VIEWER’S GUIDE

The teams: Tennessee Titans (16-3), new uniforms and a new name to help fans forget the inept legacy of the Houston Oilers, against the St. Louis Rams (15-3), dressed in the same white, gold and blue they wore in their sometimes inept days in Los Angeles and Anaheim.

Site: Atlanta’s Georgia Dome, which, if the Titans win, will be renamed Bud’s Bowl in honor of the Tennessee owner.

Kickoff: 3:18 PST . . . by which time most viewers will have fallen asleep from the hours and hours of pregame coverage.

TV: Channel 7. Never mind Kurt Warner or Steve McNair. With rumors rampant that ABC is considering adding a third person to the “Monday Night Football” booth next season, the quarterback facing the most pressure today is Boomer Esiason, Al Michaels’ partner, who must show that he is entertaining enough, exciting enough and thought-provoking enough to keep the broadcast crew at two. Postgame decision: He’s not.

Weather forecast: After a week of shivering in frigid Atlanta, everybody finally gets to go indoors.

National anthem: Country music star Faith Hill will perform it. Nothing against Hill, but how perfect would it have been to have given the assignment to Ram owner Georgia Frontiere, a former Las Vegas chorus girl who once sang for Queen Elizabeth.

Coin toss: In another theme toss, the NFL has selected seven Hall of Famers from Super Bowl IV 30 years ago in which the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Minnesota Vikings. Taking part will be Chief founder Lamar Hunt, Minnesota coach Bud Grant, Chiefs Willie Lanier, Jan Stenerud and Bobby Bell, and Vikings Alan Page and Paul Krause. What about USC Athletic Director Mike Garrett, who played on that Kansas City team? Who made out this invitation list, John Robinson?

Halftime show: Phil Collins, Toni Braxton, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, 125 drummers and percussionists, a full symphony orchestra, aerial dancers, puppets, a choir and what is described as “Disney magic” take part in “Tapestry of Nations.”

Ticket price: $325 face value. Pity the scalpers. With a Super Bowl between two teams without national identities, they may be reduced to selling their tickets at below face value.

Commercials: Thirty-second spots cost an average of $2.2 million--up from $1.6 million last season. That makes the most important man on the field John Bessone, an investment banker whose job it is to signal the head referee that a commercial break is needed.

Audience: The game will be broadcast on 225 television stations, 450 radio stations and in 180 countries. The cliche about a billion people in China not caring is no longer applicable.

Paychecks: Each member of the winning team gets $58,000, each member of the losing team $33,000. Thirty-four years ago, the winners got $15,000, the losers $7,500. One thing hasn’t changed. Any player who depends on his Super Bowl share for anything other than pocket money needs a new agent.

The parade: If the Titans win, how will Tennessee top itself? Arriving home last week after beating the Jacksonville Jaguars in the AFC title game, the Titans found nearly 40,000 fans awaiting them for a celebration in Adelphia Stadium, with more turned away.

Still no respect: The Titans, who haven’t felt appreciated since they were the Oilers and Houston fans were staying away in record numbers, are now fuming that they had to meet reporters in a freezing tent earlier in the week while the Rams got a nice, warm ballroom. You take your motivation where you can get it.

Injuries: Tennessee quarterback McNair is walking around tenderly with a protective boot to protect a bruised toe. If the Rams are smart, they won’t buy it. McNair pulled the same act last week, then ran through the Jaguars. Definitely out is Tennessee safety Marcus Robertson, who suffered a broken ankle against Jacksonville. Titan receiver Yancey Thigpen, who suffered a hairline fracture of his leg last week, is questionable.

Officials: Bob McElwee heads a seven-man crew that has a combined 111 years experience, including 78 postseason games (14 Super Bowls). That should be enough to handle any more laterals the Titans might have in their playbook.

No miracle: Mark Bocko, a University of Rochester professor, says there is no way Frank Wycheck’s throw to Kevin Dyson, setting up the game-winning kickoff return against the Buffalo Bills in Tennessee’s playoff opener, was not a forward pass. But Bocko then told the Tennessean, “To make a definitive determination of the legality of the lateral, one would need to know the precise location of the camera that took the video replay, and in the absence of such information, this analysis is subject to revision.”

In other words, he doesn’t know any more than anybody else.

Last meeting between the teams: Those who think the Titans can’t beat the Rams need to look back to last Halloween. Tennessee ran up a 21-0 first-quarter lead, then held on to win 24-21, despite three touchdown passes by Warner.

Pregame story line: Respect. Every underdog in every sport uses its position as a motivational tool, and the Titans are no different. They can’t understand why a team with a quarterback who has struggled when he has been asked to throw, whose key deep threat, Thigpen, has a broken leg, whose safety, Robertson, is out, and who is only here because of a lateral that many still question, is not favored to win.

Story line, Part II: The Rams roared into the postseason having led the league in total offense. They averaged 400.8 yards a game, the third highest in team history. But their unstoppable image was punctured in last week’s NFC title game by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who held St. Louis to 11 points. After shutting down the Jaguars last week, the Titans figure they can do the same to Warner, Marshall Faulk and company.

Take note: The Titans, the sixth wild-card team to make it to the Super Bowl, are the best in terms of regular-season record at 13-3.

A rude awakening: A year ago, many of America’s football fans learned on the morning of Super Bowl XXXIII, matching the Atlanta Falcons against the Denver Broncos, that Atlanta safety Eugene Robinson had been arrested the night before in Miami, site of the game, for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer. Robinson played, but he was burned on a long touchdown pass and was a huge pregame distraction.

St. Louis Coach Dick Vermeil hasn’t had a curfew for his players all week, but so far there is no word of any late-night drives to self-destruction.

Titan stats: Tennessee has won seven games in a row. The Titans struggled on offense, finishing 13th overall, 13th in rushing and tied for 13th in passing. Tennessee was the only team to beat the clubs with the top records in each conference, St. Louis and Jacksonville.

Furthermore: The Titans allowed only one running back in the regular season, the Baltimore Ravens’ Priest Holmes, to rush into triple figures, Holmes getting an even 100 yards. They also allowed one in the postseason, Jacksonville’s Fred Taylor, 110.

Ram stats: St. Louis led the league in points scored with 526. By going from 27th to first in total offense, the Rams made the biggest improvement in league history. With 41 regular-season touchdown passes, Warner is only the second man to crack the 40 barrier, joining the Miami Dolphins’ Dan Marino (48).

Furthermore: With 17 sacks, Kevin Carter is the first Ram to lead the league, although longtime observers maintain Deacon Jones was racking up league-leading totals on a yearly basis before the stat was officially kept.

MVP candidates: Warner is an obvious choice if the Ram offense is functioning smoothly. So is Faulk, who has the ability to shred the Tennessee defense on running or passing plays. But if the Titan defense can shut down the Rams the way it did the Jaguars, look for defensive end Jevon Kearse to be bearhugging Warner all evening. And if that happens, look for Kearse to take home a trophy.

Guarantees: Joe Namath of the New York Jets made one before Super Bowl III, and he was right. Ray Buchanan of the Falcons made one last year and he was wrong. Now Az-Zahir Hakim has made one for the Rams. Is there any way to tell when these guarantees are going to be fulfilled? Yes, when they are made by the player on the better team.

Oddsmakers: The Rams are a seven-point favorite, but if they hadn’t been stymied by the Buccaneers last week, those odds surely would have been in double figures.

Know your history: This is the Titans’ first Super Bowl appearance, but a victory wouldn’t be their first league title. As the Houston Oilers, they won the American Football League championship in 1960 and ‘61, the league’s first two years of existence.

Players who could turn into goats: 1. McNair, who might suddenly turn into the guy who went six games in the regular season without a touchdown pass. 2. Warner, who might suddenly turn back into an Arena League quarterback. 3. Anthony Dorsett who, trying to fill in for Robertson at safety, might be turned around and left behind trying to knock down Warner’s quick-release bullets.

Quote to reflect on: Iglesias, a halftime entertainer, when asked his Super Bowl pick--”I grew up in Miami, so I pick the Dolphins.”

Ahead: The San Francisco 49ers are still listed as hosts for the 2003 game even though it’s appearing less and less likely that their new stadium will be built by then.

How about giving the game to L.A., just so an entire generation won’t have to ask its elders what pro football looks like in person.