Football Sports

With the Super Bowl this Sunday I decided to ask the Fourth Down reporters their thoughts on the game and the NFL. Here you can read what Keith Webster who works for Daily Mirror Sport and is a weekly columnist…

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With the Super Bowl this Sunday I decided to ask the Fourth Down reporters their thoughts on the game and the NFL. Here you can read what Keith Webster who works for Daily Mirror Sport and is a weekly columnist at nfluk.com

First question has to be who will win the Super Bowl?

Indianapolis. I was impressed with the way Peyton Manning methodically and patiently worked out the Ravens defence one week and the Jets the following week in the playoffs. Both gave him plenty to think about and forced him to dig deep but the Colts were masterful in overcoming both. The Saints should not pose as many problems and Manning will have a chance to light them up. On the other side of the ball, Indy are also strong defensively, and so long as the injured Dwight Freeney is good to go for at least a decent part of the game, I expect them to have too much all round for the Saints. The Saints are a great story and most neutrals would love to see them win but in Super Bowls, sentimentality all too often runs into a brick wall of reality.

Who is your regular season MVP (most valuable player)?

It’s tough to look beyond Manning. He just goes on being so difficult to beat. If defensive coaches could work out what he does and how he does it with the same precision he figures out how they are trying to stop him, they would have more success. But his football brain – above and beyond any physical ability – is what makes him special.

Which player has disappointed you this season?

Oakland Raiders quarterback, JaMarcus Russell. After his first two seasons, I shouldn’t be surprised but 2009 only helped to fuel a growing belief that the overall No.1 pick in 2007 is moving up in the rankings of the greatest draft busts of all time. He had all the physical attributes coming out of Louisiana State University but those who doubted his mental attitude was solid enough to deal with the big leagues look to have been proven right. College prepares you to some extent for the NFL but a successful college career doesn’t buy you any credit in the pros. You have to earn that and Russell has had three seasons of humiliation in Silver and Black. If previous draft busts are anything to go by, he will never recover. His 2009 statistics were embarrassing.

What was the greatest Super Bowl performance of all time?

This will be the 21st Super Bowl I have been to and I have seen some belters in those games. Roger Craig’s touchdown hat-trick in my first (Super Bowl XIX), the Chicago Bears defensive domination the following year, Steve Young’s six TD passes (SB XXIX), the Rams fairytale completed by Mike Jones last-second tackle at the goal line (SB XXXIV). But I think I would go with a game I was not at, Super Bowl XXII. Denver came in as the high-octane scoring team but Washington shut down John Elway and produced two offensive performances of their own to marvel at. Timmy Smith – a one-season wonder – became the first man to rush for more than 200 yards in a Super Bowl and scored twice while Doug Williams passed for 340 yards and won the MVP award. Williams threw four touchdown passes in the space of 13 minutes in the second quarter. The Redskins started that quarter trailing 10-0 but went in at half time leading 35-10. There was not a jaw in the football world which wasn’t flat on the floor at that point.

What does Manning have to do to ensure ‘legend’ status?

Stay healthy. He is going to challenge almost every record that Brett Favre is setting as we speak. Manning already has one Super Bowl in his pocket and a chance at a second this week. He is the only man to have been voted league MVP four times. Already he has more than 50,000 yards passing. In 12 seasons, he has fallen short of 4,000 yards only twice and on both occasions, only just. In 10 of his 12 seasons, the Colts have won at least 10 games, an impressive level of consistency in the NFL. Kurt Warner’s claim to the Hall of Fame is debatable at best. The debate on Manning will last as long as it takes to read out his name.

Now Kurt Warner has retired, is he a Hall of Famer?

No. And I say that because I have watched the Hall of Fame voting committee’s pattern of decision-making for so many years and I know that the one thing they ignore is sentiment. They vote on achievement. Supermarket shelf stacker to NFL Europe player to fairytale Super Bowl champion is a great story but when the voting committee sits down five years from now (the first time Warner would be eligible) and consider his case, they will look at statistics and they will start to wonder why he played 12 years but six of them were what might be charitably described as wilderness years. The committee likes longevity in a Hall of Fame career. It is one of the sticking points in the case of Terrell Davis, who had half a dozen fantastic years but saw his career wrecked by injury. Still it has not been enough to sway them. Of all the quarterbacks who have played at least part of their career in the last 25 years, only eight of them are now in the Hall of Fame – Troy Aikman, Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly, John Elway, Dan Marino, Joe Montana, Warren Moon and Steve Young. Of the current crop, you can add Brett Favre and Peyton Manning once they are done but Jim Plunkett, Joe Theismann and Phil Simms didn’t make it despite all having numbers in Warner’s class and all having won the Super Bowl. He was NFL MVP twice, Super Bowl MVP, Super Bowl champion but the fact remains that he had only six decent seasons and in 12 years won only 67 games. The five-year waiting rule is in place to allow a cold-light-of-day element to the voting process and in the cold light of day, when all the back-slapping has stopped, I think they will consider Kurt falls short.

Does Tim Tebow go in the first round?

Probably, although there are question marks over his mechanics, particularly his tendency in his throwing motion to sidearm sling, something you can get away with in college but which will get you killed in the big leagues. His college coaches worked on changing that a lot last year. If he doesn’t go in the first few selections, it is tough to imagine Jacksonville will pass him up with the 11th pick. With their dire ticket sales problems in 2009 and Tebow being a local hero at the University of Florida, the marketing men would lap it up.

Who do you think will win the Super Bowl next season?

Any one of the 32 teams because that is the way the league is nowadays. Last season counts for little in the NFL any more.

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