ever have. Late in the first quarter of the AFC Championship Game, on the sixth punt of the game, Brown zigged and zagged 55 yards for a touchdown. Then he picked up the aforementioned blocked field goal and had the presence of mind to lateral it when he was going down, 50 yards from the goal line, to Antwan Harris, who ran for the touchdown. Command performance by a great player, who added eight receptions on offense.

COACH OF THE WEEK: New England coach Bill Belichick. First, for choosing late quarterback coach Dick Rehbein's wife and two daughters to be honorary captains for the game. Class all the way. Second, for surviving everything the Patriots survived. Third, for being one heck of a defensive coach. Fourth -- and did you realize this? -- for taking over part of the quarterback coaching job after Rehbein's death. Fifth, for taking this formerly 0-2 team to the Super Bowl.

GOAT OF THE WEEK: Pats-Steelers referee Ed Hochuli, whose horrendous interpretation of a replay negating a Troy Brown catch in the second quarter was everything that's wrong with the replay system. Ed, you never change a call without absolutely indisputable visual evidence to the contrary. Brown caught the ball, had it in possession, was falling to the ground, had his elbow hit the ground and slightly juggled it after falling. We could argue about the merits of the catch for six weeks. I would call it a catch. You might call it incomplete, though you'd be wrong. (Just kidding. Sort of.) The point is, it's silly to say there was indisputable evidence that it was incomplete. There wasn't. That call was the difference between the the Patriots punting and continuing a drive. Postscript: I'm not going soft on Hochuli, but have you ever seen more close replay calls in one game? Ever? And have you ever seen more agonizingly close replay calls? I feel for Hochuli, but he still blew that first one badly.

Marshall Faulk surpassed his career playoff single-game rushing record midway through the second quarter Sunday.

1. I think these are my AFC Championship Game thoughts:

a. Sheryl Crow. Huge football game. Non-sequitor.

b. Sheryl Crow. Steelers. My father-in-law throwing a brick at the TV on the South Side, wondering what in the name of Art Rooney was going on there.

c. Richard Seymour is one heck of a football player. Great top pick, Pats. By the way, I thought Willie McGinest was in Tahiti, the way he had disappeared from the Pats' defense. He laid the wood to the Steelers' backs.

d. Jason Gildon, bound for free agency, is a game-turner, a difference-maker of the highest degree.

e. Pats-Raiders, Pats-Steelers. Two of the best playoff games in recent history.

f. Pats-Steelers. War and Peace. Two peas in a pod.

2. I think Houston will play this expansion draft in a different way than the '99 Browns did. Instead of stuffing their roster with fluff, the Texans are likely to pick only a few players to take up 38 percent of the salary cap, which the league mandates out of the expansion pool. The franchise hopes Tony Boselli shows up healthy enough to play three more years after they give him a physical in the coming days. Houston figures he can be the left tackle in their formative years; Boselli wouldn't be happy going to his second expansion team in seven seasons, but he'd get over it. Other Houston targets: Ravens outside linebacker Jamie Sharper, Jets cornerback Aaron Glenn, Jets right tackle Ryan Young, Ravens returner/receiver Jermaine Lewis.

3. I think Marty Schottenheimer will love his new job in San Diego, especially now that Junior Seau is on his side, even in his twilight.

4. I think the one thing to remember about the Rams this week is that they're very, very good but not invincible. That's not a knock. It's real. The mark of the NFL, 2001 version, is that no team is safe, no team should be a double-digit pick, and not many games are over midway through the fourth quarter.

5. I think CBS might can some, or all, of its pregame show cast this week.

6. I think these are my personal thoughts of the week:

a. Championship Weekend did not get off to a flying start Thursday night on the trip to St. Louis when, because of a rainstorm in Atlanta, I was stranded on the connection, forced to stay overnight, watch the Kurt Warner news on TV, limp into town on Friday morning, and be separated from the bag Delta ordered me not to carry on for 24 hours. Happily, no one noticed my aroma on Friday in Ramsville. I think.

b. Coffeenerdness: Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, Friday morning, hustling for the plane to St. Louis, must stop for a latte, order a Triple Venti White Mocha, soon realize I'm taking my latte life into my hands when it has to be repeated by the barista twice, wait five toe-tapping minutes for it, watch the flustered barista lace the top of it with caramel, get it handed to me with the announcement "Triple Venti Caramel Macchiato," hand it back to the barista and say, "No, Triple Venti White Mocha," watch him spoon the caramel out of the drink and top it with whipped cream, ask him if he's sure this is a Triple White Mocha, hear him say, "Yes," stupidly rush for my gate without tasting it first, settle in my seat for the trip to St. Louis, take a sip, and realize I'm drinking a (pretty weak) Grande Latte with whipped cream. Let me say something to all you fine suits in some corporate office in Seattle or wherever the Starbucks Empire is headquartered these days: You have expanded too fast. You have dolts working in many of your coffee bars, not only in airports, and I don't appreciate forking over $4-plus for crappy drinks I didn't order. And crappy drinks I didn't order or drinks with weak espresso or drinks with stale grounds-tinged espresso are the order of the day in the majority of your stores now. Capeeche? One more thing: Don't give me this crap about how you've licensed out the Starbucks franchises in airports and thus can't be ultimately responsible for the quality of drinks. Your name is on it. Make it right.

c. As soon as this season is over, one of the first things I'm going to do with my bride is see A Beautiful Mind.

d. There is nothing like the New York Post to pass the time on a flight. Check out this note from Thursday's Post: "They say that born-again hetero Anne Heche and straight husband Coley Laffoon will be having a boy child next month. Whether this will inspire spurned lover Ellen DeGeneres to go to the turkey-baster and shoot for twins, I don't know."

e. I have a strong feeling that in 10 years I will be part owner of a minor league baseball team in or around Spring Lake, N.J.

f. Montclair High School Bowling Note of the Week: I've been negligent in keeping you updated on our Montclair (N.J.) winter team, with daughter Mary Beth King kegling for the varsity. We're a .500 team, and the other day, we had a match with Ridgewood, about our speed. It's late in the first game. Mary Beth has the last ball. The coach, Tony Cebola (his name is actually Cedola, but Mary Beth, you might remember, nicknamed him Ce-BOWL-a last year after making the team as a freshman), told Mary Beth: "We need 14 pins to win." We were down 507-493, and Mary Beth, bowling last in our lineup, needed a strike in her 10th frame and then at least four pins with the last throw. She hit the strike. Then she knocked down exactly four pins with the bonus throw. We win. We won the best-of-three series, two games to one. I called Mary Beth to get the full details, but she's not much for play-by-play. "Did you feel any pressure?" I asked. She said, with disdain, "No. What are you talking about? It's bowling, Dad." I did discover, however, that when she rolled the winning ball, she turned to coach Cebola and flashed him a thumbs-up. The other highlight of the day: Spunky Margot Vreeland rolled a 200. That, ladies and gentlemen, is big-league.

g. Subway? Oh, Subway? I'll pay you a lot of money to pull the Clay Henry commercial. I'm begging now. On my knees. THAT DOESN'T CAUSE A SOUL TO WALK INTO THEIR LOCAL SUBWAY AND GET A HAM SANDWICH! OR A VEGGIE SANDWICH!

7. I think you never know what's going to pop into this weird mind.

8. I think I saw the best team in pro sports Saturday night at the Savvis Center here. Those Detroit Red Wings are something. They're 36-9-2, you know. Went to the game with Detroit buddy Mike O'Hara, who surveyed the ice in the first period at one point and said: "Look at that -- six Hall of Famers on the ice." Nicklas Lidstrom and Sergei Fedorov on defense. Igor Larionov, Brett Hull and Luc Robitaille up front. And Dominik Hasek in goal. Really, there might be nine Hall of Famers on that team. The speed, the confidence, the greatness, the way so many of those guys can stop and shift on a dime ... the Wings look like the '61 Yankees must have looked. And in the first four minutes -- actually on one shift -- Hull sharpshooted two goals past Blues goalie Brent Johnson. Wings, 5-2. I'm not much of a pucks guy, though I like the occasional Devils game, but I have huge respect for that team. Nice building, too. And thanks to the box-holders who let us sit on their suite at the Savvis Center, KTRS. I could get used to that.

9. I think my ample gut tells me Gruden will coach the Raiduz this year. But we should not be stunned if on May 12 Al Davis whacks Gruden and hires Denny Green.

10. I think I can already anticipate getting sick of the Martz-Belichick chess match angle.

Security. I like the security. Don't let me complain about it and don't listen to anyone's complaints about it. This is going to be a strange week.

In the Shameless Plug Dept., you can start looking for my daily column from the Super Bowl, beginning Tuesday, at 1 p.m., running through Sunday.

My pick will come Friday.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Peter King covers the NFL and appears regularly on CNN/Sports Illustrated and CNN's NFL Preview. Click here to send a question to his NFL Mailbag.

 

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