NFL: The Worst of Super Bowl XXXV

The worst Super Bowl in five years is mercifully over.

The duel between the two worst quarterbacks to ever play in the Super Bowl was "won" by Trent Dilfer and his 12 completions, 153 yards and one touchdown. [This is not my opinion; this is fact. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 26 NFL quarterbacks have thrown 2,000 passes in the last 10 years. The two lowest-rated passers out of all of them were, you guessed it, Dilfer and Kerry Collins.] The soft underbelly of parity has been exposed.

Maybe the worst part of the Super Bore came when Ray Lewis was named most valuable player. Seven tackles and a couple deflected passes made him MVP?

How about Patrick Stokley (game’s first TD), Jamal Lewis (102 yards rushing and a TD), Jermaine Lewis (84 yard kickoff return for TD) or Duane Starks (49 yard interception return for TD?) Sounds to me like the voters attempting to set up a Ray Lewis "fairy tale."

It seemed like it was already decided to give him the award before the game, no matter what he did. It’s not like he single-handedly shut down the Giants’ running game--the Giants did gain 66 yards on the ground, and they abandoned it when they fell 17 points behind.

Maybe it was a reward for good behavior over the past year? After all, he did spend part of that time in a jail cell. This is terrible because it now validates Lewis’s dancing, trash talking and late hits. And now his people are complaining that he can’t get any endorsements and he didn’t get picked to go to Disney World. They should be grateful he’s not in prison, and just let him play the game and stay out of the public eye.

Another negative outcome is that obnoxious Ravens coach Brian Billick now looks as smart as he thinks he is. He can open up training camp by lecturing the media on how to cover his team.

But wait, there’s another "worst." Insufferable Ravens fans have a year to brag. I have never seen a group of fans so fascinated with another team as to disparage that team even as they celebrate their own Super Bowl victory. Ravens fans calling up Baltimore’s 98 Rock radio station on Monday morning to yell "Ravens rule" invariably followed up with "Redskins suck!"

Were the Redskins even in the Super Bowl? No. It’s just the Baltimore inferior complex rearing its ugly head. The fans are so worried about finishing above the Redskins that they can’t even enjoy their own victory.

Sad, really. I can’t figure out why they hate the Redskins so much. It couldn’t be because the Redskins beat them during the regular season. It can't be that they feel inferior to D.C.'s political power. It must have to do with the fact that D.C. football was in its heyday in the early to mid-eighties, exactly when Baltimore’s team was sneaking out of town in the middle of the night.

The Ravens are set to lose their defensive coordinator and could lose outside linebacker Jamie Sharper to free agency. The defense won’t approach the level they played at this year. If they don’t add a real quarterback and two decent wide receivers, some of the people recently converted to Baltimore fans will be sneaking back to their old teams in the middle of the night.