How to Prevent Super Boredom

55-10.

42-10.

46-10.

38-9.

Those have been the scores of four of the past seven Super Bowls-margins that indicate the game is far more likely to be one of the season’s worst contests, instead of the best, as the name Super Bowl suggests it should be.

Seven of the 24 Super Bowls have been decided by 21 or more points. The average winning margin is 16.7.

In a quest to improve the culture-or at least four hours Sunday afternoon-TV Times sought out four network football analysts, all of whom have either coached or played in the Super Bowl, for their suggestions on how the Super Bowl can be improved, short of a permanent ban on the Denver Broncos.

Two is better than one

Bad news: The consensus of those surveyed points to a clear and present danger that the NFL’s decision to eliminate the “dead week” between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl itself could lead to another dud of a game Sunday. (The extra week was dropped this season after the expansion of the regular season to 17 weeks from 16 for television purposes, but will return for Super Bowl XXVI.)

Twice before, the game has been played without the week of rest, in Super Bowls IV and XVII.

“For a legitimate championship game, both teams should be as fit as possible, have the opportunity to scout and prepare for the opponent in a legitimate way,” said NBC’s Bill Walsh, who coached San Francisco to wins in Super Bowls XVI, XIX and XXIII. “But the crush of everything that happens with the Super Bowl, plus the travel, is going to make it very, very difficult. I’m not sure we’re going to get the same quaility of play.”

Dick Vermeil, who coached the Philadelphia Eagles to a loss in Super Bowl XV and will serve as the NFC analyst on ABC’s pregame, halftime and post-game shows, is concerned about njuries.

“Guys are going to go into the game bumped and bruised,” he said. “They’re going to have to play their butts off in the conference championship games and then have to come right back and play in the Super Bowl. With a week bye, your best players are more apt to be healthy.”

Hank Stram, who will be the analyst on CBS’ Super Bowl radio broadcast, had two weeks to prepare the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I, but only one in Super Bowl IV.

“From a coaching standpoint, you play the (conference championship) game, and then you have to develop a game plan the week of the (Super Bowl) game,” Stram said. “That takes away from the preparation. If you have two weeks, you can coast in the first week-give your players some rest, put in the game plan and try some things that maybe you want to incorporate in the game plan. The next week, you take the things out that you don’t think are going to belong, keep the things that should belong and go from there.”

Home sweet home

Todd Christensen, an iconoclast while a standout tight end on the Raiders’ victorious teams in Super Bowls XV and XVIII and now with NBC, believes the NFL should forget about playing the Super Bowl at a warm-weather or domed neutral site (this year Tampa), and instead play the game in the home stadium of the team with the best record.

“Unlike in basketball or hockey, there is no reward for having the best record,” Christensen said. “Detroit, the Lakers and Celtics fight tooth and nail to get that 62nd victory instead of 61, so they can play four out of seven at home. In football, it means nothing.I

“To me, this is significant why Denver has been so ineffective. They’ve been absolutely terrific at home, but not so good on the road, and that has shown up in the Super Bowl, because any way you look at it, the Super Bowl is a road game. You look back at some of the Super Bowls and I can guarantee you that Minnesota would never have lost four Super Bowls if a couple of those Super Bowls had been played at old Metropolitan Stadium.”

Walsh believes some teams would have more of an advantage than others.

“If it were an indoor stadium, it would be a real disadvantage to the visiting team,” said Walsh. “It’s most difficult to play indoors if you’re not used to it week after week. An artificial surface would also make a difference.” Christensen also has an answer for those who think that such an idea would hurt ticket sales or that weather would cause havoc.

“It wouldn’t effect the revenue of the game,” Christensen said. “The Super Bowl is the Super Bowl. It’s a happening. All of a sudden you have 70,000, 80,000 or 100,000 people sitting in the stands, who are probably not normally even football fans.”

And for the weather-”So what you’re saying is that the weather would be much worse on Jan. 27 than it would be for Jan. 13 or 20 for a conference championship game? That’s not an argument.”

Christensen also believes a Super Bowl home-advantage plan also would aid regular season play.

“(After Buffalo and San Francisco clinched the best records in their conferences), there was no reason for them to play,” Christensen said. “This way, you’d have players literally fighting every week. You might end up in the Super Bowl at 10-6 and the other team might end up 9-7. You’d be playing hard up to the end. Quite frankly, at the end of the regular season, the suspense was gone with the exception of one division. (But this way), San Francisco would have had to go 14-2 to beat out Buffalo, and Buffalo, instead of putting in the cheerleaders the last game of the season, would have had to play hard to go 14-2.”

Super Bowl XXV kicks off Sunday at 3:18 p.m. on ABC. The pre-game show begins at 1 p.m.