Odds Are, This Game Isn’t Going to Be Pretty

Skip Bayless of the San Jose Mercury News writing on the Super Bowl: “For the third time, New England will be the Big Easy in the Big Easy. Las Vegas makes the Rams a 141/2-point favorite and forecasts a high-scoring game with an over-under of 52.

“But most of the points will be scored by Coach Mike Mardi Gras and his Rams. Martz has never been shy about pouring it on. Of course, I reserve the right to soften this prediction after a week of dining on Eggs Belichick (a special dish being served at Brennan’s near Bourbon Street).

“But from what I saw Sunday, the Patsies have no more chance than the Louisiana sheriff did against James Bond in ‘Live and Let Die.’”

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Why bother to watch? Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press agrees with Bayless: “Maybe there will be some compelling television on PBS around 6:18 [EST] Sunday. The migration trail of the African killer bees might be more intriguing than what we’ll see in the Super Bowl.

“Either way, America gets stung ... The Patriots’ only chance of averting disaster is if the explosive Rams aren’t permitted inside the Superdome as a security measure.”

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Ho hum: Bernie Miklasz in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “The Patriots are here to pursue their obligatory 15 minutes of fame, and if they are fortunate, they can stretch their illuminated state to halftime.

“The Rams are here to collect their damned trophy and go home.”

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Trivia time: Who holds the Super Bowl record for most touchdown passes in a game?

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Secure hiding place: Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Two Cuban soccer players defected to the U.S. during the Gold Cup tournament in Los Angeles. ‘Obviously, they’re pretty scared and want to disappear,’ says [reader] Mike Gaynes, ‘because they’ve asked to be placed not in a federal protection program but in the one place where no one will ever find them--Major League Soccer.’”

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Don’t rile the fans: UCLA’s game with Oregon tonight in the hostile environment of McArthur Court, a.k.a. The Pit, once prompted then-UCLA coach Gene Bartow to refer to the fans there as “deranged idiots.”

So, on the Bruins’ next visit to Eugene, an Oregon fan paraded around the court before the game on a wooden horse carrying a sign that proclaimed him as the “Lone De-Ranger.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1999, the Denver Broncos defeated the Atlanta Falcons, 34-19, in Super Bowl XXXIII in Miami.

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Trivia answer: Steve Young of the San Francisco 49ers, six against San Diego in Super Bowl XXIX.

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And finally: Bernie Lincicome in the Rocky Mountain News on visiting New Orleans: “I was here one other time during a national crisis, when Iran grabbed American hostages. The Louisiana Superdome had the world’s largest yellow ribbon tied around it, which made it look like an enormous puff pastry.

“It inspired one of the great off-the-cuff lines from Beano Cook, now an ESPN talking head, who upon hearing the returning hostages would be given a lifetime pass to baseball blurted, ‘Haven’t they suffered enough?’”

Mal Florence