With this year's six-win margin, m'man Joe Reid won ourseventh annual NFL Pickery. After Ipicked up wins in the first three seasons, Joe has run the goddam board forfour straight years. We're back for theSuper Bowl, but if you can't get enough of Joe, you can find him hanging out onmore important websites than mine.
That's right. Iknow people.
San Francisco (-3) vs. Baltimore
Joe: Okay, first of all, none of youhave any reason to believe me, but I had the Ravens picked as the AFCrepresentative in the Super Bowl from the beginning of the playoffs and wouldhave picked them happily with those crazy point spreads against the Broncos andPatriots. But, again, you have no cause to believe me there, so let's move onto rooting interest:
I have no good reason for why I don't hate Ray Lewis more than I do. I probablyshould. He maybe killed a guy? He certainly obstructed justice by covering upthe truth, but seeing as I finished a hundred or so credits shy of my degree incriminal justice, I don't tend to get hung up on it. It's not like I like theguy, but I've become way too desensitized to athletes dancing around to bebothered by something like that. Also, the Jesus stuff is SO over-the-top thatI actually find it hilarious. He ends up looking so crazy that thesportscasters (almost always the biggest cause for annoyance in sports) can'teven rhapsodize his faith, like they do with Tebow. It's just Ray acting like alunatic, and then it's back to the studio hosts who are all, "Certainly an... emotional day for Ray Lewis." They actually don't know how to talkabout it.
Meanwhile, there's just so much to hate about the 49ers. Starting with the factthat their fans spontaneously regained the ability to be smug monsters in thelast six weeks. Dormant 18 years, they're back! And they're awful! And thenthere's Jim Harbaugh, who ... I get it, if you like the Niners, Harbaugh's asavior, and all his obnoxious behavior becomes endearing. But what's everybodyelse's excuse for tolerating this jackass's bullshit for one second? This crap isas funny as the Ray Lewis God stuff, I guess, but it bugs me way more. Maybethat's just my problem. What's not just my problem? 49ers homophobia!Congratulations, Chris Culliver, you win the Media Week Soundbite Trophy! Look,I understand that the reality of pro football (and most of pro sports) is that85% of the athletes on all teams probably hate my ass just for being me, butwhen this is the public face of the Niners and this is the public face of the Ravens, myalready-Ravens-leaning loyalties get set in stone.
As for who's GOING to win? ...Yeah, probably the Niners.They've been the best team all season, probably, albeit one with a weirdvulnerability to the St. Louis Rams. Pick: San Francisco 31, Baltimore23
Aaron: It's hard for me to remember aSuper Bowl in which my the potentialfor glorious schadenfreude outweighed any rooting interest. Oh, I suppose it would be nice to see the49ers players hoist the Lombardi Trophy under a maelstrom ofconfetti and the sanctimonious specter of James Brown's swollen bee-stungmug. Similarly, I'd have no problem withthe much-maligned Joe Flacco -- "He once called himself 'the best'quarterback in the league without waiting for OUR endorsement?! GET HIM!",Sportswriters Everywhere -- begrudginglyfeted by his disproportionately large number of detractors.
It's justthat...yeah, everything else.
49ers quarterbackColin Kaepernick is the most compelling player on the field, but instead ofappreciating him for his cannon arm and Randall Cunningham legs, we have toturn his story into a national debate on adoption? This is why I don't watch any Super Bowlcoverage between the conference championship games and 3:18 PM on the firstSunday in February. And, Istill can't escape it.
Joe and I didn'tpick any of the playoff games this season, but if we had, I might not have wona game. Trust me...I was wrong onEVERYTHING. I had Peyton Manning and theBroncos playing today. I was sure theGreen Bay Packers were getting healthy at juuuuust the righttime. Two weeks ago, I joined the chorusof voices that called for a San Francisco win. The dynamic offense! The underrateddefense! The genius/jerkface Jim Harbaugh!
But, isn't itpossible that -- at SOME point -- the experience winsout? Flacco has spent his career going
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