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Warner under center of doubt
Posted: Friday January 28, 2000 08:02 AM
ATLANTA -- Now I'm starting to think about the game. I think I'm picking St. Louis, but I'd like to have until tomorrow to be sure. So save that call to the offshore bookie till tomorrow about 2 p.m. ET, O.K.? Remember, I'm the guy who picked Cleveland to win the Super Bowl in pre-season 1995 (they went 5-11). You'll definitely want to get my slant before plunking down the mortgage money. I'm that good. For those who don't know (and who care), the way Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Super Bowl work is this: We media folk get on buses at the media hotel downtown around 7 a.m., bus to the AFC hotel for 8:30-9:15 a.m. interviews, then get back on the buses and go to NFC team interviews from 10:15-11. Then it's back to the media hotel to get waylaid by every talk show in America. Anyway, my quandary centers around Kurt Warner. I thought Warner was jittery, rushed and totally not himself for the first 40 minutes of the NFC Championship Game. And so I made a beeline for St. Louis offensive coordinator Mike Martz this morning at the Rams' hotel.
"You know what happened?'' Martz asked. "You know how quarterbacks say they're most comfortable when the game slows up for them? That's how Kurt played this year. And in the game against Tampa, it was like the game speeded up again. He rushed.'' Tennessee rushes aggressively, with good cover corners. The Titans are as fast a defense as the Rams will face. So isn't it logical to think Warner will be off-kilter again this week? That's what I asked Martz. "That will not happen two weeks in a row,'' he vowed. "If it does, I'll be shocked.'' We'll see. I had to give a prediction to Richard Weiner of USA Today today, and I said, "Rams, 24-20.'' It's a pretty shaky pick. I hope to feel better about it tomorrow. And now for the 10 Things I Think I Think at the Super Bowl: 1. I think somebody -- maybe Bob Kraft, maybe Bill Parcells -- came up with an ace idea about picks flowing between teams as a compromise to free Bill Belichick and let him sign with the Patriots. The Jets get New England's first-round pick this year, No. 16 overall, but no other picks are exchanged for the 2000 NFL Draft. In 2001, the Jets will receive New England's fourth- and seventh-round picks in exchange for New York's fifth-round pick. Then, in 2002, the Patriots will get the Jets' seventh-round. Since New York gets the 16th pick in the draft and didn't have to give up theirs, the 18th, they've done a great job. 2. I think Jerry Jones knows how to pick a coach and make it anonymous. Amazing the timing he has. He knew every reporter worth his or her football salt would be out of the Metroplex at the Super Bowl, and that's the time he announces Dave Campo. Then, he's four minutes and 45 seconds into his announcement in Dallas before he mentions Campo by name. 3. I think the fact that the Cowboys name the fifth coach in their history and it's not even mentioned on the cover of USA Today tells you something. Either the Cowboys coaching position has been severely devalued by Jones taking so much control -- my opinion -- or there's too much going on here, and Jones picked the perfect time to bury the announcement. 4. I think I really admire ESPN's Andrea Kremer. 5. I think we're getting snow here in the next day. And we're supposed to get an ice storm Saturday night. Love these warm-weather Super Bowls. 6. I think fellow CNNer Ron Meyer has it right: "The NFL goes through all this rigmarole about where to player Super Bowls. They have search committees and go through months of work. The one demand I have for the Super Bowl is palm trees.'' 7. I think I've been coming to Super Bowls for 16 years, and the banana-nut muffins never get any lighter. 8. I think the Titans looked very, very confident this morning. Not cocky, but confident. 9. I think it's an incredible day in Atlanta when Coca-Cola lays off 6,000 people. Six thousand employees! That's the size of a lot of suburbs! And I don't sense much "Wow'' among the scribes of America. God, are we in our own little world or what? 10. I think there is but one coaching musical chair left, and it belongs to New Orleans. Art Shell was in there this morning. Dom Capers is there this afternoon. My money's on Capers. SI's Peter King will file the 10 things he thinks he thinks every day leading
up to -- and even at halftime during -- Super Bowl XXXIV.
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