Al Michaels will call yet another NFL Championship as NBC has the rights to Super Bowl XLIX. First however, “both teams must endure a harrowing bye week; that no one enjoys!” quoting a mid 1990s episode of The Simpsons.
The previous line in that show was “the road to the Super Bowl is long…and pointless….well, if you think about it.”
For the next two weeks it will feel like that as every possible relevant angle to the game will be dissected, vivisected, analyzed, over-analyzed and meta-analyzed.
What does one of the men who will actually call the game believe? What does Al Michaels believe is going to happen?
CRAZINESS WILL ENSUE!!
Al Michaels on Super Bowl XLIX matchup: “So many great early storylines to think about: Two chess masters, Belichick and Carroll, going head-to-head. Two hugely successful quarterbacks, Brady and Wilson, with vastly divergent styles.
Two teams that will come to the Super Bowl with anything and everything in the back of their playbooks — fake punts, wide receivers throwing passes, eclectic formations and who knows what else. In Marshawn Lynch and LeGarrette Blount, the equivalent of identical twins at running back. Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman against ‘The Legion of Boom.’
Darrelle Revis matched up against anybody. Richard Sherman matched up against anybody. And two teams that rarely face each other — only three meetings in the last 21 years. These are just the appetizers.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
You can read Banks’ feature stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye newspaper and listen to him on KOZN 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)