Patriots Were in Game Until Howard’s End

Of the first 31 Super Bowl games, the 31st was one of the few good ones, possibly the finest of all. Indeed, the evenly matched opponents, Green Bay and New England, might be playing yet if not for Desmond Howard.

Too small at 176 pounds to do anything athletic these days except return kicks, Howard made Green Bay an extraordinarily complete team Sunday--maybe the most complete in NFL championship history.

The Packers won, 35-21, in three ways:

--They had a special teams player, Howard, who could score the decisive touchdown with a kickoff return.

--They had a defensive player, Reggie White, who, though aging, could still rise up with the back-to-back sacks that finally knocked out the assertive New England offensive in the second half.

--And they had a quarterback, Brett Favre, who could throw long for two touchdowns, then score on a rollout.

The Packers in Game XXXI weren’t the No. 1 offensive team in Super Bowl history, and their defense wasn’t No. 1, but no other football team--in the three decades of a series that has been so often in the national spotlight--could do so much so well.

As a package, the Packers were the finest and could take advantage of. . . .

--One error: Patriot Coach Bill Parcells kept making the same mistake repeatedly and it beat him at last.

The mistake was kicking the ball to Howard.

As a special-teams player, Howard had come into the Super Bowl as the most productive punt returner in a season.

Why put the ball in his hands?

One of Howard’s long runs set up a field goal, one set up a touchdown and another was cashed for eight points when the Packers opted for a two-point conversion and made it.

Howard is an instinctive broken-field running back, meaning. . . .

--He has the courage to go straight ahead into the rush of oncoming defenders.

--His fast, hard cuts make bigger men miss consistently.

Most ballcarriers are slashers. Emmitt Smith, comes to mind.

Howard, instead, is a throwback to such as Hugh McElhenny.

A failed wide receiver, Howard, a first-round draft choice five years ago, has found his calling.

Why put the ball in that man’s hands?

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Wolf’s day: This was Ron Wolf’s Super Bowl and will remain the Packer general manager’s monument because:

--He handpicked the quarterback, Favre.

--He handpicked the coach, Mike Holmgren.

--He brought in Reggie White to show the rest of the NFL’s free agents that Green Bay is, despite its faults, a good place to play football.

--He brought in a quick, agile defensive tackle, Santana Dotson, because, with 350-pound Gilbert Brown anchoring the middle of the Packer defense--and with White coming to the end of a storied career--the Packers were in great need of someone like Dotson to line up between Brown and White.

--And Wolf found Howard.

Everyone else who has employed Howard has tried to build him into an NFL pass receiver. Wolf saw something else.

In the quiet of his film room, he saw what thousands of others saw Sunday. He saw a kick returner.

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Lousy tradition: This was a game with two turning points. In the second half it was Howard’s big return, which, after the Patriots had crept close, 27-21, finished them off.

But the Packers also needed a big play in the first half, and strong safety LeRoy Butler made one.

As it happened, it appeared an infraction should have called on the play.

Quarterback Drew Bledsoe was in the New England pocket when Butler appeared to have speared him in the back.

The officials failed to flag Butler, but on the next play Bledsoe, still shaking, threw an interception.

Favre marched Green Bay down the field to take a 27-14 halftime lead.

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No quitters: To their credit, the Patriots rallied twice to make it a game.

Trailing, 10-0, in the first quarter, they came back to take a 14-10 lead.

Trailing, 27-14, in the third quarter, the Patriots drove to a third touchdown. Suddenly, in a game the Packers thought they were dominating, they led by only 27-21.

As of that moment, it could have gone either way. But a moment later, it went Howard’s way.