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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 fourth down reporter Mike Revell thinks. First question has to be who will…

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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 fourth down reporter Mike Revell thinks.

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

I can’t see the Colts losing. The Saints are fantastic, and Drew Brees has the vision and accuracy to make it a tight, thrilling game. But Peyton Manning is in incredible form. At times, he has looked more machine than human, picking apart even the best defence in the league with a sort of graceful, mechanical ease. And when he’s in this sort of form, there isn’t a team in the league that can stop him.

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

Peyton Manning. He lost his top receiver, lost his head coach, and had all sorts of trouble with coordinators and assistant coaches before the season started. And then Anthony Gonzalez went down for the year, and he had to make do with a second year player who only had four catches last season, and a rookie. And yet here he is, in the Super Bowl, after winning his fourth NFL MVP award.

Which player has disappointed you this season?

I think it’s got to be Carson Palmer. He has never really been the same player since the Steelers knocked him out of their playoff match a few years ago, but this year he was instrumental in a number of magical fourth quarter comebacks, and helped the Bengals sweep the division and make it to the playoffs. But in their opening game, he barely completed a pass. He missed receivers high and wide, and was the reason the Bengals lost to the Jets.

What was the greatest Super Bowl performance of all time?

Call me biased, but I’m going for the Rams beating the Titans in Super Bowl 34. It was so tense, so close, but it was more than just the game: it was the climax of a fairy tale season. You had the bags-to-riches story of Kurt Warner, the brilliant, graceful play of Marshall Faulk, and all those fantastic receivers. For a fan of attacking football, it really was the Greatest Show on Turf.

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

I think he has already done enough to ensure ‘legend’ status. Already, people are starting to call him the best, rather than one of the best, when it comes to the quarterback position. He has won more MVP’s than anyone else, is the fastest player to reach 50,000 passing yards, and his 12 consecutive seasons with 25 touchdowns or more is an NFL record. When you consider Dan Marino is second behind him with only five straight 25 touchdown years, you can see just how much Manning is redefining what it means to be an elite quarterback. Some have more rings, and of course that is important — but he has a chance this weekend to earn his second, and there is a lot left in the tank yet. When he does retire, he could easily possess every notable record in the book.

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

I think so. His stats are comparable to some of the Hall of Fame quarterbacks that are already enshrined in Canton, and that’s with the gap in the middle of his career where at times he barely threw a pass. If you take an average of yards per pass, yards per game — that sort of thing, he’s better than most passers inducted in the last 25 years. He is a four-time Pro Bowler, a two-time MVP, and has played in three Super Bowls, winning one. And in those Super Bowls, he has the three best passing games in NFL history. When you consider he’s only really played 6 full seasons, that’s remarkable.

Does Tim Tebow go in the first round?

Possibly. It only takes one team, as they say. And he’s a proven leader, a proven winner; arguably the best college athlete ever to play the game. He still has a lot of time to impress potential teams, and I think by the time the draft comes around, someone will be interested. If he does go in round one, it will be later on. But someone will take the risk. After all, it can’t be any worse than taking JaMarcus Russell turned out to be.

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

I’m going to go for a bit of a crazy one, and say the 49ers. I don’t think they’re too far off that Ravens, Jets sort of style or level, with a strong running game and a tough defence. They’re young, and will make positive strides in the off-season, and they have two first round picks to add more weapons. I think Michael Crabtree has the best hands in the league, and was impressed with what he managed to do after the injury, and after missing training camp and then half of the season as well. Next year, he’ll be a real threat. Vernon Davis has established himself as the best tight end in the league, and Patrick Willis is an absolute monster. With Kurt Warner retiring, the Cardinals will probably lose their NFC West crown, and the 49ers could storm to the top of the division. And if they can get into the playoffs, they’re built to handle all comers.

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