NFL
Super Bowl: Two weeks help hype, hurt game

By Jeff D'Alessio
Florida Today

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Eleven days from now — after we find out what ingredients go into Brett Favre's favorite Super Bowl party dish (crawfish etoufee), after the 836th story on Jake Delhomme's road from nowhere, after CBS unveils "Super Bowl's Greatest Commercials" — they will play a football game at Houston's Reliant Stadium.

And history tells us it could be about as exciting as Bill Belichick.

The bigger the buildup, the formula goes, the more lopsided the Super Bowl. Since Super Bowl XX, 13 have been played with a two-week break between the conference championship games and the Super Bowl. Average margin of victory: 21-plus points.

The average margin in the five Super Bowls played the week after the conference title games was 11 points, including three that were decided on the final play.

"I definitely think it's much more than a coincidence that the games have been better without the extra week," said Ernie Accorsi, New York Giants general manager. "Why? Because from August, our coaches have been conditioned to a routine every week, and now that has to be changed. There is a tempo to playing every week, and the extra week takes you out of your cadence.

"Second, the distractions. They take their toll. I don't care how much you warn your players: The Super Bowl is unlike anything they have ever experienced. In our Super Bowl a few years ago, I saw a lot of our players with video cameras all week. I thought to myself, 'Oh no.' "

Super Bowl Who: New England Patriots vs. Carolina Panthers. When: 3:15 p.m. Feb. 1. Where: Reliant Stadium, Houston, Texas. TV: Channel 7.

Accorsi has been working in NFL front offices for 30-plus years. He has seen every Super Bowl, including the 30 with the two-week break. And sure enough, he says, every time there's a big buildup, one coach uses the extra week to prepare his team better than the other guy.

Two years ago, that coach was Belichick, whose New England Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

Belichick has New England back in the Super Bowl this time around to face the Carolina Panthers. His is sure to be one of the most overtold stories of the next week and a half.

Like it or not — and many in football circles are big fans of the two-week break — it's here to stay. NFL spokesman Greg Aiello points out that the seven Super Bowls that have been held a week after the conference championships were done so due to "extenuating circumstances."

There was the 1982 player strike, the 9/11 tragedy of 2001 and the decision to start the season after Labor Day a few other times, after the Super Bowl date had been set.

The NFL likes the two weeks because of the hype it generates leading up to the game, which, classic or clunker, always draws big ratings.

"The Super Bowl is a national holiday," said Neal Tile, executive vice president of marketing for Fox Sports. "Think of it as shaking a bottle of soda. The more you shake it — two weeks vs. one — the bigger the pop."

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company