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Rolling Super Bowl Gathers No Moss
by Bob Lowe
February 4, 2005
The
stage is set for the National Football League’s
XXXIX Annual Super Bowl between the AFC’s New England
Patriots (16-2) and the NFC’s Philadelphia Eagles (15-3)
at 5:30 p.m. (CT) Sunday Feb. 6 at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville,
Fla.
The game will be broadcast internationally by the Fox
Network, featuring play-by-play announcer Joe Buck and
analysts Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth.
The
Super Bowl will be preceded by a four-hour pre-game show, "Bridging
Generations," which gets underway
at 1 p.m. It will feature country artist Gretchen Wilson
performing with the Charlie Daniels Band, the hip-hop group
Black Eyed Peas, the soul band Earth, Wind & Fire and
R&B singer Alicia Keys, who will sing "America The
Beautiful," accompanied by 150 students from the Florida
School for the Deaf and Blind. That performance is a tribute
to the late vocalist, Ray Charles, who attended the school
in 1937. Headlining the halftime show will be ex-Beatle Paul
McCartney.
If
you ask Green Bay Packers football fans in northeast Wisconsin
what their reactions are to the big game, a likely response
could be, "At least it’s not
the Minnesota Vikings and the New England Patriots."
Considering
the ignominious way in which the Packers season ended 1n
the Jan. 9 playoff game, losing 31-17 to the Vikings at Lambeau
Field, that reaction is understandable. To add insult to
the Packers’ wounded pride, Vikings’ wide
receiver Randy Moss pretended to moon the Packer crowd after
making a 34-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter.
He then walked over to the goal post and shimmied against
the padding.
That
action enraged the Packer faithful and led to a $10,000
fine by the National Football League for making "obscene
gestures or actions construed as being in poor taste."
Fortunately
for Packer fans, they won’t have to endure
this indignity while watching Super Bowl XXXIX.
Moss’ agent,
Dane DiTrapano, told the AP that Moss’ fake
mooning was a response to the Green Bay Packer fans’ tradition
of mooning the visiting team bus in the parking lot. As for
the rump bump against the goalpost, DiTrapano said it was
a tribute to an old friend of Moss’ who was at Lambeau
Field for the game. Donnie Jones, who played at DuPont High
School in West Virginia a few years before Moss did, used
to celebrate like that after touchdowns, according to DiTrapano.
Green
Bay police and a Packers’ spokesman said they
were not aware of any incidents of Packers fans mooning the
players and coaches from the opposing team. A police lieutenant
who is in charge of the police patrol at Lambeau said if
any such incidents had occurred, the perpetrators would have
been arrested for "lewd and lascivious conduct." But
a number of NFL coaches, including the Vikings Mike Tice
and the Indianapolis Colts’ Tony Dungy, as well as
Cris Carter, a former Vikings wide receiver who is now co-host
of HBO’s "Inside the NFL," said they had
observed fans mooning them on several visits to Lambeau.
You
can bet there weren’t too many Packer fans rooting
for the Vikings when they faced the Philadelphia Eagles in
the second round of the playoffs on Jan. 16 before 67,722
fans at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Eagles
soundly defeated the self-destructing Vikings 27-14 in a
game in which Moss, did not score a touchdown. Limping with
an injured ankle, he only caught 3 passes for 51 inconsequential
yards in the game.
Eagle’s
receiver Freddie Mitchell upstaged Moss.
After
catching a 2-yard touchdown with 6 minutes remaining in
the first quarter, Mitchell celebrated by mocking Moss.
After the catch, he pretended to pull up his pants and
buckle his belt (he was not fined for this gesture, which
the NFL apparently did not consider obscene). Mitchell
also was credited with a fumble recovery that gave the
Eagles a21-7 lead. With 10 minutes and 8 second left in
the first half, Eagles’ quarterback Donovan
McNabb’s pass to L.J. Smith popped out of Smith’s
hands and into the waiting arms of an opportunistic Mitchell,
who caught it for the touchdown. He finished the game with
five catches for 65 yards and one touchdown.
Following
the game, Mitchell, whose nickname is "Hollywood," had
some fun with the media. Wearing an Indiana Jones hat and
bow tie, he told reporters at a press conference, "I’ve
just got to thank my hands for being so great."
To
which Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sportswriter Dale Hofmann
retorted in a Jan. 31 column, "A man who would thank
his hands should demand an apology from his brain, and I’d
like to tell him that, but it’s never a good idea to
interrupt someone while he’s having a conversation
with his body parts."
Packer
fans might recall that it was Mitchell - again - who caught
the pass from McNabb in the infamous 4-and-26 play that
led to the Packers loss against the Eagles in a playoff
game two years ago. With the Eagles trailing 17-14 and
1:12 left in regulation, McNabb completed a 28-yard bullet
to Mitchell. That reception led to a 37-yard field goal
and sent the game into overtime. The Packers eventually
lost 20-17 in overtime when Brian Dawkins intercepted a
high Brett Favre pass to set up David Akers’ winning
field goal.
So
who should Packer fans root for? For me, it’s
an easy choice: The Philadelphia Eagles. For one, it was
the Eagles who eliminated the hated Vikings – who have
never won a Super Bowl – from contention.
The
Eagles have never won a Super Bowl either. The Patriots
have won two in the past three years. Forget all that talk
about a Patriots’ Dynasty.
It’s
time for the Lombardi trophy go to Philadelphia and give
the rabid fans of that city a spiritual uplift that they
have sought for two and a half decades.
If you like rooting for the underdog, the
Eagles are 7-point underdogs in this contest.
The Eagles
also have a number of connections to the Packers, which
make them more appealing to me than the Patriots. Eagles
running back Dorsey Levens and linebacker Nate Wayne played
for the Pack.
Eagles’ Coach
Andy Reid achieved notable success with the Packers, coaching
the offensive line, tight ends and quarterbacks. Former
Packers head coach Mike Holmgren hired Reid as an assistant
at the Green Bay Packers in 1992.
One of the better story lines coming out of Super Bowl XXXIX
is the fact that Reid brought former Packers tight end
Jeff Thomason out of retirement to replace starter Chad Lewis,
who suffered a severe foot sprain in the NFC title game.
Thomason played in two Super Bowls as a member of the Green
Bay Packers when Reid was an assistant coach in Green Bay.
He also played for the Eagles after Reid became Philadelphia's
head coach. But he was out of the NFL the past two seasons,
and was working as a project manager for a construction
company in New Jersey.
"Right now, I'm living a dream," he
told reporters in a pre-game interview in Jacksonville this
week. "It's
surreal. It's crazy. I was sitting at my desk, and now I'm
sitting here at the Super Bowl."
With colorful players
like star receiver Terrell Owens, who insists on playing
despite a badly injured ankle, Mitchell, McNabb and running
back Brian Westbrook, the Eagles just appear to be a much
more exciting team.
Sure
the Patriots are coached by Bill Belichick, whom some football
writers are ready to anoint "the
next Vince Lombardi," and standout quarterback Tom Brady.
But the Patriots seem so, oh, far away on the East Coast
and appear to be so ... dull.
Finally,
I want to see Rush Limbaugh eat his words. A couple years
ago, Limbaugh declared that McNabb is an overrated quarterback,
feeding the stereotype that African-Americans did not possess
the kind of leadership qualities and brainpower to play
the game’s most demanding
position. A victory in the Super Bowl would be McNabb’s
best revenge.
For
comments or questions, boblowe@juno.com or by phone at (920)
731-4603. |
