Super Bowl XXVII : HOW THEY RATE : Names and Numbers : Bob Oates, who has covered each of the 26 Super Bowls, makes some first-hand observations.

* COLDEST SUPER BOWL: VI (1972) Cowboys-Dolphins at New Orleans. At the kickoff, it was a bone-chilling 38 degrees in the open press box at Tulane Stadium.

* COOLEST PLAYER: Joe Montana. He has yet to throw a Super Bowl interception. Of Montana’s 122 passes in four games, 11 went for touchdowns.

* MOST UNREAL SUPER BOWL: XXV in Tampa. During the Persian Gulf War, stadium security was war-like.

* WORST FIELD: IV (1970) Chiefs-Vikings at New Orleans. After a heavy rain, they played in heavy mud.

* BEST WEATHER: XIV (1980) Steelers-Rams at the Rose Bowl. On a clear day, it was perfect.

* TOUGHEST-LUCK TEAM: The Minnesota Vikings had the hard luck to come up with all of their NFC champions in the 1970s, when AFC teams dominated.

* TOUGHEST-LUCK PLAYER: John Elway.

* MOST DESERVING WINNER: Jim Plunkett.

* GREATEST RESCUE OPERATION: By Al Davis, bringing Plunkett back and up.

* MOST INSPIRATIONAL: Jack Youngblood playing on a broken leg in 1980.

* BIGGEST CHANGE: After early Super Bowls, winning coaches such as Weeb Ewbank of the Jets were thrown into a cold shower--far beyond the range of TV cameras. Today they take a public Gatorade shower on the sideline.

* MOST PERSISTENT PUBLIC RELATIONS PLOY: Commissioner Pete Rozelle returned Game III to Miami simply because Game II sold out there. He wasn’t sure he could get a capacity crowd anywhere else. After the Los Angeles attendance fiasco in Game I, Rozelle kept the next five Super Bowls in Miami and New Orleans until he was positive they would sell out anywhere.

* MOST DOMINATING COACH: Green Bay’s Vince Lombardi. In an era when, possibly, the AFC already had the best teams, Lombardi willed the Packers to victory in the first two games. In the pre-Lombardi and post-Lombardi eras at Green Bay, the Packers, with much the same personnel, spent their time in the tank.

* BEST COACH SINCE LOMBARDI: Bill Walsh.

* BEST TALENT SCOUT: Bill Walsh.

* BEST QUOTE: Fran Tarkenton at Game XI in Pasadena after losing Super Bowls to Miami, Pittsburgh and the Raiders: “What we’re trying to do is run through all the AFL clubs to see if there is one we can beat.”

* SECOND-BEST QUOTE: Lynn Swann, not yet in the Hall of Fame, on his big Super Bowl game in 1976: “To borrow a line from Whitney Houston, that was probably my one moment in time.”

* MOST FREQUENTLY HEARD QUOTE: “Nobody gave us a chance, nobody respects us.” Everybody says it. Even Montana said it one year.

* WORST TRAFFIC JAM: Pontiac, Mich., 1982. Police stopped traffic for 15 minutes all over town to let Vice President Bush breeze through to the Silverdome. Some fans missed much of the first quarter.

* MOST POIGNANT SUPER BOWL SIGHT: The 300,000-foot, $4,500 yellow ribbon around the Superdome at Game XV, the Raider-Eagle game in 1981, after the hostage crisis.

* BEST SUPER BOWL TEAM: The 1988-89 49ers under Walsh and George Seifert.

* HOW-HARD-IT-IS DEPT.: The team that best illustrates how difficult it is to win Super Bowls--with even great players and a respected coach--is the 1988 49ers. They struggled to a 6-5 record late in the regular season. And they won Game XXIII--against an ordinary Cincinnati team--with a last-minute drive.