So it is to be a Super Bowl of history, tradition, destiny, big names and feverish fans.
Oh, and the New England Patriots will be there, too.
The expansion teams have finally been dismissed to the golf course. This leaves Green Bay and New England to dance the last waltz Jan. 26 (6:18 p.m.) at the Superdome in New Orleans. The Packers will lead, thank you.
They are a team of great heritage and immortal Super Bowl championships. From one of the most romantic outposts in professional sport. With Lombardi Avenue running by the stadium.
New England is a regional concoction last seen at this level being scraped off the Superdome floor in 1986, having been mauled by the Chicago Bears. There are not a lot of famous ex-Patriots running around the country. It is hard to decide whether the epicenter of Patriot-mania is Boston, Providence or Walpole. And the road by the stadium is named after nobody, but called U.S. 1.
So Super Bowl XXXI would seem Green Bay's to lose. On the field. In the headlines. On the highlights at 11.
Hornung and Kramer and Starr will be interviewed in the coming days. But what about old Patriot warrior Babe Parilli?
Besides all that, Green Bay is from the NFC, New England from the AFC. If history means anything, the Superdome deal is closed right then and there. The NFC streak is now an even dozen.
And the two most lopsided games in the history of the Super Bowl were the last two to be held in New Orleans. San Francisco by 55-10 over Denver. Chicago over New England 46-10 in a slaughter that was nearly too bloody for network television. The Bears had 236 yards of offense at halftime. The Patriots had minus-19.
''We will be expected to win this game,'' Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre was saying Sunday, and that's before he even knew which team he was playing.
But he also added caution. And he is right. Beneath the surface, here is a game that could bubble. The Patriots may not have the pedigree. But what they do have is a hot defense and a coach who knows how to win Super Bowls.
Bill Parcells, with Drew Bledsoe, could be the first coach to win Super Bowls with two different teams.
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Bill Parcells is 2-0, the rings coming with the New York Giants. He has climbed a considerable hill in bringing the Patriots from the alley to the Super Bowl in four years. Should he now break the NFC spell, he could be acclaimed a wizard.
And the fact that the rumbles you hear may be the vans standing by his house to move him to the New York Jets, as the possible result of a power struggle with his owner, makes it all the more intriguing.
Parcells' champion Giants teams featured adept quarterbacking and solid defense. Which are just the utensils he'll take to New Orleans in his suitcase.
The Patriots defense, especially, makes this game look more even, between two teams who have met only five times in history.
A defense that has given up nine points in two playoff games. A defense that has not allowed a touchdown in 10 quarters. A defense that now faces the top offense in the league.
''I don't think anyone can stop us,'' Favre said. ''The only times we're stopped is when we stop ourselves.''
Only a title, the Packers know, can fully free them from the Lombardi era ghosts. Which is why the postgame locker room was on the sober side.
''We feel like we're not finished,'' Reggie White said. ''We keep reminding each other that when we win the big one, we can celebrate for the rest of our lives.''
Parcells has other plans. He can start a new day for the AFC. Can give New England stature it has never had. Can plant his name among the very few with a third championship.
He can do that all in one Louisiana evening. And so is drawn the line for the battle of New Orleans.
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DAUGHERTY COLUMM
