2 Weeks of Hype Too Much

Random remarks while wondering if a short delay in starting spring training, which many feel would be the result of a lockout, would make any difference at all as long as the players are on the field April 2 for Opening Day:

It’s about time the National Football League learned what every fan has long realized--that the two-week layoff before the Super Bowl is not only unnecessary but harmful. It allows too much time for Super Bowl nerves, for hype that would be almost impossible for the game to live up to, and for America to start to get sick of the whole thing before it even starts.

The NFL for years has claimed the extra week is not for hype but to allow for proper distribution of tickets. Baloney. The NFL knows years in advance where a Super Bowl is going to be played. Baseball often doesn’t know the World Series site until the last minute but still gets the job done.

In a football first, the champions of the NFL and college footbll this season both had first-year coaches: George Seifert with the 49ers, Dennis Erickson at Miami. Those teams sure did miss Bill Walsh and Jimmy Johnson, didn’t they? Never before has there been such compelling evidence that the players are more important than the coaches.

Never mind all the talk about how many NFC teams (Rams, Giants, Eagles, etc.) could have beaten Denver Sunday. Heck, any team in the league could have beaten the Broncos that day.

One explanation, and a very good one, it would seem, for the Broncos’ four failures in the Super Bowl can be found in their record at home and away. Under Coach Dan Reeves, Denver has been 54-15 at Mile High Stadium, 31-35 on the road.

As if there weren’t enough things about Washington that irritate me, the Washington Times is conducting a reader poll to determine the NFL’s greatest team ever--49ers, Steelers, Dolphins, Packers, or ‘40-41 Bears. The Baltimore Colts are not even on the ballot.

Adding insult to injury is that the newspaper explains all the teams on the ballot were back-to-back champions. And just who does the Washington Times think won the NFL championships in ’58 and ‘59?

Army’s basketball team, which lost to Loyola here this month, has a 7-footer named Ewing, believe it or not. This one is David, from Fenton, Mich. The only similarities between him and the Knicks’ Patrick Ewing are their height and surname.

Incidentally, what are they feeding these kids at the service academies these days that they can enter at 6-7 and grow to 7 feet, as David Robinson did?