View from the Couch

BY BILL LEEMAN

Well, Yippee!  Superbowl Sunday is just about here!  Yahooo!    I've always liked the Colts, and I'm so happy for the Saints.   And isn't Baltimore the home of Edgar Allen Poe?  Why, it sure is.  Say, wait a minute...   It's not the Baltimore Colts anymore, it's the Indianapolis Colts.   What's up with that?   I mean, is nothing sacred?   That'd be like changing the name of the LA Rams.   Huh?  The Rams moved to St. Louis?   What the....?    And now Baltimore's team is called the Ravens?   The Ravens?!   What kind of a name is that for a football team?

Oh, of course I'm kidding.   I know full well who's playing in the Super Bowl.  I watched the playoffs.   I was pulling for the Saints.   And just to let you know, I've hosted many a Super Bowl party.   Especially when the 49ers were all over it in the eighties.   The Saints kind of remind me of the 49ers.    Never been to the Super Bowl, had always been the ugly stepsister, the doormat of the league, then all of a sudden, here we are!  A force to be reckoned with.

Same thing with the Niners.  The perennial losers, the ones you could count on to fold in the crunch.  We were all so used to coming up short; of getting there, but not quite making it.  

Like the time, I think it was in '72, the playoffs against Dallas.  We were leading the game by eleven points, with less than two minutes remaining, being kicked to, and we lost!
I still don't understand how that happened.  

And that's when I gave up on the Forty-Niners forever (by the way, forever, in Sports-Lingo, means until they get good again, or until you get over it).  

Then, roll forward to 1982.   Third year of Bill Walsh's reign.  The playoffs, versus Dallas, again.   We were all on the edges of our seats.  Hard fought, close game.  Behind by four points with less than a minute to go, Joe Montana drove his team down field in a series of deftly executed pass plays.  He was so cool under pressure.   Then, with about 19 seconds remaining in the game, he threw a pass toward the end zone that was so high, everyone knew he had thrown it away.   But when Dwight Clark leapt up, seemingly out of nowhere, caught it in his fingertips, and came down in the end zone for a touchdown, everyone in San Francisco all jumped out of their seats at once in a joyous frenzy of unparalleled excitement.

I can only wish the same for the Saints.  Every sports fan should be able to feel that joy about their team.

Though the cards seem stacked against them playing against Peyton Manning and the Colts (even if they are from Indianapolis).

Oh, well, we'll see how it unfolds.   If I were to make a prediction, I would be that it is a blowout by the Colts, and a game so boring, that you'll wish you had painted the kitchen instead.

And anyway, the best thing about the Super Bowl is that it signals the fact that Spring Training is only about a month away!   OH, YEAH!