Super Bowl XXXIII memories

Saturday the 31st is the tenth anniversary of the Denver Broncos’ 34-19 win over the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII.

The Broncos’ 1998 season was the stuff of legends, chock-full of memorable moments. They started with a Monday night win over the New England Patriots, a game in which Terrell Davis never really got untracked, but where John Elway boot-legged his way to a good passing night in a solid win. The next night my little brother and I were in the Tattered Cover in Denver getting Davis’ book, TD: Dreams in Motion, autographed by the man himself and Adam Schefter, who was then with the Denver Post and had, uh, helped write the book. Some people seemed genuinely concerned for Davis, who had failed to go over 100 yards the night before, though he could not have been cooler or less concerned about it. Plus there was one nerd there who actually said something to Schefter. Yeah, me. On the way home that night we heard that Mark McGwire had hit his record-breaking 62nd home run, which has nothing to do with the Broncos and isn’t considered all that cool any more, but there you go.

I was especially fond of our seventh game of the season, which came in Week Eight against the punching-bag-but-still-deplorable Jacksonville Jaguars. Before halftime a delay-of-game penalty gave Jason Elam a chance for a record-tying 63-yard field goal, which he made. Also—did I mention it was the seventh game of the season?—T.D. went over a thousand yards rushing for the year. (He finished with 2,008 in total.)

How about game 13, when we extended our record to 13-0 with a comeback win over the Kansas City Chiefs? Three weeks before, in the teams’ first meeting, Shannon Sharpe had goaded Chiefs linebacker Derrick Thomas into three of the Chiefs’ five personal fouls on a late drive. (I think the story at the time was that Sharpe was repeating the phone number of Thomas’ girlfriend.) If I recall correctly, Sharpe was silent the whole week leading up to the game. The Chiefs held him without a catch the whole game…well, if you don’t count his game-winning touchdown catch, after which he immediately shushed the crowd. John Elway hit 400 passing yards for the second time in his career that game.

The other game that stands out is the Chargers game (I can’t remember which one) which Elway started, but came out of after a few plays with a rib injury when he was tackled onto the ball. The NFL fined the Broncos for not putting the rib injury on the injury report, which is weird, because he started, and it’s not like benching John Elway gives you a huge competitive advantage. Whatever.

Anyway, the playoffs were a great run: a 38-3 dismantling of Jimmy Johnson & Dan Marino’s Miami Dolphins started things off. I could swear SI reported something about a $1,500 box on the sideline for keeping Marino’s helmet warm. Next up was the classic AFC championship, a 23-10 win over the Jets, where Testaverde started like 13-for-13, Elway was ice cold and getting tipped all over the place, Jason Elam hit some windy second-half field goals by aiming outside of the uprights, and Ed McCaffrey caught a deep bomb on a play when he and Rod Smith lined up on opposite sides of the field from where they were supposed to. It was Elway’s last real game at Mile High and he rose to the occasion in the second half.

Anyway, on to the Super Bowl. We as fans felt annoyed that we the Broncos weren’t playing the 15-1 Minnesota Vikings, and I’m sure Eugene Robinson feels the same way. The Falcons actually took the lead with a field goal on their opening drive, but the Broncos responded with a touchdown by Howard Griffith, a forgotten stud who had scored a TD in the conference championship three years in a row (two with us, one with Carolina). My favorite highlight was in the second quarter, when Morten Andersen missed a short field goal…and Elway followed it up with an 80-yard scoring bomb to Rod Smith on the very next play for a 17-3 lead. I spent most of halftime playing football in my friend’s cul-de-sac, trying to re-enact that very play. (I do believe I hit Jonesy for one, but I also threw a deep pick.)

In the fourth quarter, John Elway scored on a quarterback sneak to become the oldest player ever to score a touchdown in the Super Bowl, breaking the record he’d set the year before. Elway finished the game 18-for-29 for 336 yards with the touchdown to Smith and an interception that bounced off Shannon Sharpe’s hands. He was the game’s MVP.

Davis finished with a relatively-quiet 25 carries for 102 yards, his record seventh-straight playoff game over one hundred. Guy was the man. (Can you think of another truly clutch running back at the NFL level?) He finished the year with the most combined regular season and playoff yards ever, breaking the record he’d set the year before.

The game wasn’t nearly as entertaining or historic as the win over the Packers was the year before, but the Broncos won the friggin’ Super Bowl, so I really don’t care. Plus it “legitimized” the win over the Packers, which doesn’t make a ton of sense but that is how these things work. Therefore, anti-climactic or not, January 31, 1999 was one of the greatest days in Denver Broncos history.

Super Bowl XLIII prediction

Sorry, folks, but it’s going to be short. I think the Pittsburgh Steelers will win Sunday’s Super Bowl (4:28 p.m. Mountain, NBC).

I like the Arizona Cardinals and have pulled for them in the NFC playoffs. I think they were underrated during much of the postseason and they’ve had a great run. Unfortunately, as far as reasons for picking them in this game go, I don’t really have any.

Sure, they’ve got a heck of an offense—4th in the NFL in yardage this year, and only San Diego scored more points. They have fine receivers, like the unstoppable Larry Fitzgerald…but in years past everyone said no one would stop Steve Smith, who’s maybe not the best teammate on the planet but a force in the postseason who always got stopped somewhere along the line. I like Fitzgerald more than Smith, if you can’t tell, but anyway my point is I don’t think he’s going to carry this team to an upset win. Kurt Warner’s good, too, but Big Ben is the best quarterback in the NFL when Tom Brady’s not playing, so that’s no advantage.

The Steelers, on the other hand, have an experience edge, having won the Super Bowl a couple years ago in a similar-looking matchup. That’s when they played the Seahawks. I watched the Seahawks in the NFC playoffs that year and thought they were great. No one gave them much of a chance in the Super Bowl. I thought they were wrong; turned out I was. This year the Cardinals have the flashy fresh faces that make headlines, but not the all-around depth to beat the Steelers. Arizona is a 9-7 team that outscored its opponents by one point (427-426) in the regular season. (Pittsburgh had a 124-point edge.) I’d love to see the Cards win it all, but the Steelers are better and will hoist the Lombardi Trophy Sunday night.

Conference Championships

My wish has come true: the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers will play in the Super Bowl this year. I really hope it's good.

Both of today's conference championships followed the same pattern, except the AFC game was infinitely more boring: one team was in control handily in the first half, then allowed the other guys back in late before sealing the deal.

In both cases the team that played the better game won. The Ravens didn't really show me anything that hinted as to why they were in the AFC Championship in the first place (though perhaps it's asking too much to expect them to have a mural of Tom Brady getting hurt on their sideline). Good for them that they made it, but they're as lame to watch for any Raven-non-partisan as any other Baltimore team of recent vintage.

The Eagles played the way they usually do in NFC Championship games, which is to say they played inexplicably poorly, although by now I guess it's to be expected. It honestly makes no sense to me whatsoever why this team only got over the hump and into the Super Bowl once. It defies rational explanation. I mean, the Bills of the early '90s, though I don't really remember the details, I can sort of get. I can see how the Super Bowl is such a different beast: a week off, everything on the line, etc., and I can see how somehow mentally that might be a lot to overcome. But the game to get into the Super Bowl? Why does Philly always look so good going in but always so bad during the game? And they lose the NFC Championship to different teams, too: this isn't the Pistons knocking out MJ for a few seasons in a row before he broke through. It could just be a weird coincidence that they always lose then (for the Eagles and for the Bills), I guess, but it boggles my mind. Any theories? (And please, make it a better one than, "Andy Reid's not that good of a coach" because I have never heard of anyone in any field with a level of ability this specific.)

Other lowlights of the day included a two-hour review of a possible San Antonio Holmes catch and a serious Willis McGahee injury. I really hope he's okay but am not eager to watch his next performace.

The highlights, of course, are the Steelers and the Cardinals. For years I've called Big Ben the No. 2 QB in the NFL, so it is a small shock if any that his team is back on the verge of a championship. The Cardinals are, like their QB, a fantastic story, but they've also got some serious talent, starting of course with Larry Fitzgerald, who I supported a few years ago for the Heisman. By the way if you can't find that vote of confidence for him in my archives then I must have been really busy but totally meant to write it down. My gut reaction today is to anticipate a Steelers blowout but I want a few more days before I make an official Super Bowl prediction, which in the history of this website has always been wrong. What do you say?

Thanks, but...

Here's a fun article on ESPN.com, detailing Bill Romanowski's attempts to get a job with the Denver Broncos, or to have a meeting with them, or something. Some highlights:

Bill Romanowski said he had a meeting with new Denver Broncos coach Josh McDaniels to discuss nutrition.

Romanowski said he's been contacted by Broncos owner Pat Bowlen to come in for a meet-and-greet early next week with the 32-year-old coach who replaced Mike Shanahan.

Broncos vice president of public relations Jim Saccomano told ESPN on Thursday night the Broncos had no knowledge of a meeting with Romanowski.

So he had a meeting, and he thinks he's got another one, but the Broncos don't really agree with him on that, so we'll see. Anyway, Romo wants to talk about nutrition, huh? I definitely remember Romo the fitness nut, but I also seem to recall a Romo who went above and beyond...

'There's another level on where to take a team when it comes to the way it trains,' said Romanowski, who suited up for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Denver and Oakland during a standout 16-year career in the NFL that was marked by a bad temper and his admitted use of THG, the designer steroid at the center of the BALCO scandal.

Oh, there's the money line. Just a little designer steroid that changed the way professional sports work forever. Nothing that should disqualify you from rewriting a team's training plan, or being an assistant coach, of course.

Romanowski initially had his sights set on the head coaching job, don'tcha know, and apparently went all out for it.

He even tried to persuade Bowlen to let him interview for the head coaching job after Shanahan was fired, creating an elaborate 30-page PowerPoint presentation.

Allow me a second on this one.

First off, "pages" is a really weird way to measure the length of a PowerPoint presentation, which are made up of slides. If all that means is 30 slides, then that didn't necessarily take very long to make, nor would it really say anything.

However, PowerPoint's printing options allow you to put up to 9 slides on a page, so theoretically a "30-page PowerPoint" could have 270 slides. Pat Bowlen is a mega-millionaire who lives a life of privilege and just fired the best coach my favorite team has ever had. But if he had to sit through Romo giving him a 270-slide PowerPoint presentation (can you imagine?), then I feel genuinely sorry for the man.

Second, I'm really not sure what the point of a PowerPoint presentation is in regards to getting an NFL head coaching job. I mean, I suppose if you think your approach to say, nutrition, is really cutting-edge, but you still wish to come off as generally unimaginative, then yes, PowerPoint could help you achieve that goal, but otherwise I don't get it.

You really should read the whole article because it's plenty of fun. But what really gets me about this whole thing is why Romo has or thinks he has this kind of capital with the franchise. He was pretty popular during the Super Bowl years, but was certainly behind at least Elway, T.D., Shannon Sharpe & Eddie Mac from a fanbase standpoint. Besides, after he left the Broncos, he played for the Raiders. (And he'll re-tool his PowerPoint if it helps him get a job with Oakland.) Definitely not a fan of that. Is there something I'm missing here?

Broncos get a coach!

The Denver Broncos have hired Josh McDaniels, an assistant member of the New England Patriots' disgraced coaching staff, as their new head coach. For more details on the man, see McDaniels' Wikipedia page. If I'm reading it right, McDaniels had a different job during each of New England's Super Bowl-winning seasons, serving as a personnel assistant, defensive coaching assistant, and quarterbacks coach. That's not quite the same as being a "head coach" or "offensive coordinator" during that time, you know, though he did serve in the second capacity during New England's most recent Super Bowl appearance, a loss in which the team's vaunted, record-breaking offense scored just 14 points.

Of course, one reason the Broncos went with such a young coach—McDaniels is 32, which means we probably had some of the same toys as kids—is that they still have eight figures in obligations to their living legend, the recently-terminated Mike Shanahan.

Yeah, next season's going to be great.

To be fair, he got fifty touchdown passes out of Tom Brady last season, not that I have any interest in being fair.

Football

First things first: did any of you watch the end of that Florida-Oklahoma national championship game? I was woken up by a phone call in the fourth quarter, when the game was 14-all and the Gators were driving for a field goal, and I caught the end from there. I gotta say, it was pretty anticlimactic. I had the sound off (busy catching up on CES), but I just could not get into it. Florida hits the three. Oklahoma drives, easy-as-you-please, until a safety or whatever steals the ball out of a receiver's hands for the pick. Then Florida drives down the field, taking their sweet time, and scores a touchdown. I mean, the interception was a nice play (the receiver looked a little careless in slow-mo but not sure I would've done any better) but most of it was pretty lame considering the stakes. What did you think?

As for the NFL, I am incredibly heartened by the performance of the Arizona Cardinals. How can you not like the Cardinals? It's not like they've been dominating your favorite team your whole life. Two great things stand out about the franchise: one, when they knocked the Cowboys out of the '99 playoffs behind a young quarterback I liked named Jake Plummer, and the second being the incomparable Pat Tillman. Cardinals owner Bill Bidwill, of course, might as well own the Rockies the way he spends his money so freely. But really, the fans of the Cardinals are truly long-suffering and I'm so glad to see their diligence rewarded with a home NFC Championship game.

If you asked me about this year's Ravens team, I'd tell you they have a great defense, but that would just be a guess. Hey, look at that, they're No. 2 overall. That's number two to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who I hope blow them out next weekend. And I hope that, as always in the playoffs, they pull off some cool trick plays.

The other team in the final four is Philly's Eagles. The Eagles have been one of the best teams of the decade and it's impressive how good they've been over several years. But it'd be pretty lame if they ended up winning it all. I'll be pulling hard for a Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl...which, with my luck, means we'll end up with a much lamer matchup.

Shanahan canned

It's been just over a week, but I still can't believe the truth: the Mastermind, Mike Shanahan, is out as coach-and-everything-else of the Denver Broncos.

It's going to be WEIRD having a different coach on the sidelines next season. Anyway, I don't know where to start, so we'll start with a missive from a (former) reader:

So, what do you think of the Shanahan firing?  What, if any, impact did Shanahan’s promise in training camp to not miss the playoffs this year have on [Broncos owner Pat] Bowlen’s decision?  Do you think Bowlen attempted to compromise (like remove Shanahan’s personnel responsibilities and having him be just the Head Coach) with Shanahan and he refused to relinquish any of his power?  In the press conference, it seemed like Bowlen was reluctant to let Shanahan leave, so it would seem logical to me that he would have tried to keep him with a reduced level of responsibility.  Anyway, what’s your take?

First, Bowlen said the disappointing end to the season didn't weigh all that heavily into his decision, which is bizarre, but then again he also said he never believed in having the same coach forever, even though I could have sworn he said Shanahan could coach the Broncos as long as he wants. Well, whatever. I don't think the coach failing on his pledge to make the playoffs was a deal-breaker, because I imagine Bowlen feels the same way about making the playoffs as I do: it's not that big of a deal.

Honestly, does it really matter if you're the sixth seed or the first team out? If you're a low seed, you're not a real championship threat ('05 Steelers excepted, obv.), and I don't see what's so great about losing one more road game.  A co-worker pointed out the other day that many players probably don't even want to make the playoffs. I could believe that.

Second question: did Bowlen offer Shanahan a demotion, meaning a cut in his personnel duties, that would have meant Mike could stay on as coach? I've heard this mused on a few times, but I've seen nothing to indicate it's real. I know people want to think Shanahan is a power-crazed lunatic, but I don't think that happened. Remember, the Broncos got rid of GM Ted Sundquist in March; it's doubtful that they would have ceded all power to Shanahan just to take much of it away ten months later. Besides, it's not all that good of a deal to be given. And I think Bowlen was emotional because the two men really are friends.

My other thoughts are:

1. Switching to Jay Cutler when he did cost Shanahan his job. Those of you who used to read this blog know I'm not the biggest Cutler fan in the world, but my point isn't that Cutler sucks. (He doesn't, and in some ways his attitude is kind of fun.) But look back a few years. The Broncos were a home game away from going to the Super Bowl before being upset by the Steelers, a loss for which QB Jake Plummer took an inordinate share of the blame. The next year, despite the addition of Javon Walker, Plummer just gets off to a terrible start statistically. However, the Broncos open the season 7-2. After a two-game slide makes them a still-playoff-bound 7-4, Plummer gets the hook, and in comes the rookie. And the Broncos miss the playoffs. The next year, the Broncos miss the playoffs. The next year, the Broncos miss the playoffs.

By now Plummer may have been done playing anyway, but I bet we could have made the playoffs with him in '06, and possibly again in '07 or this year. That would have been enough to keep Shanny's rep up and his job security intact, I think.

2. Think hiring a defensive coach solves all our problems? You're an idiot. I really, really hope the Broncos don't follow up the gutsy Shanahan (remember his going for 2 in the first game against the Chargers this year?) with one of those play-it-safe defensive minds, who focuses on field position and field goals. Because that kind of football is friggin' boring.

But that's not why it's no panacea. The Broncos' offense is good because of Shanahan. If he's gone, we can't just expect the O to remain good next year. (Better luck with backfield injuries probably would make us better, but you can't just assume the scheme will stay the same.) And, oh yeah, the offense wasn't really so good that it can be neglected. Over the last three games, when the team was in a win-and-they're-in situation, the Broncos averaged just 18 points per game.

Besides, we've gone through a lot of defensive coordinators over the years and none have made a real lasting difference. We don't just need a change in attitude, we need some new talented players back there.

3. Are the Broncos going for a big-name coach? Apparently not. It's funny, during the Chargers game I was thinking about how other fanbases get excited during the off-season to see their new coach in action, and how we never have that. I didn't think we were going to have it, nor did I envy their position, but when I saw Shanahan was fired, I figured we'd go for a big name. Like maybe Bill Cowher, whose star has risen to dizzying heights ever since he, you know, stopped coaching. (That kind of doesn't make sense to me.) Or maybe Bill Parcells, not that it's 1985 and I'm pulling for that.

But to be fair, there aren't many coaches who can match marquees with Shanahan, and apparently the Broncos know it. Their interviews so far are a total snore-fest, with guys like Jason Garrett on the list.

Also, and I hesitate to say this, but one candidate is Rick Dennison, the Broncos' current offensive coordinator who has worked with Shanahan for years. Dennison may well be a heck of a coach, but I don't get why he kept getting every opportunity that opened in Denver. He was special teams coach during the Super Bowl years. When Alex Gibbs, coach of our outstanding offensive lines of that glorious era, left, Dennison got his job. When Gary Kubiak, one of the best coordinators in the game, left to coach the Texans, Dennison got his job. (This was just after the Broncos' playoff loss to Pittsburgh and just before Plummer's nose dive.) In both cases I felt the unit Dennison took over failed to live up to its previous standards. Granted, he was filling gigantic shoes in both cases and obviously Mike Shanahan knows a million times more about coaches than I do.

But if anyone on Denver's current staff deserves an opportunity, then for my money it's Bobby Turner, the team's long-time running backs coach. I would love to see him get an interview or just some recognition. Seems fair to me, because our running backs have been very good for a long time. (Plus he's black and fulfills Rooney Rule obligations, so it's a win-win, though the Broncos have already interviewed a minority candidate.)

4. If you're the Chiefs, Seahawks, or Chargers, you could do a lot worse than firing your coach and hiring Mike Shanahan. That probably goes for about 25 other teams, and I'm aware the Chargers just beat us out for the division in spectacular fashion. Just keep in mind how much Shanahan loved crushing the Raiders after he'd been fired there and re-joined us. I'm sure he can't wait to stick it to Denver twice a season; thus the rest of the AFC West should jump on the chance to get him. What team wouldn't want to start each season with four wins?