This Super Bowl Is a Fans’ Game, the Expert Says

Ever since my projector broke, putting a crimp in my nightly football film-study sessions, I have come to rely on TV announcers for insight and analysis of the NFL scene.

Sunday afternoon, for instance, as the Dolphins were clobbering the Steelers, announcer Dick Enberg asked sidekick Merlin Olsen which team--49ers or Bears--would match up better against Miami in the Super Bowl.

“I think Chicago would match up better with Miami,” Olsen analyzed.

Olsen explained that somebody would have to put pressure on Dolphin quarterback Dan Marino, and the Monsters of the Midway would be better suited to that task than would those Bay Area sophisticates known as the 49ers.

The sack count Sunday wound up: Sophisticates 8, Monsters 2.

On the 49er-Bear pregame show, Jimmy (The Greek) Snyder said he liked the 49ers’ chances because he had witnessed the 49ers coming out of the locker room and their faces were grim and determined.

I saw the Greek predict a winner earlier this season based on the same reasoning--grim pregame faces--and he was wrong that time. I figured maybe it would be different this time, especially since these 49ers were men with a mission.

“We’re going to make you look good, Greek,” is what Greek said the 49ers players told him.

That kind of self-indulgent ego-tripping is common among the electronic media people. It’s a form of grandstanding, hotdogging, rarely employed by responsible journalists.

Did I make a big deal out of Danny Marino phoning me from his locker room just before the game Sunday morning? He wanted to know if I thought he could beat the Steeler secondary deep, and he probably also wanted a few words of encouragement.

My message to him was short and to the point.

“Daniel, I’m going to have to put you on hold,” I told him. “I’ve got Joey Montana on the other line.”

Danny said he couldn’t wait, so I said, “So long.” As I found out a little later, he thought I had said, “Throw long.”

But I digress. My point, if I have one today, is that the experts don’t really know anything, and that this Super Bowl is going to belong to the fans, not the experts.

Also that this game will save football, and also that this game will kick off the Year of the Overdog.

First, Point A. This Super Bowl will be the ultimate armchair fan’s game, football’s version of showtime. We don’t need a booth full of experts--although we’ll get one, anyway--to tell us what this game is all about.

It’s Mr. Clutch (Montana) vs. Rocket Arm (Marino); the two best, most exciting football players on earth. Basically, fans prefer wide-open, pass-oriented football, and that is guaranteed.

If that prospect doesn’t thrill you, consider what might have been--a showdown between Mark Malone and Steve Fuller.

The Miami-San Francisco extravaganza comes along just in time, just when some of us were giving up hope for football, fearing that it was falling into the wrong hands.

Football is meant to be a rough game, I understand that, but this season the sport seemed in danger of being overrun by thugs, muggers and assorted headhunters.

The anything-goes Raiders set the tone when they won the last Super Bowl. Teams like the Seattle Seahawks got the message. Seattle’s marquee player this season was defensive back Kenny Easley, whose specialty is the forearm uppercut to the jaw.

Chicago and Pittsburgh, although not widely known as cheap-shot teams, earned their reputations and playoff berths by outbruising opponents. This is within the rules, but tends to get boring, unless you happen to be on the line of scrimmage.

The 49ers and Dolphins are no pansy teams, but they got to the Super Bowl by outsmarting and outpassing their opponents.

Until Sunday, football seemed headed back to the Paleolithic Age. It was in desperate need of some passing and poetry and imagination and daring, and the teams from San Francisco and Miami have supplied that.

The excitement they have generated is hardly dimmed by the fact that they were picked all along by the experts to do well. As I said earlier, this is shaping up to be the Year of the Overdog.

Last year, we had Doug Flutie, Bill Johnson, BYU, the Tigers and Padres--a lot of underdogs coming through.

This year could be a welcome relief, a return to the natural order of things. The Year of the Overdog was actually kicked off last week by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who won a small-claims court decision for $571.67 from a bicycle rider who crashed into Kareem’s Mercedes outside a Westside deli.

I knew in advance Kareem was going to win his case. I saw him entering the courtroom. He was grim and determined.

That’s the type of clues us experts look for.